Perhaps the greatest literary casualty of digital journalism is the blow to creative headline-writing. Nowadays copy editors write headlines for search engines instead of people. The idea is to throw in a series of keywords that anticipate how readers will search for a story.
That’s all well and good. You have to get the reader to the story. But the practice often results in headlines lacking subtlety, humor, mystery. It even has a boring acronym – SEO – which stands for Search Engine Optimization.
Despite the importance of good SEO, headline writers have a hard time resisting the lure of creative wordplay. On occasion they might break the SEO rules and write instead for people. That may cost a story some readers. But the trade-off is a creative release they justify with the thought that the readers the story does get may appreciate an attempt at wit.
Here is a list of some of the Echo staff’s favorite headlines appearing on Echo in 2010.
1.Sexy-looking urban cardinals may just be hopped up on non-native plants
2.Michigan officials: Latin name of state tree too suggestive for license plate
3.Today is World Toilet Day. No, we aren’t kidding.
4.Breaking News: Walruses and penguins discovered in the Great Lakes
5. Guilty secret: I owned purple loosestrife barrettes
6. Recycling booty reported in pounds and Asian carp equivalents
7. Beer+ Great Lakes = photo contest
9. Daily carp bomb: Think of the children
10.The Undead: Lightfoot and lazy journalism
11. Eagle watch: Spotting baldies in the Great Lakes states
12. Carp. It’s what’s for dinner.
13. Monday Mashup: Where the (Great Lakes) wild things are
14. The Green Lamp-rey, Impale-wife face off in Round 2 of the SmackDown!
15. Get ready for a fish fight as two species bait each other
16. Beekeepers buzz about embattled bees
17. Property owners, farmers go hog-wild over feral pigs
18. Tapped out: Sour year for maple syrupers