Years ago, a writer for the now-defunct Miami News wrote a column about a newspaper copy editor who
had spent such a long time writing headlines that he awoke one morning to find he spoke in them. Short nouns
and verbs popped out of his mouth as his only means of communicating with others. For instance:
Copy Editor
Picks Eggs
At B’fast
or
Icy Blast Forces Florida Editor
To Wrap Wool Rug Around Self
This may seem far-fetched, but the fact is headline
writing is an art. Finding the words to summarize an
article so that a reader can decide whether to read it
is no easy task. Even harder is the art of drawing a
reader into a feature article without ruining a
surprise or stealing the best words the author used.
An ear for popular culture, puns, slang and famous
quotations adds to the arsenal of headline writers.
They mix those in to bring smiles, chuckles, tears and
sometimes gasps to readers ready to jump into a
good read.
Typical of this higher level of headlines is a recent
one from The Salt Lake Tribune: “Sometimes You
Feel Like a ‘Nutcracker,’ Sometimes You Don’t.”
Obviously, it is a takeoff of a Mounds-Almond Joy
jingle.
If headline writing can be a high art, it also can fall
into the mundane when the copy flow on the desk is
horrendous, when a 1,000-word story cannot be
summarized accurately in six words or when none of
the classical muses offers inspiration. And, when that
happens, the e-mails and phone calls and letters
come rushing in.
Or:
Some Trib Readers
Gnash Their Teeth
Over the Headlines
The headlines that draw the fiercest protest generally are those dealing with political machinations in
Washington and on Capitol Hill in Utah, but they are not the only objects of frustration for readers.
As an illustration of the kinds of irritation readers suffer, let me share this call from a reader who was upset
with Wednesday’s headline on a front-page story on President Bush’s rules for the war on terrorism. The head
in question had a main bar (main headline) and a deck (subhead), but ran across only one column, so the
headline writer was challenged to boil complicated concepts down to short words.
The main head read:
CIA
Has
Free
Rein
while the subhead expanded on that theme with:
U.S. citizens
can be killed
as terrorists
The male caller complained that the headline was misleading; I looked at the headline and marveled that the
author managed to find three- and four-letter words that captured the essence of the piece. (Please do not
think that journalists are so jaded they cannot appreciate good work when they see it.)
The reader felt the words “U.S. citizens can be killed as terrorists” did not reflect the nuances of the story and
could lead readers to infer the U.S. citizens could be killed on U.S. soil. I find this criticism specious, because
the first paragraph of the Associated Press story says, “American citizens working for al-Qaida overseas can
legally be targeted and killed by the CIA under President Bush’s rules for the war on terrorism, U.S. officials
say.”
Here is my advice for most of The Tribune’s headline critics:
Suck It Up,
Try Tuning
Big Picture
In Tiny Area
Callousness? A number of readers reacted to the placement of the paid obituaries in Thursday’s edition. It
looked as though they started on Page A-7 and then jumped to A-9 and A-11 and then to pages A-16 and
A-17.
One subscriber sent an e-mail summing up the opinions of many:
“I noticed that you had interspersed the obituaries with ads for such things as lingerie, toys, clothes and ads
for big department stores like Nordstrom. I am appalled at the lack of sensitivity and respect this represents.
These families are probably having a hard enough time getting through this season with the loss of a loved one
without your callousness in shoving more ads down their throats.”
The readers are right on this one, but the problem was a bit more complicated than they might know. The
obituaries were originally scheduled to run on pages A-16 and A-17 (both open pages), but the space required
was underestimated and the copy desk could not jump them to page A-18 (the editorial page) or start them on
pages A-13 or A-15 (too small) or A-14 (a full-page ad), so they started them on earlier pages and ran into ads
that might seem to be insensitive when run on the same pages as death notices.
About all I can guarantee is this: I doubt this exact kind of a mess will ever occur again. Folks on the
obituary desk heard enough about it to be wary when such a problem crops up.
_________
The Reader Advocate’s phone number is 801-257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake
Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. reader.advocate@sltrib.com
