Has digital changed the art of headline writing?

Here is my latest article for InPublishing magazine - looking at the differences between writing headlines for print and online. There is some good insight by those who know, including Mail Online deputy publisher Pete Picton, Guardian backbencher Simon Ricketts, The Sun's Victoria Watson, the Indie's Martin King and media consultant Andy Drinkwater. If you have great eyesight you can read the print version by clicking on the images above or, if you prefer, you can read it online here. The headlines are the same in both versions. If you missed my last InPublishing article, on humour in newspapers, it's here. 

Two excellent anniversary ideas

What a great idea to celebrate The Guardian's 190th anniversary. The news stripped bare and all on one page, just like my Tweetdeck. Have we come full circle in news presentation? Could catch on. I see a rich vein of design consultancies ahead. Meanwhile there's another great anniversary idea over at the Independent. Ninety Prince Philip gaffes to celebrate his 90th birthday. Laugh out loud stuff.  
A couple of examples: "It looks as though it was put in by an Indian." The Prince's verdict of a fuse box during a tour of a Scottish factory in August 1999. He later clarified his comment: "I meant to say cowboys. "I just got my cowboys and Indians mixed up."
"If it has four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." Said to a World Wildlife Fund meeting in 1986.

The Times gets the wedding bouquet

Here we go. The Times wins it hands down, a great decision and fabulous wraparound. It was the surprise and most natural image of the wedding. The kiss is a great picture too. It may be a bit safer, predictable and we've seen it before but, hey, it's an iconic image and this is all about thinking souvenir. The Northern Echo, Daily Mail, FT, The Sun, the Evening Gazette in Teesside, the Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph took that option. The Star's crop is on the tight side with the headline obliterating the dress. I like the Mirror's decision to leave in the bridesmaid too. I know she detracts a little from the main image but she does raise a smile. The Guardian left in two bridesmaids ... they balance the picture but the girl on the right adds nothing. And the FT cropped the wrong bridesmaid off. The Echo had a dilemma between the kiss and the car and went front and back. Good solution. As for the Independent, what can I say? Different, brave, original, not pandering to the mass hysteria, intelligent ... but really, what were they thinking? Pleased they scrawled The Kiss on it though, otherwise we might have struggled to know what we were looking at.

Thanks to  @suttonnick http://twitpic.com/4r4ny4 @EchoPeterBarron and @aforjack

Did you get an invite ... or an invitation?

Lots of smiley pictures on today's front pages  ... mainly of Kate Middleton, although bit-player Prince William does appear in half of them. Even the Independent, which could traditionally be relied on to take a cynical view of such extravaganzas, has taken the royal shilling. It's easy to see why the pictures made their way on to every front page ... but what a dull set of headlines. Celebrate our happiest day, A couple smiles for the world, Happiest day of our lives ... they all sound like lines from a boring bridegroom's speech (perhaps they are). Of course it is always hardest to write headlines on stories where nothing has happened. At least The Guardian had a stab at a news angle while  the Independent, quite sensibly, chose not to bother with a headline at all. While we are on about wedding headlines, here's my greying sub gripe of the day. When did the word 'invite' become a noun? I know the tabloids can justify a bit of colloquialism to make it fit but even the BBC, The Daily Telegraph, Independent and the Daily Mail have decided you receive an invite rather than an invitation. I much prefer Ian Hislop's reference to a wedding 'ticket' than the ubiquitous 'invite'. At least The Guardian appears to be fighting a grammatical rearguard action. Anyway, enough of that. I am off to lunch today ... to the Plough with Harveys' Olympia ale, local wild boar on the menu and no TV. Anyone care to join me? No invite, invitation or ticket required.

 

Every picture tells the strain

Tough decision for the picture editors today, with some quite brilliant portraits of Gordon Brown. The back of his head and the hunched shoulders work well in The Guardian and The Sun, although the door number gets lost a bit on the Sun's version. Simple and effective in The Guardian. The Independent and the FT use similar pictures but the Indie, even with the missing chin, really shows the strain. Why the background in the FT? Then there is the Mirror - strain and defiance. Excellent photographs that sum up the moment. The Express, on the other hand, chooses to splutter on with a shabby, sordid stitch-up-type headline. The Daily Star quite remarkably opts for three dull headshots of politicians in suits (when was the last time that happened?). Its headline though sums up the whole affair perfectly. Memorable front pages. Thanks to The Guardian for drawing them all together.