I have been known to utter in my workshops that I think the internet and search engines are slowly writing print new’s obituary. Of course, I am also quick to point out that any print news agency worthy of surviving is literally jumping to the online world, sometimes with kicks and screams.

I discovered a blog post by a journalism instructor at Linn Benton Community College that illustrates the changes in the journalism world.

He attended a conference for journalists at one of the nation’s best journalism schools: the University of Oregon.  One of the sessions focused on how to write headlines for the search engines. Here are some excerpts:

While print publications can still attract “eyeballs” with clever headlines along with attractive photos and graphics, online journalists have to keep search engines foremost in their thinking. More specifically, headlines and story content must focus on nouns — the traditional people, places and things — that are going to land content at the top of the Google search list.

So, for example, a vague headline that proclaims “Candidate’s supporters crash opponent’s visit” doesn’t stand a chance of being noticed against one that lets readers know “Merkley supporters crash Smith’s Oregon campaign visit.”

The conclusion of most experts at the discussion was that, while the specificity of search engine friendly words in the headline was being driven by the search engines themselves, this was bound to just make better headlines for everyone.

In many instances…straight-forward “search engine headlines” are better simply because they tell the news. That should be a good reminder for all journalists, regardless of their medium.

Source: Rob’s Blog