Subscriber Discussion

Techcrunch Authors Have No Say In Their Article Titles??? Crazy?

JB
Jeremiah Boughton
Sep 15, 2014

Does this just happen at TechCrunch? I doubt it.

I'm surprised TechCrunch has not taken this Authors comments down yet. To me, an article title is part of the article. If the Title is not by the Author, then the title should be credited by whoever came up with the title. I read the title last night and thought...wow what Clickbait and was shocked it was not even from a full-time TC blogger but a guest blogger who should be fair and balanced per his profession. Clickbait no longer bothers me. What bothers me is more of the integrity of the headline and article. Thoughts?

Article

Mobile Payments Are Finally A Reality Thanks To Apple

MM
Marty Major
Sep 15, 2014

The author of the TechCrunch article is quite specific about the fact that writers generally do not write the headlines to their stories. He even states, to the point, that most writers would tell you this.

As he mentions, this is pretty standard - it is almost always editors that write headlines.

I have seen some high-profile columnists (Glenn Greenwald, of NSA/Snowden fame as an example - not just a contributing writer) who have clauses in their contracts that give them complete control over everything they write - including headlines... but this is extremely rare.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 15, 2014
IPVM

I am not sure if he is saying he has literally 'no say'. Maybe he does not, maybe he did not try.

It seems the issue is that the title is extremely strong, "Mobile Payments Are Finally A Reality Thanks To Apple," which sounds like the Apple PR team wrote it.

Editors need to have the ability to edit / change all parts of publications but choosing a title like that is begging for problems.

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RW
Rukmini Wilson
Sep 15, 2014

Although reading Jason "TechCrunch" Kincaid's “The Burned-Out Blogger’S Guide To PR”, (Jeremiah's Alternate Book Selection for Sept.), one gets the sense that Mr. Kincaid at least, rolls his own:

Though this comment is directed at PR people, the rightgeous indignation theme is a sentiment that is repeated throughout the book.  Of course, editors, far more so than reporters, have meta considerations when creating/modifying/approving headlines, (such as other recent stories, projecting a certain tone, legal ramifications etc), so it is inevitable that they would need to edit headlines, just like any other copy.  

But are even MOST headlines created by editors without even a writers suggestion? Maybe it depends on the reporter...

U
Undisclosed #1
Sep 15, 2014

Techcrunch is dead. They lost their edge 3 years ago, I forgot all about them.

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