Is this a headline?

[Irishcheesehead]

Question headlines: Are they good or bad? I cannot stand them and a colleague said it best, "Headlines and stories provide answers not questions."

Are there any rules to follow on this topic?

 

[HandsomeHarley]

The purpose of a headline is to entice the reader to read the story.

If you think a question in a headline will achieve that goal, then go for it.

 

[schiezainc]

My coworker and I disagree on this all the time. He likes to get clever with his headlines but to the point where you can't tell what the hell kind of story is below it. (An example would be him using the headline "Serve's Up" for a game story on the US Open).

My headlines tend to be unoriginal and uncreative and dull. ("Avengers run past Dodgers").

We can't seem to come up with a compromise that works.

 

[jlee]

We used to have stories on in-progress studies by the local university, which went well with question heds.

Do babies hate fat people?
Subhed: PDSU researchers analyze infant reactions to cellulite

 

[BTExpress]

a colleague said it best, "Headlines and stories provide answers not questions."

I'd rather have a story and headline with a question than a story and headline with the wrong answer ("Favre to retire")

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Sometimes questions ARE the answers

 

[HejiraHenry]

I broke all the rules once with a hed that included both a question mark and an exclamation mark. Won the state APME award that year, so you never know.

 

[mediaguy]

Are absolute rules good for judging things?

 

[Bubbler]

Are absolute rules good for judging things?

This. Damn near every judgment call we make in this business should be approached on a case-by-case basis.

Sometimes question heads work, sometimes they don't.

Any kind of hard and fast rule on judgment calls is bull****.

 

[Moderator1]

Let's say a columnist writes about Local U coach, questioning the fit but not outright calling for his head just yet.

"Is Coach Clutz The Right Guy for State U?"

No problem with that.

 

[Beef03]

Let's say a columnist writes about Local U coach, questioning the fit but not outright calling for his head just yet.

"Is Coach Clutz The Right Guy for State U?"

No problem with that.

But coach Clutz shows grace underfire. How could he not be the right man for the job?

Sorry, that was bad, but I couldn't resist.

It was said best earlier when some said it is a case by case situation and in this day and age there is no hard and fast rule. It all depends on the paper and the leeway for creativity they give you as well as how appropriate it is for the story. Personally I am not big on them but they do work in certain situations, so I am not completely opposed to them. Gotta be flexible.

I personally prefer the catchy original heds, but if it is real short there is almost always a subhead to go with it that actually lets you know what the story is. So to use the earlier example, if I went with 'Serve's Up' the subhead would be something like 'U.S. Open gets under way with Federer win' or something of that ilk.

I also go the uncreative route sometimes. You can't always be super creative and sometimes those efforts just lead to confusion when you try to be too cute. Sometimes it is just best to lay it out there.

Like I said, Gotta be flexible.

 

[RickStain]

Question headlines only work if the question really is the story. If the story is a declaration of a fact, then it almost never works.

 

[Irishcheesehead]

I see your points about questions. I think in the right situations, they can be used in headlines.

I just have a problem with a headline that says, "Pass on the run?" and the drop head states local team does not plan to abandon the run even though it can pass very well. So we answered the headline in the drop and we could have down something better.

Thanks for the input.

 

[amraeder]

My coworker and I disagree on this all the time. He likes to get clever with his headlines but to the point where you can't tell what the hell kind of story is below it. (An example would be him using the headline "Serve's Up" for a game story on the US Open).

My headlines tend to be unoriginal and uncreative and dull. ("Avengers run past Dodgers").

We can't seem to come up with a compromise that works.

For your coworker's headlines, you just have to go with a subhead. Don't mind Serve's Up as a head, as long as there's a subhead.

 

[MagillaGorilla]

We used to have stories on in-progress studies by the local university, which went well with question heds.

Do babies hate fat people?
Subhed: PDSU researchers analyze infant reactions to cellulite

I have it on good authority that babies do, in fact, hate fat people. Do skinny adults hate fat babies? ... Wait, I just got a headline idea for our Health & Fitness page.

 

[mjp1542]

My coworker and I disagree on this all the time. He likes to get clever with his headlines but to the point where you can't tell what the hell kind of story is below it. (An example would be him using the headline "Serve's Up" for a game story on the US Open).

My headlines tend to be unoriginal and uncreative and dull. ("Avengers run past Dodgers").

We can't seem to come up with a compromise that works.

For your coworker's headlines, you just have to go with a subhead. Don't mind Serve's Up as a head, as long as there's a subhead.

"Serve's Up" works as a headline for a feature on the start of the tournament. As for a regular game story/day roundup, I think it's not very good. In my opinion, it does nothing to draw in the reader.

One of the local papers here goes crazy with clever headlines. I'd say they hit the mark about 33 percent of the time. It's a slippery slope.

 

[Point of Order]

I went with "WTF?" after Jax State beat Ole Miss.

 

[Ace]

Headline writing is an entirely different beats online, too.

I think there you especially want to be careful not to reveal too much so the reader doesn't click into the story, and you also want to add SEO-friendly keywords.

So a successful online hed might be:

Was New England Patriots Tom Brady blasting Lady Gaga before scary car wreck?

 

[CYowSMR]

I went with "WTF?" after Jax State beat Ole Miss.

Haha! Yes!

I went with "Blanchard, Cocks go deep, bust Nutt in overtime"