Get ahead, get a Headline

A discussion else-blog about the use of aggregators to read blogs got me thinking about headline-writing. It’s something we devote a lot of time and brain-power to in the magazine world. It’s our first and best chance to “sell” the feature to the reader, and so it needs to be informative, interesting and, if possible, entertaining. Doing all three is pretty hard work.

However, for some people who read blogs in aggregators, all they see is the headline. They have to decide if they should read the piece sole based on the limited information given in those few words. I wonder how important good headline-writing skills will be in the ever expanding blogosphere? If more and more people shun the daily surf for a good aggregator (like NetNewsWire or Sharpreader), it could be that the good headline writers will prosper, while others will struggle.