What’s in a headline?

For those of us in the news business, a lot. A story that’s smartly reported, written, and edited can slide right by a reader if the headline doesn’t do its job. The demands are high: Be clear, be accurate. Don’t mislead or editorialize. Offer significance. Be clever and delightful when called for. Don’t understate, don’t overpromise.

It’s a big demand for a few words that have a nanosecond to grab your attention. So Monitor staffers were delighted to learn that their work recently won top honors from ACES: The Society for Editing, for the best headline portfolio among national publications in 2022. Second place went to The Washington Post, and third place to The Triton News.

Headlines face particular pressure in an era of news overload and “news avoiders” – the 38% of people in 2022 who sometimes or often stayed away from news, up from 29% in 2017, according to a Reuters Institute report. Factors behind that rise include a sense of being overwhelmed by stories that “darken their mood” and seem disconnected from society’s needs.

Monitor editors take countering that disconnect seriously with stories that plumb the outlooks and values driving news events – and with headlines that telegraph that added depth. Our stylebook entry on “headline guidance” is 15 paragraphs long. Every day, editors, who write most of our headlines, toss several options for their story into a “headline rodeo” for colleagues to critique.

We hope you’ll tell us when you like a particular headline, or find it wanting. In the meantime, here are the headlines that ACES said aced the job.

Moral math: Does 1 WNBA star = 1 arms dealer?

Welcome to the office, Gen Z. You’re the only one here.

What’s booming in wartime Odesa? Laughter.

‘Democrats woke a sleeping giant’: Why parents say they’ve had enough

I needed a fence builder. He turned out to be a rock star.

On Broadway: This musician is in the pits, but far from blue 

‘Beacon of freedom’ or ‘Loudocracy’? How Florida became culture war central.

Daisies and daggers: In Saudi mountains, garlands crown the brave

To fish is to live just a moment in the future

One country, two histories: What does it mean to be an American?