• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 27, 2024

Here’s some advice for editors, as if they need it: write shorter headlines. Readers prefer them, even if journalists don’t, judging by a study from NiemanLab presented in Scientific Advances.  

Over 30,000 field experiments with The Washington Post and Upworthy showed that “readers prefer simpler headlines (e.g., more common words and more readable writing) over more complex ones.” 

A follow-up experiment showed that readers “skipped over relatively complex headlines to focus their attention on the simpler headlines.”

This would hardly be news to an earlier generation of newspeople.  Reporters were trained to write for an 11-year-old reading level. In hindsight, it seems that The New York Times, which tended to present more complicated reports, was an exception to this tabloid practice. 

What do we mean by less complicated headlines?

NiemanLab explains, “Headlines with more common words — simple words like 'job' instead of 'occupation' — shorter headlines, and those communicated in a narrative style, with more pronouns compared with prepositions, received more clicks. For example, The Washington Post headline, “Meghan and Harry are talking to Oprah. Here’s why they shouldn’t say too much” outperformed the alternative headline, “Are Meghan and Harry spilling royal tea to Oprah? Don’t bet on it.”

But not everyone prefers simpler headlines. 

“Notably, a sample of professional writers, including journalists, did not show this pattern, suggesting that those writing the news may read it differently from those consuming it.” 

Maybe this just shows that journalists are open to more complex forms of information.  

Either way, they’re unlikely to top this legendary tabloid headline: “Headless Man Found In Topless Bar.”