In February Jer published a blog post announcing a great new addition to the GV WordPress interface: the post validation checklist.
A good tagline can heighten engagement in a story by arousing the reader's interest.
The tagline is the line just beneath the headline. It's also known as a subhead, strapline, or dek.
Our WordPress setup automatically limits the length of both excerpts and taglines—in the case of taglines the limit is 10 words. This makes them sometimes challenging to craft, but understanding the purpose of taglines and how they should work helps simplify the process.
The headline and tagline should work together as a unit. A good tagline:
A tagline is NOT:
In the post below, Afef reported on two bloggers in Mauritania who are facing criminal defamation charges for reporting on corruption. Given the seriousness of the issue and the brevity of the story, we chose a short, simple headline.
For the tagline, we selected one additional detail from the story that vividly illustrates the bloggers’ plight. Not only are they on trial, but it's been reported that they're not being treated fairly or given due process. One telling detail is that the prosecutors have offered no evidence to prove their case against the bloggers: they say that they had found evidence, but that it has since been “lost.” We used that detail in the tagline.
For this first-person piece by Laura Vidal, about GV contributor Luis Carlos Díaz, we chose a playful headline intended to attract readers by referencing a popular the ‘welcome to the internet’ meme.
The header photo works along with the other two elements to convey further information about the pair: namely, that they're young and that their work includes elements of humour and whimsy. It invites the reader to get to know them.
In this story by Alexey, the tagline adds a new and unexpected detail that complements a headline that's already delivering a lot of information.
For your next GV story, give taglines a try!