SEO Killed the Headline Writer...Star

The Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten is one of those grouchy, old-media-types who America loves, but not enough to actually start subscribing to a newspaper. Anyway, this past Sunday he wrote a funny, prototypical grumpy piece lamenting the slaughter of clever newspaper headlines to the altar of SEO.

My biggest beef with the New Newsroom, though, is what has happened to headlines. In old newsrooms, headline writing was considered an art. This might seem like a stretch to you, but not to copy editors, who graduated from college with a degree in English literature, did their master’s thesis on intimations of mortality in the early works of Moliere, and then spent the next 20 years making sure to change commas to semicolons in the absence of a conjunction.

AW+

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Spring Special

Save 30% Off an ADWEEK Subscription Today!

View Your Options

Already a member? Sign in