Saturday, February 16, 2008

When Headlines by Committee Works

Awhile back, Greg posted an article by Sally Hogshead with the simple statistical reality that you have to write about 100 headlines to get a good one. And while creativity by committee can be a frustrating and deadly process, if you have a concept, it sometimes helps to have several writers plugging away at headlines, just to generate the volume.

Here's an example I found entertaining and relevant to what we do. It's a story from This American Life about the process they go through at The Onion to create their fantastic headlines.


2 comments:

  1. I sometimes wonder how many headlines I would actually submit to a creative director if I had to stand in front of a group of people and read my lines aloud.

    Probably a good rule of thumb to write by.

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  2. Biologist Realizes He's Been Studying Cadbury Egg.

    Awesome.

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