The Writer of This Article Also Wrote This Headline and That’s Rare

Everything you need to know about headlines and the art of writing them.

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Journalists can spend a fair amount of time discussing and defending their work on Twitter. But there is one complaint that readers should know will probably fall on deaf ears: headlines. Earlier this week Tom Nichols, a professor and author, shared on social media a piece he’d written for The Atlantic in February.

One of his followers responded: “This is a damn good analysis. Headline gives false hope, but I’d bet a buck Tom didn’t write it.” 

Another Twitter follower pointed to Nichols’ byline, implying it was he who in fact wrote the headline. Nichols responded to the back and forth, ending the debate, “I did not write the headline. Most writers don’t.”

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  1. Avatar photo
    Wilhelm

    I want to take this headline to the prom:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/science/moray-eels-eat-land.html

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  2. Tom Neven

    Who can forget the headline written by a clueless headline writer concerning the controversy over the display of the B-29 bomber "Enola Gay" at the Air & Space Museum. His headline: "Enola Homosexual Exhibit Continues to Stir Controversy."

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    Ben Connelly

    What is the Dispatch policy on headlines? Ryan does Steve write most of them or does everyone write their own.

    I think it’s strange for a writer not to write their own headline, although Peggy Noonan’s comments about working with her editor made some good points.

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  4. Kevin Kosar

    I'll never forget when I and a journo professor wrote a thoughtful piece for thee WaPo and a young editor slapped this title on it: "How the American government is trying to control what you think." As a result, the article got tons of comments but few were about the actual subject of the piece. Folks did what editors know they always have tended to do---read the headline and maybe a paragraph or two, then ract. Sigh.

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    Vaughn Larson

    Back when I was the news editor for a twice-weekly in eastern Wisconsin, I had the reporters write their own headlines. Because I was also a reporter as well as editor and page designer, and others who laid out pages were not solely copy editors (one was the publisher!), the idea was for the reporter to give us direction for the headline, and we could revise as needed.

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  6. Trumeau

    Interesting, I never knew about that. I wonder who makes the headlines at the Dispatch for Jonah Goldberg or David French for example. Is that Steve Hayes?

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  7. Mike Dye

    I attended a talk several years ago from an editor of a major paper who mentioned many of the reasons cited here. One sad point was that social media / internet had eliminated most of the intellectual property of any story so the clickbait angle was everything — and there were specialized people to do that for mobile users, hence the disconnect between story and link text

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    Rev Snow

    "Facebook changed it’s all-powerful algorithm...."

    Oh my. Never mind who writes the headlines...

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  9. Shaybult

    Great piece. It was fun to learn more about something I knew existed but didn't know any detail about.

    It drives me crazy when headlines don't "match" the article. And I've seen journalists (including one here) say "well, if you read the whole piece..." To which I say "yeah, but that doesn't make the headline any more accurate/defensible." And, as others have pointed out, the headline is the only thing some people see.

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  10. ROBERT

    I can't imagine anything ever topping "Headless Body at Topless Bar". Irresistibly outrageous. Brief but detailed. And pleasing alliteration.
    What else do you need?

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