Dear Public Editor:
Who decides on the composition of headlines for the articles in The Dallas Morning News and what editorial standards are employed in selecting them?
John Nevins
Today, headlines matter perhaps more than ever. In a world awash in information, overwhelmed news audiences often use them to decide whether an article is worth their time. And many share content after seeing only the headline.
In fact, a study released late last year by Penn State University estimated that about 75% of readers on social media do not open links before passing along content, which means they are making judgments about articles based solely on headlines. It is one reason, the study concluded, that political misinformation moves so fast and so far.
Comments about headlines show up frequently in my in-box. Readers are rightly sensitive to word choice and tone. They disdain mistakes in general, but inaccurate headlines draw particular ire. So, who writes our headlines anyway? What makes an effective headline? And what are some challenges that attend this important work?
First, a bit of myth-busting: Many readers believe reporters pen their own headlines. Reporters do often come up headlines for digital pieces, but The News’ multiplatform editors (also known as copy editors) write them for print.
When reporters finish a piece, copy editors reread it for fairness and accuracy. They also write a headline (and photo captions, if needed) and proofread the article one last time. On any given day, four to five copy editors juggle up to 14 national and international stories as well as Metro and Business content. (Sports uses its own copy desk.)
A strong headline captures the essence of the story. It must match the article’s tone. It should be clear and inviting without tipping into sensationalism (or what we call clickbait). And a digital headline must also make the story easy to find online.
All of this unfurls under tight deadlines, sometimes with the added burden of late-breaking news.
“You have four words to explain a thousand-word story,” says News Editor Michael Apuan, who oversees copy editors at The News. “Not only do you have four words, but sometimes those four words can’t be over four letters long.”
Beyond that, copy editors think constantly about language and tone that might betray bias.
“We strive to be fair, and we go over this a lot,” Apuan says. “For example, if someone’s accused of a crime, and we say someone is accused of X [in a headline], then somewhere else in that headline we have to say that the person denies that this ever happened.”
In his email, Nevins went on to critique two headlines that are emblematic of issues that readers raise often. The first involved a front-page story published June 21 about an Arlington woman facing deportation after being detained for months by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).
Online, the headline read: “ICE wants to deport North Texas newlywed. Lawyer says she’s in procedural black hole.” The print headline took a different tack: “Woman’s life frozen by ICE.”
Nevins wrote, “I doubt that the immigrant family at issue found the headline as amusing as its author.” In other words, “frozen by ICE” belied the gravity of the story. And I agree.
In the same edition, Nevins spotted another punny headline in Metro and Business, this one with an article about the possibility of Dallas ending alleyway trash pickup. It said, “Officials want to can alley service.”
“One gets the feeling that the editorial staff of the paper is trying overall to amuse the reader,” Nevins wrote, “regardless of the subject matter at issue and the people whose lives are possibly being drastically affected.” His point: Sometimes we try too hard.
In this case, I disagree. The headline pulled readers into a story they might have ordinarily ignored.
Overall, headlines in The News and on dallasnews.com are smart and solid — which is to say they generally meet the high standards noted above. But Nevins’ thoughtful email is a good reminder that headlines have an outsize impact on how readers react to our content. They are paying close attention. So should we.