Let headlines tell the story
By Lowell Shank, Bulletin Content JudgeHow important are headlines? Headlines are extremely important as the tabloid headline is intended to entice you to buy the tabloid and the newspaper headline is intended to get you to read that article.
What makes a good headline? To get ideas look in your newspaper where you will notice that most headlines use verbs to indicate action and to grab your attention. Give the reader an indication as to the content of the article, not just that it is an article from the president. You certainly want to give credit to the author of the column, but which is more likely to get somebody to read a column, "From the Top," "President's column," or "President throws a wild party?"
Even Ann Landers' column uses headlines that indicate the content of one of the letters and the commentary columns frequently have subheadings of smaller font to add more enticement to continue reading the column.
A frequent problem faced by a barbershop bulletin editor is that the column submitted by the president may contain multiple topics, including some news and some commentary/editorial. The editor may choose to separate the article into separate articles with separate headings or use subheadings throughout the article as I am about to do.
Include names and titles in your by-lines
It will be much more informative to your readers, especially those not so familiar with your chapter, to put "by John Petterson, PROBEmoter editor" than to say by the editor or by John. Every article should have a by-line, even those by the editor. Furthermore, please put the by-line at the top of the article, not at the bottom. Letters may be an exception. I want to know who wrote the column to know something about the author's perspective or credibility before I get to the end.
| previous article | index | next article |