Just a few weeks ago, I received a voice message from a reader who was irate about the headline assigned to a story in the newspaper. Audibly upset, she felt strongly that a headline was too racy, too edgy, too sensationalized. She then went on to share her thoughts on the article, which was quite insightful in that she remembered more about the story published the day before than I did, and had put a lot of thought into it.

So, the caller was so outraged that she has clearly gone on to read the story. Probably more than once.

This demonstrates something about newspaper headlines that some people might not understand. Headlines are not just little briefs telling what a story is about. Instead, they are the packaging that attract a glancer to become a reader. That is their sole purpose and they are one of three “entry points” to a story things beyond columns of words to attract people to read a story. Those three things are photos, pullquotes and headlines. These are the three tools an editor has at his disposal when putting a newspaper together to capture the attention of someone and say “read me!”

In an ideal world, an editor would like to think that, hey, if a roomful of journalists think something is important enough or interesting enough to then work into the night writing about it for the next morning’s newspaper, people are just going to read it!

Wrong! Particularly in today’s fast-paced wired world, if you don’t reach out and grab the attention of a reader, he or she is going to move on to something else, instead of investing the five or 10 minutes to read that important story.

That’s where these “entry points” come into the picture. A compelling photo be it beautiful or frightening, gripping or adorable is one obvious way. The pullquote a brief snippet of dialogue from a story that inspires a viewer to want to read more is another way. And then there are headlines.

At their best, headlines should give a clue as to what a story is about and why it is important, and inspire one to pick up the newspaper. Realistically, it’s virtually impossible to do those things in a single headline. And, remember, it isn’t just a matter of the right words, it is also a matter of space. An editor has to craft an alluring headline for a generally allotted space. It’s like a word game.

Every editor has his own style of headlines. Some publications go for informational and obvious (“Amidst rising tensions, North Korea loses submarine”), some sensational (Nuclear Sub Sinks!) and many others some combination.

Personally, I feel a story dictates the style of headline in many occasions. Some call for sober, some more sensational, some mildly amusing and others a style you will often see in this newspaper. These often short and punchy headlines are designed to inspire curiosity in the reader just enough to stop, read a subhead and then plunge into the story.

Accuracy is important in headlines, but even “accuracy” can sometimes be subjective. A couple of months ago, I employed what I thought was a fairly tame subhead on an issue of public interest. A fairly prominent public figure called to complain because he did not find the subhead to his liking. In his mind, the subhead was editorializing; in our minds it was characterizing the perspective of quoted sources.

However, the subhead (the smaller text sized but often longer headline that runs under the main headline) succeeded in making a reader of people. Job done.

Like many aspects of an editor’s job, headlines are more art than science. There are whole studies about and classes on crafting headlines. In the end, though, success is defined when interest in a newspaper increases and the public receives more of the news it needs and that’s a good thing.