The anatomy of an NPR headline

At the Public Editor's Office, we routinely hear from audience members who take issue with NPR headlines. Vocal about their discontent, they let us know when they believe a headline was poorly framed or unfair. Sometimes, a keen-eyed reader will notice that a headline has changed, and ask why.

Headlines do a lot of work. They serve as entry points into NPR's journalism on the internet. And they help online search engines match stories to users. But headlines usually communicate a single idea, even though the news article that follows usually contains much more. All of that means that headlines are high-stakes business. When they work, news consumers get to the stories they want to read. But when headlines fall short, some news consumers feel let down.

For this installment of the News Literacy Edition of the NPR Public Editor newsletter, we explore how headlines are written at NPR, and what makes for good ones. We talked to a chief desk editor, a managing editor, a podcast executive producer and a podcast host to get a peek into the process, so stick with us to learn how NPR crafts headlines. — Amaris Castillo

Hardly a week goes by that we don't receive audience comments about headlines. Below is a sampling of the queries we've received:

Chris Freeman wrote on March 15: Hi I am writing to ask NPR to not be so "neutral" in its headlines. Trump and co's efforts are not in good faith and are fascist and harmful. I want NPR's headlines to reflect that. On the article I linked , it simply says that Arlington Cemetery is removing some historic figures from its website. This is neutral and sounds like just dumb boring news that is some random change they made. Better headlines would be something like "in fascist move, Arlington Cemetery removes people of color from website," or "in attempt to whitewash history as part of Trump's and the far-right's authoritarian takeover, Arlington Cemetery removes names of historic non-white historic from its website."

Last fall, one NPR story on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health garnered many complaints, including for the headline, which read, "RFK Jr. wants to 'Make America Healthy Again.' He could face a lot of pushback."

Alice Gribble wrote on Nov. 15: How did this headline make it through the editorial process? A person might come away from this headline thinking that this guy is not bat$*# crazy and not dangerous to public health. That's the definition of sanewashing. Completely unacceptable.

Our analysis determined that particular story and headline were too soft, ignoring Kennedy's flawed views of health science until deep into the article. In that case, the headline actually reflected the tone of the article.

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Across NPR's website, you'll find headlines of all kinds: Some pose a question, others point readers to very practical information, and some headlines are factual and concise. Headlines usually come about as a collaboration between the reporter and the editors.

Patrick Wood, chief editor, general assignment desk at NPR, told us that the process can vary across NPR's many different teams and departments.

"Reporters work closely with a specific editor on their story and together they bring all the elements together," Wood told us. "This is different from how, say, many newspaper newsrooms have traditionally operated, where a reporter would file to a central copy editing team that would write the headline that appears in the print edition the next day."

On Wood's current team, reporters draft the initial headline on the first draft of their story, then follow up with a discussion with their editor.

"The editor will edit the copy. They'll also look at the headline, and they may change the headline based on all the usual editorial considerations," Wood said. "And then they'll have a discussion with the reporter about like, 'Hey, what do you think about this?' Or 'What do you think about that?' And the reporter will have their input. And between them, they will settle on what they think is the perfect headline for that story."

Stories that air on All Things Considered get two different headlines, Wood told us. (Until recently he was the digital lead of NPR's flagship evening news magazine.) The first batch of headlines shows up on top of each story listed on the daily rundown that appears on the ATC landing page. The headlines for each audio segment, he explained, are typically written either by the editor who worked on the story or a producer.

Wood said these headlines are quite basic. They are accurate and fair, but they aren't usually catchy or stylish, because the audience doesn't see them very often.

"They're more likely to hear (the story) in the car or on the radio. Or even if they're listening on the app, they're less likely to see those headlines," he said.

The NPR headline cited by the letter writer Chris Freeman appeared atop a brief digital story about Arlington National Cemetery stripping content on Black, Hispanic and female veterans from its website. The same headline, "Arlington National Cemetery stops highlighting some historical figures on its website," appeared on the All Things Considered March 15 rundown, to mark a two-way conversation on the controversy between host Rob Schmitz and Pentagon reporter Tom Bowman. But NPR never did a larger digital buildout of that story, so a stronger headline was never written.

Some audio stories get a second, more fleshed-out headline. The transcript of the audio story is refashioned into a traditional text-based news story. Often, photos or other visual elements are added, as well.

"Those are the ones that get promoted on the homepage or on social media or Apple News, or any of those aggregators you might see," Wood said.

The second kind of headline happens only for audio stories that have a more robust digital buildout and extra photos.

"And so when there is a story that is fully produced with photos, and that's going to be more of that reading experience that we expect people to do on the homepage, those headlines probably do get more time put into them," Wood said.

One recent example would be a story from reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento on one of President Donald Trump's executive orders. The headline read: "Trump wants to restore statues and monuments. Will that happen?"

When that story aired on Morning Edition, the headline was simpler: "Trump signs order to 'restore' American history with Smithsonian Institution overhaul."

Over at NPR's Planet Money and its short daily podcast The Indicator, headlines are meant to explain complicated economic stories in simple ways that will entice people into the story. Here's a few recent examples.

• How nonprofits get cash from your clunker
• How many times can you say uncertainty in one economic report?
• The controversy over Tyson Foods' hiring of asylum seekers

Alex Goldmark, executive producer of Planet Money and The Indicator, told us that for every episode, he and his team realize they're asking listeners to give the shows their precious time. So they work hard to make sure that it's worth it.

"We want people to know what they're getting, and when they listen because of a headline, to have gotten what they were looking for, or better," he said.

Planet Money host and reporter Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi said the process of writing headlines varies for every reporter on the team. He calls himself one of the "more obsessive headline people" who begins to think about a headline at the story pitch. His Planet Money episodes will sometimes garner 40 to 50 possible headlines.

Horowitz-Ghazi said he and his team discuss headlines in a message thread within the Slack channel for a given episode. It's a way to chronicle different entry points into the story. His colleagues vote with emojis. Sometimes, a clear winner emerges. Often, he said, the top contenders for a headline (usually between three and five) will be polled in the show's main channel — and they let their Planet Money and The Indicator colleagues vote as feedback on which would work.

After all that, Horowitz-Ghazi said the reporter and editor decide together which headline should go on top of the episode and story.

The goal of a good headline is multipronged, according to Thomas Evans, managing editor, editorial review, who joined NPR last fall to lead the creation of what's called the "Backstop." It helps the audience "find the stories they want to hear, read or view and discover stories they might not have been aware of before coming to NPR."

Evans told us in an email that all of NPR content, including headlines, should be submitted to Editorial Review before publication or broadcast. With headlines, an editor on his team looks for clarity, accuracy and tone.

Headlines seem to work best when they are written by journalists who understand the complete story and enjoy writing them. Horowitz-Ghazi said coming up with them is one of his favorite parts of his job.

When crafting a headline, Horowitz-Ghazi said his ideal is a joke, or something clever and witty that captures the spirit of a story, or the question of a story. Sometimes they're punny homages to other pieces of work. In 2024, for example, Horowitz-Ghazi worked on a Planet Money episode about vaping regulations. The headline: "The Vapes of Wrath." He went back and forth on ideas for naming another episode, this one from 2022, on manatees and their attraction to power plants. At one point, Horowitz-Ghazi was leaning toward "Till the Sea Cows Come Home," which he thought felt poetic. But the team ended up settling on: " How Manatees Got Into Hot Water."

That last one, he liked even better than his original suggestion. — Amaris Castillo

The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.

Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute

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