Head, subhead — huh?

My response to a student who Googled “head” and “subhead” —

A “head” is short for headline or header, which is made up of three to six or so words with a subject and verb — usually the big type above a newspaper article. It can also be the title of a journal piece.

The subhead is short for subheadline, which goes beneath the headline and is in smaller type and uses more words but still relates to the article. (Sub means under. Think submarine, which means “under water.”) I should note that the subheadline gives more information about the article and doesn’t just repeat what the headline says. Together they answer most of the 5Ws and 1H.

For example:

HEADLINE (“head”): Troops, police attack post-quake looting

SUBHEADLINE (“subhead”): Chilean officials struggle to aid victims of a quake that killed more than 700 people.

Who: Chilean officials
What: The struggle to aid victims amidst looting
When: After the earthquake
Where: Chile
Why: Because the quake was deadly — killed more than 700 people
How: By attacking the post-quake looting

When you write your head and subhead, be sure that they sum up what’s going on with your story. Copyeditors at newspapers are typically those who write headlines, and they’re quite clever. A copyeditor I know wrote the headline, “Grinding to a Halt,” about a school’s ban on bump-and-grinding at school dances. Another wrote “Mounting Danger,” about a hiking trip gone wrong.

NOTE:
• Headlines online tend to be less creative and more straight-forward so that readers will more easily find the stories through searches.
• Those hoping their articles will be placed high on Google will use a key term in the headline, subheadline and first paragraph of the story. This is known as web or search engine optimization.
• Online, headlines change as the news develops. For example, the headline to the story above is now, “Tsunami sweeps away entire towns on Chilean coast.”