The recent death of retired New York City Transit Police Detective Frederick “Freddy” Mack brought back memories of one of the most famous newspaper headlines ever written: “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”
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Mack was the detective at the center of the notorious 1983 murder case that brought the subject back to the front page. Pardon the pun.
No, don’t pardon the pun. The pun is the point. As is the clever wordplay that used to draw newspaper readers into stories with sometimes silly-sounding come-ons, even when the topic was deadly serious.
For generations, clever headline writing was an art form. Newspaper readers expected wordplay, cultural references, double meanings, and the occasional groan-inducing pun. The headline wasn’t merely a label attached to a story. It was an invitation to read it.
This is personal for me. I spent more than 20 years as a copy editor and was fortunate enough to win several awards for headline writing. But this isn’t just nostalgia from an old newspaperman. It affects everyone who consumes news.
Good headlines tell readers a story is worth their time. In a world overflowing with information, grabbing attention matters. A clever headline signals that a story may contain something interesting, important, or entertaining.
Then came the internet.
Around 2005, many newsrooms began requiring two headlines for every story: one for print and one for the web. The print headline could still be clever. If investment guru Charles Givens was sued by a widow who claimed she followed his advice and canceled her husband’s life insurance policy, a newspaper headline might read, “Don’t take all that’s Givens.”
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The web headline was another matter: “Popular investment advisor Charles Givens sued by widow who took his advice to cancel life insurance.”
Search engines didn’t understand wordplay. They understood keywords.
For years, journalism adapted itself to machines. Headlines became longer, flatter, and more literal. Readers were often treated as an afterthought while publishers chased search rankings. I lamented this a few years ago in a column I published … online.
Fortunately, technology has finally caught up with human communication.
Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, search engines are far better at understanding context and meaning. They can recognize that “The King Returns to Cleveland” may refer to LeBron James or that “Mouse House Faces New Challenge” probably involves Disney.
That doesn’t mean headlines should become cryptic. The best modern approach combines clarity with creativity. Give readers enough information to know what the story is about, but leave room for personality and style.
The lesson isn’t really about headline writing. It’s about who journalism is written for.
For a time, journalists were encouraged to write for algorithms. Today, technology increasingly allows us to write for people again. Now, to get back to the impartiality journalists used to claim.
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