The perfect headline: print vs digital
A good headline is about getting a reader’s attention and sharing the information you need to get across. As your first – and sometimes only – chance to catch someone’s eye, getting it right is vital.
If you work in internal communications, you’ll already know the importance of optimising content for print or digital platforms. But do you extend this approach to the way you title articles?
There are key differences in how digital headlines and print headlines function. It isn’t just about the difference between paper and screen. It’s about the nature of the medium and audience demographics.
Bear the following points in mind to help you craft the perfect headline, whether you’re writing for print or digital:
Consider what your audience is seeing
What does this mean for digital?
Writing for digital means writing short. Avoid lengthy headers and save anything overly descriptive for an introductory, scene-setting paragraph.
What does this mean for print?
Digital content is governed as much by screen size as it is by reader preference. Newspapers and magazines are free of this constraint, giving scope for longer, more descriptive headlines.
Example story: A profile of an important business partnership or client relationship.
Digital headline:
Better together
Print headline:
Taking our partnership from good to great
Consider the user journey
What does this mean for digital?
It’s possible for a digital header to be displayed completely independently of its associated story (for example, if it’s appearing as a teaser link on another web page, or a navigation link on a contents page).
If using ‘standalone’ headlines, remember that users need to be guided to content they want to see. Make these headlines sufficiently descriptive, but avoid getting too wordy.
What does this mean for print?
A print headline is physically attached to its text, so headlines don’t always need to give a literal description of the content.
There’s scope to use colourful, evocative, funny language, rhetoric or wordplay if it’s appropriate to your publication’s tone of voice.
Example story: A report on an annual employee awards ceremony.
Digital headline:
Excellence Awards in pictures
Print headline:
A night to remember
Know each medium’s strengths
What does this mean for digital?
Browsing the web and using apps are active ways to consume media. People expect to click on links and respond to calls to action. Leverage this in your headlines by making them about things readers need to do. Don’t position stories as a summary of something that has already ‘been and gone’.
What does this mean for print?
Print media – especially monthly or quarterly publications – might not be able to carry the most up-to-date news, but it can provide more in-depth, analytical coverage.
Capitalise on this by alluding to the finer details of stories in your headlines. This doesn’t mean including those details per se, but show that your story is the place to get the inside scoop.
Example story: A report on a company’s new strategy.
Digital headline:
Strategy 2020: What you need to know
Print headline: