Politis Pointer #7: Sometimes Circumstances Require a Longer Headline

Although the post below did not run originally as a Politis Pointer (when it first ran on DavidPolitis.com on February 2, 2007), I believe it’s worth re-posting here as part of The Betty Factor. Truth be told, sometimes you have to write a longer headline.

So with minor edits, here’s the original post.

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However, Sometimes Circumstances Require a Longer Headline

Notwithstanding Malcolm Atherton’s comment in our recent training meeting about the rule to keep headlines in news releases short in length, the truth is that sometimes reality trumps the rules. Here’s a case in point.

One of our clients at Politis Communications, HandHeld Entertainment (now ZVUE), notified us the other day that it was going to be adding a new “outside” member to its board of directors. Obviously, adding a board member is significant news, so we began drafting up a release.

Later that day we had the first draft completed and within 48 hours the release had been reviewed, edited and was ready to go out the door with (as it turns out) an eight-word headline.

Then at the last-minute, the top client contact (CEO, Jeff Oscodar) pointed out that the addition of this new board member would put the company back in compliance with NASDAQ regulations regarding the number of outside directors. This one observation was a critical point that had not been shared with us and led to a quick re-write of the headline, a modification of the lead sentence and the addition of a new sentence to the finished release.

TIP: 

So . . . although the rule of thumb is keep news release headlines shorter (eight words being the ideal length), there are exceptions to every rule, this one included.

Depending upon what needs to be accomplished, a longer headline may actually be required.

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NOTE:

The finished headline ended up with 20 words and 154 characters. In re-examining this headline today, I realized (in retrospect) that we could have accomplished the same basic results by re-writing the headline like this:

• “Addition of Outside Director Puts HandHeld Entertainment in Full Compliance with NASDAQ Regulations,”

instead of the original headline:

• “HandHeld Entertainment Appoints Recognized Industry Analyst to Board; Addition of Outside Director Puts Company in Full Compliance with NASDAQ Regulations.”

The re-written headline contains only 13 words and 99 characters. Better still, huh?

[DISCLOSURE: Our agency relationship with HandHeld/ZVUE officially came to an end in November 2007.]

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