The headline tips on this site are helpful and accurate, as a good headline should be.
For editors writing headlines, it is sometimes easy to slip and write something with double meaning. Or it might make perfect sense to someone who has already read the story, but to a reader who doesn't already know what the story contains, the headline could be misleading. This happens more often than desired and should be watched. It is very important to give the reader as much information as possible in only a few words of the headline. The most important thing about headlines is to be accurate to the story it belongs to.
Headlines for online content and e-mails are completely different than print headlines. It is forced to stand on its own with nothing else to get the message across to the reader. Online headlines are often taken out of their context by being placed on lists on a home page or on the "Top Stories" tab, so it is crucial for these headlines to grab the readers. With online, it is especially important to stray from cute headlines because they can be misleading. Also in online headlines, articles like "the" and "a" should be avoided because they just take up space. Like with print headlines, it is very important to be accurate.
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