{"id":19938,"date":"2019-01-16T03:41:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T07:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=19938"},"modified":"2024-01-17T09:54:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T13:54:36","slug":"headline-quotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/micro-content\/how-to-write-a-good-headline\/headline-quotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann\u2019s favorite headline quotes for writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers and others say<\/h2>\n

\"Headline

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\u201cEvery good title is a short story.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Russell Banks, American writer of fiction and poetry<\/h6>\n
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\u201cDon\u2019t write a headline you wouldn\u2019t say when talking to a friend. No one in history ever uttered, \u2018Woodley, defense propel Dolphins past NY.’\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 James Barger, sports editor at the\u00a0Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe headline writer\u2019s tool is not a hammer, but a chisel, the fine semantic chisel of exact language with exact meaning and exact dimension. The precise headline writer must learn to be fluid with solids. Into solid substance he pours liquid grace.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 John B. Bremner, the late University of Kansas copyediting professor and author of\u00a0Htk<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cHeads are like poetry. Hell, they are poetry. You\u2019re a poet. You choose words that tell and find a way to fit them into given limitations.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roger Buddenberg, staff writer,\u00a0Omaha World-Herald<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe headline writer is the poet among journalists, stuffing big meaning into small spaces.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar, The Poynter Institute, in\u00a0Writing Tools<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cNever write a headline that you can\u2019t say out loud without sounding like a politician.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Steve Crescenzo, owner, Crescenzo Communications<\/h6>\n
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\u201cA story should be a verb, not a noun.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Byron Dobell, former editor of\u00a0Esquire<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0American Heritage<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cNo verbs, no vigor.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Editor\u2019s Workshop<\/em>\u00a0newsletter editors<\/h6>\n
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\u201cNouns are important, but the nouns must do something.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Pete Hamill, novelist, essayist and journalist<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe worst insult a headline writer can give a story is to be trite. That sin is bad enough in body type; in 48 point, the irredeemable qualities multiply to the 10th power. The bigger the type, the better the headline must be.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Jim Heinrich,\u00a0copy editor for the\u00a0Pittsburgh\u00a0Post-Gazette<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cTrying to explain what makes a headline good is like trying to explain what makes a joke funny or a photo pornographic \u2014 you recognize it, but you can\u2019t necessarily explain it.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Jim Heinrich,\u00a0Sunday Magazine<\/em>\u00a0copy editor for the\u00a0Pittsburgh\u00a0Post-Gazette<\/em>\u00a0on\u00a0PoynterOnline<\/h6>\n
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\u201cIf you can\u2019t say your title in one breath, it\u2019s probably too long.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Sam Horn, author of\u00a0POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd<\/em><\/h6>\n
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Headline writing \u201ccombines the mastery of Scrabble with the composition of haiku.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 John Early McIntyre, ACES president and assistant managing editor for the copydesk at the\u00a0Baltimore\u00a0Sun<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cFive times as many people read the headline as the body copy. When you\u2019ve written your headline, you\u2019ve spent 80 cents of your dollar.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 David Ogilvy, \u201cthe father of advertising,\u201d in\u00a0Ogilvy on Advertising<\/h6>\n
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\u201cI never write fewer than 16 headlines for a single ad.\u201d<\/h5>\n
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\u2014 David Ogilvy, \u201cthe father of advertising,\u201d in\u00a0Ogilvy on Advertising<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cA good title should be like a good metaphor. It should intrigue without being too baffling or too obvious.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Walker Percy, author of\u00a0Love in the Ruins<\/em><\/h6>\n
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Good news headlines \u201cneed at least two things \u2026 a noun and a verb.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mary Pretzer, design columnist,\u00a0Editor\u2019s Workshop<\/em>\u00a0newsletter<\/h6>\n
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\u201cAthletic verbs hint that yours is an organization where things are hopping. The geriatric verbs most of us use \u2014 announces, introduces, thanks<\/em> \u2014 bespeak a sleepy firm and make for sleepy readers.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0The Ragan Report<\/em>\u00a0editors<\/h6>\n
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\u201cMake sure the big type does not contradict the little type.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 John Russial, associate professor at the University of Oregon<\/h6>\n
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\u201cI have a writer who has vaguely threatened violence if I ever use \u2018mull\u2019 in a headline on her city council stories again. I dunno, what else do city councils do?\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Katje Sabin, associate editor, The Davis (Calif.) Enterprise, quoted in \u201cDoc\u2019s Headline Picks\u201d on PoynterOnline<\/h6>\n
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\u201cLose your reader with your headline and you\u2019ve lost the reader altogether.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Alan Sharpe, business-to-business direct-mail copywriter<\/h6>\n
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\u201cReaders stayed away. Did your headline have a verb? I didn\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Chris Smith, senior training specialist, Entergy Corp.<\/h6>\n
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\u201cWriting headlines is a specialty \u2014 there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn\u2019t write a headline to save their lives.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0Bill Walsh, copy chief at The Washington Post<\/em><\/h6>\n
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