The Autopsy of a Failed New York Times Headline
By: Philip S. Naudus
Tags: Writing, Content Creation, Marketing, Koalaty Writing, Headlines

The Autopsy of a Failed New York Times Headline

After the New York Times botched their own headline, the ensuing mess was so traumatic that it took Jonah Berger — one of the top five marketing researchers in the world — to help the company recover from this terrible mistake (Images by author/freepik/favpng/seekpng)

In 2008, the New York Times approached Jonah Berger, professor of marketing at UPenn’s Wharton School of Business. They had hinged everything on the expectation that their featured article of the month would go viral, but it flopped. Its performance had been embarrassingly poor, and they needed to know why.

The article had followed the secret recipe for vitality. It started with a touching story about a 9/11 victim. It was published on September 8th, the day when these stories have the greatest chance of success. It had been meticulously researched, and it called upon Americans everywhere to remember the most tragic event millennials have witnessed.

Dr. Berger pulled up the article on his computer and shook his head upon seeing the title — Maimed on 9/11, Trying to Be Whole Again. It was far too emotional.

Too emotional? The representative from the New York Times could hardly believe what she was hearing. Her company had been writing headlines for over 170 years, and they had constantly reminded their staff that sensationalism makes people click, read, and share. An unemotional headline is like a bathroom without toilet paper.

Still, Dr. Berger insisted that the headline was problematic. To prove his point, he proposed that visitors would randomly be shown one of two headlines — either the original title or Trying to be Better Again.

Could such a bland title possibly get attention? But to everyone’s surprise, Dr. Berger’s revised headline worked. Clicks, reads, and shares of the generically titled article far surpassed its sensational counterpart.

Dr. Berger explains that Trying to be Better Again doesn’t give the reader any incentive to click, but that’s precisely why it did well. The original title was so overly optimized that readers shunned it like a prom queen avoiding desperate teenage boys.

Or, to be more specific, the original title contained a deactivating emotion. Negativity can attract an audience — just look at how the most recent US presidential election was almost entirely focused on negativity — but pessimistic headlines will only get noticed if they trigger a “fight or flight” response. Anger, anxiety, and awe are all activating emotions. They power us up and make the reader prepared to click, read, and share.

But when you include deactivating emotions in your title, you might as well use your naked grandma as the cover image. Although there’s nothing wrong with being sad, content, or peaceful, please don’t do it in a headline. The more you optimize a deactivating title to make it clickable, the more the reader will feel compelled to pull away.

Was it something I said? (Jonatan Pie/Unsplash)

Sentimental articles can go viral, but be sure to conceal the deactivating emotions properly. Although it might sound counterintuitive, touching stories work best with unemotional titles. If you must make a sensational appeal, choose a title that promises resentment, alarm, or danger — but not tears.

If you engage in headline optimization, you’re probably doing it all wrong. I’m sure you know what it’s like to make a list that looks like this:

This 9/11 Survivor Has a Touching Story to Tell

Will We Ever Forget the Greatest Tragedy of Our Generation?

Trying to be Better Again

Maimed on 9/11, Trying to Be Whole Again

Do you see how all but one of these headlines contains a deactivating emotion? Yet, most of us would instinctively shun the one option that an ivy league professor of marketing conclusively proved to be superior.

There’s an important piece of psychology that explains why expert writers can craft beautifully constructed prose, but can’t write a decent headline to save their lives. I previously wrote about how a psychologist asked participants to choose one of two chocolates — one was in the shape of a large cockroach valued at $2, while the other was a small heart that retailed for $0.50. The overwhelming majority of respondents chose the $2 cockroach, as it was more valuable. But afterward, many of these participants were unable to enjoy their selection.

When the $2 cockroach and $0.50 heart were placed next to one another, the roach appeared desirable. But once the heart was removed, what remained was disgusting.

This explains why headline optimization is, for many people, a pointless exercise. As you experiment with word choice, you swap out adjectives to make the title more emotional, more eye-popping, and more visceral.

Not emotional enough? Perhaps I should mention that I’m a starving serial killer (rawpixel)

As you progress down this path, you become convinced that each option is better than the previous one. But in reality, all you’re doing is making a really, really big cockroach. When you finally present your “perfect” headline to the world, your readers don’t see the thought process that led to this piece of garbage. All they see is a filthy insect.

Far too many articles use the format You’ll Never Guess the Three Shocking Points Contained in This Article. These headlines are easy to write. And if you’re lazy, this is your ticket to success. But don’t be fooled — readers know how to spot an uncommitted writer when they see one.

There’s nothing wrong with using headline analyzers or the so-called power words that make people click. When I’m feeling particularly sluggish, I’ll paste my working title into Google and check out the most SEO-friendly headlines.

But keep in mind that these cheap solutions might push you toward an overly sensational title. The most difficult part of headline optimization is knowing which emotion to invoke — if emotions should be used at all.

Dude, chill — it’s a cucumber (Didier Provost/Unsplash)

Far too many writers overthink and over-sensationalize their titles. When Dr. Berger used a bot to analyze the most-clicked headlines on the Internet, he discovered that over 80% of the top-performing articles had titles that were strikingly straightforward and emotionless.

In fact, there’s a fine line between a headline that goes viral and one that flops. In my next article, I’ll reveal the best and worst headlines Dr. Berger found across the Internet — and I’ll give concrete examples for what titles you should use.