5 tips for broadcasters who need to write web headlines

Writing news for the web is different than writing news for radio. If you are used to writing for radio but haven’t done much of any other type of writing, then you need to know a few things. This is the first in a series on how, as a broadcaster, you can write better web stories.

1. A slug is not a headline

Radio reporters and newscasters slug their stories with a single word or phrase so, at a glance, they know what the story is about. Usually it’s something like “MURDER” or “TAX-SCANDAL”, but may also include other information like the author’s name, the version number of the story and the type of item it is, straight copy, a voicer, a script and clip. So, it might be something like “JONES1 x-Leclerc”. This is not a suitable headline for a web story.

Sometimes the slug may even be more descriptive, “Jones guilty” or “Murder Longueuil”. These are not headlines either. Sometimes you might have written an election update. “Election Update for July 5th” is not a headline.
Grab the readers attention …