Sten Gazette

“Eclipse to overshadow World Series. That was one of the headlines in this morning’s paper. What a sweet headline!

Two of us here at SG have backgrounds in mainstream print journalism, and are definitely “old school” when it comes to newspaper headlines– steadfast in our belief that headline writing is an art form that has sadly fallen into decline in recent years.

A good headline is is clear, concise, and cogent, encapsulating the story that it heads up. Ideally, the reader should be able to get a good sense of the news simply by reading the headlines.

An early morning cross-check between our two former journalists revealed that we both reacted to this headline exactly the same way– can’t wait to read the article! We had instantaneous mental images of a shadow creeping over the field of dreams, demonstrating once again how Mankind’s greatest achievements can so easily be overshadowed by Natural phemonomena, metaphorically and, for once, literally.

We also immediately wondered whether play would be suspended, or would they turn on the lights? All of this in the blink of an eye, along with immediate recognition of a great headline!

Alas, the first paragraph of the article gave the game away, so to speak– this was just another pathetic attempt at cleverness by a smart-ass headline writer at a newspaper known for it’s tabloid-style teasers, more suited to the sports pages than first section news.

Yes, folks, it’s a lunar eclipse, and the game is at night. So the game won’t be “overshadowed” in either the metaphorical or literal sense. Indeed, it’s quite likely to be the other way around. Which would mean that the headline is 180 degrees out of phase with the story.

At the same time, we have to recognize that standards change. Newspapers ain’t what they used to be, and the best example of effective headline writing today is in the “crawls” that appear at the bottom of your TV screen. If we agree that trying to get any sense of the news from newspaper headlines is a big mistake, if we admit that the purpose of a headline in today’s newspaper is not intended to tell you the story in capsule form, but to tease you into reading the article, then it was a GOOD headline. Good Headline, Bad Editor.

Here’s a better headline, even without a story: “Sports and politics to overshadow Lunar Eclipse.”

–SG

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 23rd, 2004 at 9:57 am and is filed under Journalism, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.