The ideal magazine headline should do the following:
1. Tell what the story is about in as few words as possible
2. Be eye-catching, grab attention
3. Be witty or create a play on words
While writing headlines for magazines and newspapers are different (a newspaper has a responsibility to inform, a magazine is usually commentary on the breaking news), let's compare some headlines in the world of New York newspaper journalism, since we are all familiar with those screaming (or sometimes whispering) headlines on the newsstand.
Look at the following three New York newspapers. Each paper has its own personality and its own style of headline writing.
How do the headlines conform to the criteria above?Now...try your hand at writing your own headlines. The following four stories are all real, but I have removed the headlines. See if you can come up with a better headline than the copy editors!
Devekioed by:
Sandy Scragg
www.sandyscragg.com
Murry Bergtraum HS
New York, NY