The use of headlines in our online world is an excellent marker of the new democratisation of mass communication.

In the days of old (pre mid-1990s), headlines were the preserve of newspaper subeditors, many of who took great delight in the use of puns. Of course, the UK tabloids majored in this and some headlines are the stuff of legend: “Gord Help Us Now” (Gordon Brown moves into No. 10), “Moron Terror” (four people found guilty of London bombings), Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic are Atrocious (Inverness Caledonian Thistle football team beats Celtic).

When newspapers ruled, public relations consultants lucky enough to get their press release noticed by a news editor were unlikely to ever see their chosen headline in bold font.  A junior reporter would have gone out of his or her way to change the wording as much as possible to justify their by-line – something I was often guilty of as a young provincial journo.

Nowadays, this monopoly has been replaced with a free for all but headlines are still equally as important, just for different reasons than in the last century.

We communications consultants, of course, still want our press releases read by news editors and our email subject lines need to be as captivating as possible.

However, we – and every other person who communicates online – can use free services to post our news (Scoop / From the Horses Mouth); use stakeholder email networks; post our news on our own websites and in blogs; and direct people to those postings using tweets.

We are no longer so reliant on traditional news media to get our messages across. However, this freedom comes with responsibility. Responsibility for quality control plus a responsibility to gain at least a passing knowledge of search engine criteria.

Googling the subjects of the news stories referred to in the puns above would be unlikely to result in links to the articles themselves; because many search engines use headlines as search tools. Search engines don’t appreciate the subtle (or often not so subtle) nature of puns. Our online headlines need to reflect the article content otherwise our news is lost in the Bermuda triangle of page 2 (or 3 or 4) of a search engine result. To get direct hits we have to be direct.

Quality control is also no longer the domain of a subeditor. Sadly, for a pedant like myself, the passion for grammar is a dying art. This is blatantly obvious during any foray online. But pedantic grumbling aside, it does pay to get the basics of your headline correct otherwise it reflects badly on your organisation or the one you’re promoting.

A recent example of how it can go badly wrong without quality control recently appeared in a press release posted on Scoop: “Church Kids Raid Panty's for Foodbank Supplies”.

The headline probably meant that most people actually read the content. But was hand-over-the-mouth laughter the desired response when the charity actually wanted recognition for its work in helping children learn about social justice? Probably not.  Agreed this was a small charity with very limited resources however anyone putting out a press release is more accountable than, say, a teenager using a chat forum.

And communications professionals have tenfold or hundredfold more accountability than non-for-profits. We have to ensure that everything we do reflects well on our clients and doesn’t damage their brand or reputation in any way. There are enough pedants in the older generations (and I include myself as Gen-X in here) for grammar still to matter to how a person or organisation is perceived.

So to get noticed in the online world our words still need to be clever; just not too clever.