The Penn Stator Editor Tina Hay talks about creating strong heads, decks, captions and more
Headlines, decks, captions and pull-quotes are small in size, but they have the ability to make a huge impact on your readers. "Assume that when people pick up a magazine, they don't intend to read it," said Tina Hay, editor of The Penn Stater, at her Magazine On-Ramps session this morning. "Good points of entry turn skimmers into readers."
What are these points of entry? Headlines, decks, pull-quotes, captions, coverlines and sidebars are among the most important way to pull your readers into a story. If you use these entry points strategically, you can still form a bond with readers.
Hay's tips for creating strong headlines:
The most important tip for editors? "Don't be afraid to cut copy," Hay says. "You have to shorten the story in order to grab more readers."
Headlines, decks, captions and pull-quotes are small in size, but they have the ability to make a huge impact on your readers. "Assume that when people pick up a magazine, they don't intend to read it," said Tina Hay, editor of The Penn Stater, at her Magazine On-Ramps session this morning. "Good points of entry turn skimmers into readers."
What are these points of entry? Headlines, decks, pull-quotes, captions, coverlines and sidebars are among the most important way to pull your readers into a story. If you use these entry points strategically, you can still form a bond with readers.
Hay's tips for creating strong headlines:
- Remember that there's a difference between newsletter heads and magazine heads. A magazine is a different experience than a news publication. Magazine heads should have more life to them, and they'll take more time to create.
- Push beyond the first idea that comes to your mind and try to find something better.
- Have the tolerance to have a lot of ideas. You have to be willing to throw out stupid ideas to unearth the great ideas that lie underneath.
- Decks can go such a long way to telling readers that an article is great. They can be matter-of-fact and to the point, since that tells readers what's in the story.
- Shorten pull-quotes and use ellipses to create strong copy that jumps out to readers.
- Create captions that do more than label pictures. Captions can tell tiny stories and they are opportunities you don't want to squander.
- Hint: If a total stranger who has never read a story could write the captions for it, you need to put more time into it.
The most important tip for editors? "Don't be afraid to cut copy," Hay says. "You have to shorten the story in order to grab more readers."
This sounds like such an informative session -- wish I was there!
I know that one of my favorite but most challenging tasks is writing headlines, and over the years I've learned that some days I have it and some days I don't. On those days that I don't have it, I jot down my initial ideas and save them and then go back to it a few days later. Sometimes I just needed to take it one step further, and other times it goes in a completely different direction.
I agree with Lena--some days you're snappy with headline writing...other days you're not.
Collaboration between art director/designer and editor can make headline and entry point copy writing a lot easier. I've learned that Just talking over the story together w/my art director and watching her play with potential images can be just the springboard I need to concoct an effective headline. (I was going to write "amazingly" effective, but then I decided that could be cut. ;)