How self-explanatory should Travel Weekly headlines be?
February 24, 2010
You'd figure out pretty quickly that it doesn't refer to the Rolling Stones guitarist, but the scenario does raise an interesting question for web editors.
When we publish stories online, we know our headlines go out 'into the wild' - Google search results, RSS feeds on third-party websites, and so on.And we know that the audience in those places may have less background knowledge than those who habitually pick up the paper or visit the homepage.
Indeed, they may have no background knowledge. They may have just searched Google News for 'Keith Richards' and found this:
So what do we do when there's potential ambiguity? Pack more information in to clarify matters, or keep it concise and trade-friendly? For example:
- ABTA axes professional development role in restructure, or
- Keith Richards to leave ABTA
'Travel agents hit out at Operator X commission cuts' is more useful to everyone, consumers and travel industry Googlers alike - but again, it makes the headline on the article page a bit less punchy.
As 







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