One Headline, 15 Ways

Pay attention to how you write headlines

Photo by Anastasia Zhenina on Unsplash

What’s in a headline? Almost everything, if you write it correctly. When you write a headline describing your brand-new Medium post, you’re carrying on a tradition that goes all the way back to 18th-century printers hanging their broadsheets out to dry.

But what is truly “correct” about a headline in a world saturated with media content? That depends on who you’re telling the story to, in which format. The challenge is to grab a reader’s eye — but not in a way that’s unexpected.

I’ll show you. I picked a topic and challenged myself to write a headline about it that conforms to the unique styles of at least 10 publications.

Here goes.

Topic: An apple pie recipe

Photo by Anna Tukhfatullina Food Photographer/Stylist

• AP Style (news) - Crowds overrun bakeries as highly anticipated apple pie hits the market
• AP Style (feature) - For Annie Perkins, popular apple pie is a labor of love
• Chicago Tribune - Pie maker Annie Perkins claims she didn’t know apple pie would cause riots, stands firm on sales
• The New York Times - Governor Cuomo Admits He Tried Apple Pie; Amount Unclear. “It’s No Big Deal,” He Says
• Coupon Insert Advertorial - Get the pie recipe all your friends have been raving about! You’ll never look at apples the same way again!
• Medium - A pie recipe changed my life, in all the worst ways
• Teen Vogue - How a popular apple pie recipe is destroying U.S. forests
• Facebook - Get the apple pie people are raving about. Click below to visit us and get the recipe.
• YouTube - This apple pie caused a riot in my mouth! Call the fire department!
• Twitter - Today I’m going to tell you how I burned my mouth on fresh apple pie. (Begin thread 1/1)
• Tiktok - I was today years old when I learned … you can put cheese on an apple pie!
• Woman’s Day (print edition, cover) - APPLE PIE reinvented: Annie SHOWS YOU HOW
• Women’s World (print edition, cover) - Lose 10 Inches in 3 weeks on The Apple Pie Diet! This One Works!
• Vogue - Apple Pie Gets Its Glow-Up: 3 New Lipstick Shades
• Cosmopolitan - The Key to Great Sex is in This Apple Pie

And there you have it. Fifteen headlines for 15 separate publications, all to tell the same story. Try it out yourself — it’s a good exercise in creating attention-getting headlines.