The Ryerson Review of Journalism has an interesting story about the dying art of writing tabloid headlines – classics like the New York Post’s “Headless body in topless bar” from 1983 and inadvertently funny ones like “Grandmother of eight makes hole in one.”

Variety, the entertainment industry newspaper, has been famous for its distinctive “slanguage” headlines including 1935’s “Sticks Nix Hicks Pix” (translation: movie goers in rural areas reject movies portraying rural life.)

One of the factors cited for the decline of the clever headline is the need to ensure an article is search engine optimized, driving maximum readership to the media outlet’s web content. Witty headlines like the Post’s engage and perhaps amuse, but without essential words like “murder” or “crime” it’s not search-friendly.

An article on the same theme by The New York Times titled “This boring headline is written for Google” found that many news organizations now write two headlines – one to engage the readers’ interest, the other to ensure optimal search results. So a Times in-paper sports headline runs as “It’s Chemistry Over Pedigree as Gators Roll to First Title” whereas on the web site it becomes “Gators Cap Run With First Title.”

Headlines have always needed to balance engagement and information. Now that balance includes being found by search engines. So to butcher a metaphor: if a headline falls in the forest and there’s no one around to find it, does it make a sound?

Answer: no.