Headline style pet peeve

Is anyone else growing tired of headlines structured with the prepositional phrase first, followed by a comma, followed by the subject, verb then object? When did editors start paying heed to prepositional phrases' complaints about always being at the end of the headlines? They seemed fine at the end to me. I suppose some variety is best. The Washington Post ran three of 'em today, and it just seemed over the top:



Thoughts?

 

Those all seem pretty bad.

It just goes back to the underlying decision to focus less on headlines and display type and more on other things.

 

Yup. I thought it all came back to that underlying decision.

 

Lots of helmets on this particular page.

 

Good point. There must have been an underlying decision to do that.

 

I think it worked okay in the Redskins hed, but the Wizards one didn't need it. And the ACC one is brutal no matter whether you stuck the prepositional at the beginning, at the end or straight up your roody-poo candy ass.

I guess the prep phase up front is supposed to make the hed read more contemplative and thoughtful. Sometimes it works. Two out of three times on this front, it didn't.

(I think it works in my post because it builds to the payoff of "it didn't", but I'll defend my hypocrisy to the ends.)

 

WTF? Did I miss a meeting? This design sucks, but it likely has little to do with the poor quality of the headlines. If the Post's guy spent more than a half-hour on that page, then he should be fired immediately.

 

For me, the headlines work fine.

 

That's the result of having a full-column vertical rail and the decree for large art right in the center of the page. Doesn't leave a lot of options.

The Redskins headline is the best for that structure, but it's also the dumbest. The flaw, if there is only one in the Wash. defense this year, will of course be exploited by the foes.

 

What about the fact the Post is running MLS game stories on the cover of its Sunday page? I know it's off topic... but wow, do people in D.C. even care about the United?

 

For the Post, a common headline style

They've been
doing that
for years,
sources say

 

They have a whole different way of looking at sports inside the Beltway. Yeah, United's huge there.