NY Times Review

Inside the New York Times

The Film “Inside the New York Times” is a great look at the different departments and reporters that work for the newspaper. It goes into great depth about how the daily newspaper gets produced. When the documentary was made, the newspaper went through a great deal of budget cuts, which gave a more intense look at the business side of the paper. The film gives great insight for future journalists and people that want to know more about the newspaper industry. There were many topics and themes I took from the documentary.
One of the first main topics I took was the use of Twitter in journalism. Twitter is an ever-changing social media that trends very current, real life news that comes from everything from the average Joe, to celebrities. The New York Times surprised me by the documentary telling viewers how often the journalists are really on social media. It is a huge outlet for reporters to gain story leads, and ideas.
Another point I gained from the video is how professional and important the reporters were. I appreciated the “board meeting” that took place each and every afternoon to decide the papers story’s they were to run. It demonstrated the need for journalists and reporters to be on time. Deadlines are important. Group work is especially important. The idea of deadlines is important to papers because they want to be the first one out with the current trending story. The more viewers the paper can attract the better they’ll do in advertising, which will awards them with money. The professionalism of the paper is especially important because there story’s need to be correct, they need to have proper sources and they need to always investigate story and ideas.

A theme that surprised me was the office space for the journalists. Their workspace shocked me. The New York Times is one of the most respected and well-developed papers of our age. The workspace for their employees was very boring and plain with all of the cubicles the building had. I was expected a more creative feel like Google or many magazines have.

Toward the end of the movie, it was depressing to see the New York Times have to layoff people. Many businesses and corporations go through this at some point. I thought the CEO handled it very well however and used their resources wisely. The layoff section really opened my eyes to just how competitive this field is.
Inside the New York Times is a nice film that provides great depth into the journalism field. The inside look is very creative.

An Example of a Tabloid Layout

How to Write Strong Headlines

Headlines of a publication can account for up to 90% of the company’s advertising dollars (Quick Sprout). This is because headlines are reader’s initial impression of the story they are about to read. It will determine if the reader buys the story or chooses a competitor. A headline is simply not a title, the cherry on top of the content; it is the actual Sunday in which the story is built upon. Journalists must know how to write strong headlines in order to be successful.

The most basic question when writing a headline is, will this story make me want to read on? The headline should engage the reader so they purchase that publication. A headline should have a good trigger word to encourage future reading. Trigger words are words that are attention grabbers like; what, why, how, or when. These words can help a writer set up a theme for the story. Numbers are another form of attention grabbers. Numbers and statistics can make a story seem important and can cause opinion to start in readers. This trait will create a want to read future into the story for more information. Headlines do not repeat the lead in. They are something that highlights the story in a unique way. Finally, headlines must use interesting adjectives and must incorporate unique rational (goinswriter). When writing with adjectives and words with rational, it’s important that the writer grabs a specific focus. Using words like things and items make a piece of writing poor. Those words are not specific enough. Good adjectives are words like; painstakingly, incredible, and effortless.

Good content is key to strong headlines, but how do writers attention grab their audience? They use the four U’s. Unique, Ultra specific, sense of Urgency, and Useful. The first factor is Unique. If your headline does not stand out, it will not make it in the competitive market of journalism. The headline needs to be unique and stand out from the rest. The second factor is to have a headline be Ultra specific. By being specific, the reader will know if the story is right for them or not. The third factor is be have a sense of urgency. Being urgent will make the reader thing it’s the story is important to buy. The fourth factor is being Useful. A story needs to have a purpose. If the headline and article do not have a useful purpose then it is pointless to produce the story. In today’s current Internet usage, stories are produced frequently. If a story goes out, just to go out then the writer is not properly being a journalist. A headline being useful is helpful to wrap up the four U’s. A headline should be Unique, be Ultra specific, have sense of Urgency, and be Useful. The four U’s will attention grab customers effectively.

To write strong headlines, one must use different types for different stories. There are first direct and indirect headlines. CopyBlogger says direct headlines go, “straight to the heart of the matter, without any attempt at cleverness, whereas indirect headlines takes a more subtle approach. They use curiosity to raise a question in the reader’s mind, which the body-copy answers” (Copy Writing 101). There are also news and question headlines. News headlines are factual statements that egg-on readers to gain more information on the topic being written. Question headlines are ones in which a question is sparked to encourage further reading into the story. Use the correct type of headline to coincide with the content of the story.

Using good content, the four U’s, and proper headline types will create strong headlines. Strong headlines will sell stories. Strong headlines show strong journalism. The stronger a story is, will increase advertising money in publication. Good headlines are the foundation of a story.