20th
Was That Headline Really A Flop?
What’s interesting about journalists who are also bloggers is that often the news behind the news sneaks up on you in interesting ways. Take the example of an article I read a couple of weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal, “Big Daily’s ‘Hyperlocal’ Flop,” which details a struggling website launched by the Washington Post to cover Loudon County, Virginia. I found it pretty interesting because hyperlocal news (read: community level) has been dubbed a potential savior to struggling metro newspapers. The Courant has recently staked a lot of its resources on a similar venture.
What I didn’t realize when I read the article was that I subscribe to the blog of the person who had run LoudonExtra.com, a guy named Rob Curley. Tonight I finally got around to reading his blog post reflecting on the Journal’s article. His biggest complaint? The headline, of course. Is “flop” too harsh a word for what happened at LoudonExtra? Webster’s defines it as a “complete failure,” but I’m not sure that’s in line with the general understanding of the word. After glancing over the story a few times, I wouldn’t think twice about using “flop” to describe the situation.
What bothered me, though, is the conversation Curley had with the reporter after the story ran:
“Russell Adams, the writer of the story, talked with me on the phone the morning the article ran. He was definitely upset (and even sounded a little embarrassed) about the headline. He said he sent an e-mail to the folks at the WSJ who wrote the headline as soon as he saw it. I can tell you I’ve worked in enough newsrooms to know how that headline got written. It also was interesting to find out that reporters at big newspapers get just as pissed off at the headlines that end up on their stories as reporters at smaller newspapers.”
First of all, if you write a nut graf like the reporter did on that story, you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself for that headline. To me, the situation described in the article is a flop. But beyond that, is there anything more irritating than throwing a copy editor under the bus? It’s a total sucker punch. Copy editing and headline writing is often a balancing act. It’s tough to please everyone involved in the process and still be true to the tone of the story and specs on the page. Oh, yeah, and engage the reader. On deadline.
I’m not saying reporters shouldn’t demand the best headlines for their stories. But it can be fairly off-putting when a reporter is a Monday Morning Quarterback about decisions made by nightside editors. “I can tell you I’ve worked in enough newsrooms to know how that headline got written”? Give me a break, man.
