Writing a Strong Headline Without Clickbait

The headline is the most-read sentence in any story, and often the only one. It appears on the column page, in the archive, on topic pages and in every feed reader that subscribes to the column. Many readers will see it in one of those places and decide, in a second or two, whether to read on. Some will never read on at all and will carry away only what the headline told them.

That gives the headline two duties that can pull against each other: to interest the reader, and to tell them the truth about the story. Clickbait is what happens when the first duty is allowed to override the second. This note sets out how we think a headline can do both.

A headline is a promise

Every headline makes a promise about what follows. “The city should end parking minimums” promises an argument for a specific policy. “What the new housing law actually changes” promises an explanation. “Council votes to review parking rules” promises a report of an event.

A good headline is one the story keeps. A reader who clicks on it and finishes the piece should feel that they got what was offered, neither less nor something different. Clickbait breaks that promise in one of two ways: it overstates what the story contains, or it withholds what the story is about so that the reader has to click to find out. Both work once. Neither builds the kind of readership a column depends on, which is readers who return because they trust what the headline tells them.

Name the subject, and say something about it

The strongest headlines usually do two things: they name the subject plainly, and they say something specific about it. Compare:

• “Thoughts on the budget” names the subject but says nothing.
• “You won’t believe what’s in the budget” says nothing and hides the subject.
• “The budget cuts library hours to pay for road repairs” names the subject and states what matters.

The third headline is longer, and it gives away the story’s main point. Writers sometimes worry that this removes the reason to read on. In our view it does the opposite. A reader who cares about libraries now knows the story is for them, and a reader who does not has been spared the trouble. The story’s value lies in the detail and the reasoning, which no headline can contain.

For opinion pieces, the headline can carry the claim itself. If a column argues that a policy should change, a headline that says so tells readers both what the column argues and that it is opinion. Our note on separating reporting from opinion explains why that signal matters.

Patterns to avoid

Most clickbait follows a small number of formulas. Recognising them makes them easier to resist:

• The curiosity gap. “This one change could transform the city.” The headline withholds the subject. Name the change.
• The manufactured reaction. “Residents are furious about…” unless you have reported that they are, and can show it.
• The empty superlative. “The most important vote of the decade.” If you believe it, argue it in the column; do not assert it in the headline.
• The question with an obvious answer. “Is the scheme a failure?” If the column says yes, say yes. A question headline is honest only when the story genuinely leaves the question open.
• The misleading quotation. A striking phrase lifted from a source and placed in the headline without the context that made it mean something else.
• The number for its own sake. “Seven reasons…” works when the story really is a list of seven reasons. It does not make an argument stronger.

Be specific and exact

Precision is what separates a strong headline from a merely honest one. A few habits help:

• Prefer concrete nouns and active verbs. “Council approves” rather than “Approval given by council”.
• Use the figure if it matters. “Rents rose 9 per cent last year” is stronger than “Rents soared”, and it is checkable.
• Match the strength of the claim to the evidence. If the story shows a link but not a cause, the headline should not imply a cause. If the finding is tentative, “may” is the honest word.
• Keep it short enough to read at a glance. Long headlines are truncated in some feed readers and archive lists. Put the subject near the front, so the essential words survive.

Everything in the headline must be supported by the story. That sounds obvious, but headlines are often written last, in a hurry, by a writer whose head is full of the argument rather than the text. Read the headline against the story before publishing and check each word.

The headline and the excerpt work together

On VeriTaus a story’s excerpt, the short summary beneath the headline, appears with it in many places across the site. Treat the pair as a unit. The headline states the point; the excerpt adds the next most important thing: the context, the stakes or the evidence. The excerpt should not repeat the headline in other words, and it should not be the story’s first sentence by default if that sentence was written as a scene-setter.

A useful test is to read the headline and excerpt alone, as a reader scanning a topic page or an RSS feed would see them, and ask whether they give an accurate picture of the story. If someone read only those two lines, would they come away informed or misled?

When the headline is wrong

Sometimes a headline turns out to overstate the story, or a correction changes the fact the headline relied on. Change it, and say so in the correction note; the headline is part of the record. Our note on writing corrections and updates covers how. Feeds and archives may still show the original wording, which is one more reason to write it carefully the first time.