Most news publications seem set up in a way where the journalist is responsible for the body copy of a news article but then the editor writes the headline. Oftentimes, as journalists will ruefully note on twitter, the headline is set without even consulting the journalist.
Where did this tradition start and what’s the business justification for these two bits of text being handed off to two totally separate people?
I figured it was a way to maintain a consistent house style. But to be honest I don’t actually know.
Because headline writing is a specialized task. You not only need write something, but you also need to make sure it fits in the space. This requires knowing the width of the characters (a “W” is wider than an “i”).
An accurate headline may not fit in the space allowed for the story, and if there’s a change (say, a breaking story changes the size from two columns to one), someone has to fix it and the reporter may not be available. Heck, the reporter may not be available in the first place – out on another story, or even gone home for the day.
In print publications, the writer wouldn’t know where the layout editor was going to put the story—what page, what position. The type size, the length of the space, the number of decks, etc. all depended on the layout, and the writer has none of that information.
Headline writing is a very different skill, not only because of the technical parameters but also because it takes a different type of creativity to sum up a story in such few words in a way that is accurate and also draws readers.
Also, it’s the editor’s job to control the editorial voice of the publication, so it makes sense to give the editor that job.
It used to be very common for reporters to call in stories from the scene, and probably still is for news that is breaking news. The calls would go to the rewrite desk, where the facts were turned into coherent 5W, inverted pyramid-style reports.
Even when the reporter returned to the newsroom to bang out a story, it still went to a central desk where it could be modified with additional information and changed from edition to edition.
The stories then went to compositors’ stations where the actual layout of the page was decided. That’s why Ascenray correctly notes that reporters were levels away - both physically and on the flow chart - from headlines.
You’ll see this on syndicated news stories as well. When the AP sends out a story to a 1000 papers, you’re likely to see 1000 different headlines, each geared to the exact mechanics - column width, font, type size, numbers of lines - of the final layout of the article.
Writing stories and presenting them in print were and are separate jobs. Getting a paper out is an assembly line operation. It makes no sense to have one person hardcraft an entire car for the masses.
Ultimately while the story explains the facts as Mr Mapcase explains, the reader also wants an opinion or editorial stance against which to position themselves, especially when its a big or complex story.
A master shows you how its done.