Apparently I am getting better at writing headlines. One of my headlines was discussed on Mac|Life Podcast #19: Fake Steve Revealed, New iMacs, and More!
If you listen to this week’s Mac|Live podcast, you will hear my headline The Guy Who Outed Fake Steve Jobs, Hero or Ass?, discussed during the topic of the outing of Fake Steve Jobs. The discussion starts about 2:20, and mentions that it is probably neither, which is a reasonable assessment.
I wrote my post to address all the negative comments and open hostility I read on multiple sites directed at Brad Stone the NYT reporter that broke the story. I saw comments fall into two distinct categories:
- Brad Stone is the ruiner of all that is good and fun, and probably kicks puppies and tells children about Santa’s secrets as a hobby
- Brad Stone is a journalist with great sleuthing powers and should be given proper respect
Most of the comments fell in the category that Brad Stone is a big puppy kicker. While I don’t think he necessarily kicks puppies, I found the backlash against him very interesting. Personally I enjoyed the FSJ secret and was happy not to know who the author of the blog.
I was just reading about headlines on David Airey’s post Do you start, or end, with a headline? I guess I am getting better at writing my headlines if they are generating discussion on a program like Mac|Life. I find the hardest part is writing a headline that is informational and snappy without being overly sensational.
August 9, 2007 at 6:55 am
Congrats Thomas! You’re good I still struggle with the titles I never know what to write, lol. I’ll have to check out the podcast. I subscribe to their magazine it’s excellent.
August 9, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Honestly I think that most of my headlines are pretty mundane, but once in a while I luck out and a good headline comes to me. It isn’t easy to write snappy headlines when you typically write about technology.