Headline examples: 150 headlines for news, features, blogs and ads

A headline is the line above a story that tells the reader what it's about, in as few words as that takes. A news headline gives the main fact with a concrete subject and an active verb: “Wexley council approves $4.2 million library expansion.” A feature headline can play with words because a deck underneath explains, and a blog or search headline names the reader's problem in the words they would type. Below are 150 headline examples sorted by where they run: 12 famous ones, then 138 originals with invented towns and figures.

For the method behind them (types, formulas, tense and punctuation), see how to write a headline. If you mean the line under your name on a professional profile, that is a different job, covered in LinkedIn headline examples.

Here is what that looks like for one invented council vote. The facts stay the same in all three; what the reader needs first changes with where they meet the headline.

Famous headlines and their lessons

Twelve real headlines, quoted as they are usually reproduced, with the publication and date. Some are famous for being brilliant, and some for being wrong. Both kinds teach something.

1. “MEN WALK ON MOON” — The New York Times, July 21, 1969. Four plain words, set in very large type, for a story that needed no selling. The bigger the news, the simpler the words can be.
2. “Wall St. Lays an Egg” — Variety, October 30, 1929. The entertainment trade paper put the crash in the everyday idiom for an embarrassing failure. A headline in its readers' voice, not a financial paper's.
3. “Sticks Nix Hick Pix” — Variety, July 17, 1935. Rural audiences (the sticks) reject (nix) films (pix) about rural life (hicks). Perfectly clear to Variety's readers and to almost nobody else, which is the risk of shorthand.
4. “Dewey Defeats Truman” — Chicago Daily Tribune, November 3, 1948. Printed in the first edition before most results were in. Truman won, and on November 4 he was photographed holding up a copy at St. Louis Union Station. A headline shouldn't be surer than the facts.
5. “Ford to City: Drop Dead” — Daily News (New York), October 30, 1975. Ford never said “drop dead”; he said he would veto a federal bailout of the city. The colon form reads like a quotation, so a paraphrase became the line everyone remembered.
6. “Mush from the Wimp” — The Boston Globe, March 15, 1980. An in-house joke over an editorial on President Carter's anti-inflation plan, meant to be replaced. About 161,000 copies went out before it was. Never type a placeholder you couldn't defend in print.
7. “Gotcha” — The Sun, May 4, 1982. One word on the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, toned down in later editions as reports of heavy loss of life came in. The facts can be right and the tone still wrong.
8. “Headless Body in Topless Bar” — New York Post, 1983. Vincent Musetto's five words for a murder story. Two matching adjectives give it a rhythm that's hard to forget. Musetto himself preferred another of his headlines, “Granny Slain in Pink Pajamas.”
9. “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster” — The Sun, March 13, 1986. Specific, funny and false: Starr later called the story “a complete fabrication.” A great headline can't rescue a story that isn't true.
10. “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” — The New York Times, April 10, 1986, over a column by Flora Lewis. So dull that within a month The New Republic was asking readers to nominate a more boring headline. It labels a topic and gives nobody a reason to read.
11. “Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious” — The Sun's Scottish edition, February 2000, after Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic 3–1 in the Scottish Cup. The pun on “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” works because readers already know the song.
12. “Wir sind Papst!” (“We are Pope!”) — Bild, 2005, on the election of the German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. Three words that turned a vote in Rome into national news.

Notice how many of the famous ones are wordplay: an idiom, a rhyme, a pun. They work in print, beside a photo, for readers who already know the story. The examples that follow are built for the harder job most headlines do now, which is making sense alone in a feed, a search result or an inbox.

News headline examples

Straight news headlines in the usual newsroom grammar: present tense for things that happened, “to” plus a verb for things that will, no “a” or “the” where they can go. The towns, people and figures are invented.

Local government

13. “Wexley council approves $4.2 million library expansion” — Who, what and how much: the three facts readers scan for.
14. “County to add 12 bus routes in March” — “To” plus a verb is headline shorthand for the future, and the month answers “when?”
15. “Mayor vetoes plan to close Fifth Street to cars” — The actor and the act come first. The details fit after.
16. “School board cuts late buses to save $380,000” — The decision and its reason in one line, with the number people will argue about.
17. “Water rates to rise 6% on July 1” — Answers the reader's two questions: how much, and from when.
18. “Council delays vote on short-term rental limits” — A delay is news when readers were planning around the vote.

Courts and crime

19. “Jury convicts former church treasurer of stealing $210,000” — The verb carries the outcome, and the amount sets the scale.
20. “Police: driver was texting before fatal crash” — The colon attributes the claim, so the paper isn't asserting it as fact.
21. “Judge blocks county's new voting map” — Six words, one ruling, and the reader knows what is on hold.
22. “Man charged with arson in warehouse fire” — “Charged,” not “guilty”: the verb matches the stage of the case.
23. “Lawsuit says landlord ignored mold complaints for two years” — “Says” keeps an allegation an allegation.

Business

24. “Calder Mills to close, cutting 340 jobs” — The second half is what most readers care about.
25. “Grocery chain buys 18 stores from rival for $95 million” — Buyer, deal size and price, in the order a business reader wants them.
26. “Fairhaven rents fall for the first time in five years” — The comparison is the news. A bare figure wouldn't be.
27. “Local bakery wins state contract to supply school bread” — A small business in a big story, named by what it does.
28. “Airport adds direct flights to Denver and Atlanta” — Names the destinations, the only part most readers look for.

Weather and emergencies

29. “Storm cuts power to 40,000 homes” — The number of homes affected comes before the meteorology.
30. “Boil-water order lifted for the east side” — Tells readers what they can do again, and where.
31. “Wildfire forces 2,000 to evacuate near Pine Ridge” — Who, how many and where. The fire's size can wait for the first paragraph.
32. “Schools closed Tuesday as ice storm moves in” — The fact readers need first, then the reason.

Science and health

33. “Study links night shifts to higher blood pressure in nurses” — “Links” claims an association, not a cause. Write “causes” only when the study shows it.
34. “County confirms first measles case in a decade” — “Confirms” tells readers the source is official, and the time span says why it matters.
35. “River otters return to the Calder after 60 years” — Good news gets a plain verb too. The time span carries the surprise.
36. “Mercy General to stop delivering babies in June” — The service and the date are what families need to plan.

Schools and elections

37. “Graduation rate rises to 91% at Wexley High” — Gives the new figure. The story can give the old one.
38. “University freezes tuition for third straight year” — “Third straight” turns a routine decision into a trend.
39. “Teachers vote to strike if no deal by Friday” — A condition and a deadline: the story that matters is what happens on Friday.
40. “Ortiz wins mayor's race by 212 votes” — When the race is close, the margin is the story.
41. “Recount confirms Ortiz win” — A follow-up can be four words, because readers already know the race.
42. “Voters approve $60 million bond for new middle school”

Feature and profile headlines

Features are read for the experience, not the news, so their headlines can set a mood, tease a mystery or play with words. The price is that most of them need a deck, the smaller line underneath (a standfirst in Britain), to say what the piece is about. Two of the examples show one.

43. “The last bell” — with the deck “After 112 years, Calder's foundry casts its final church bell.” Three words work only because the deck says what they mean.
44. “She fixes clocks nobody else will touch” — A profile headline built on what makes the person unusual.
45. “What 30 years of weather diaries say about Wexley's winters” — The source is the hook: readers want to see the diaries.
46. “Inside the warehouse where lost luggage ends up” — “Inside” promises access to a place readers can't go.
47. “The town that voted to stop mowing” — A whole community as the character, with one strange decision.
48. “How a dairy barn became a concert hall” — The transformation is the story, so it's the headline.
49. “He was fired by text. Then he sued.” — Two short sentences build tension one line can't. Features can bend headline grammar, periods included.
50. “Eleven hours on the night bus” — A duration promises immersion.
51. “The recipe card in Grandma's coat pocket” — One object stands in for a family story.
52. “Why Fairhaven's lighthouse keeper never left” — “Why” plus a person sets up a mystery the profile solves.
53. “Ninety cows, two brothers, one will” — with the deck “A farm, a family and the inheritance fight splitting Calder County.” The list of three sketches a feud before the deck names it.
54. “A year without a grocery store” — An absence the reader can picture at once.
55. “The teenagers who run the town's radio station” — The surprise is who, not what.
56. “What the flood left in the library” — Concrete and open at the same time. The story fills in the objects.
57. “The woman who names every new street in Calder County” — A job the reader never knew existed.

For whole features built behind headlines like these, see the feature story examples.

Sports headline examples

Sports readers often know the score already. The headline has to add the part they don't know: how it happened, what it means, what's next.

58. “Calder rallies from 17 down to win state title” — The comeback margin is the drama. The title is the result.
59. “Okafor scores 40 as Wexley reaches final”
60. “Rain halts county final with Fairhaven up 2–1” — The score at the stoppage is what fans need to know.
61. “Coach Lindqvist steps down after 22 seasons” — When a coach leaves, the length of the tenure is the story.
62. “Harbor High stuns top seed 3–0” — “Stuns” is earned only because the facts, top seed and 3–0, back it up.
63. “Rookie's late goal keeps playoff hopes alive” — Timing (“late”) and stakes (“playoff hopes”) do the work.
64. “Marathon winner misses course record by 11 seconds” — A near miss can make a better headline than a win.
65. “The streak ends at 41” — Short, for readers who have been following the streak for weeks.
66. “Club to build $8 million stadium on old rail yard” — Sports news that is really city news, written as city news.
67. “Two-sport star picks soccer over football” — The choice is the story, and both sides have fans who want to know.

Opinion and editorial headlines

An opinion headline states the argument, so readers know what they are agreeing or disagreeing with before the first paragraph. The op-ed examples show the columns that go under headlines like these.

68. “Fix the bus routes before buying new buses” — The position is in the headline, as an instruction.
69. “The library expansion is worth $4.2 million” — Names the claim and the price, so the column has something to prove.
70. “Our schools don't need more tests. They need more time.” — The turn in the second sentence is the argument.
71. “Wexley can't afford to lose its only hospital” — Frames the stakes for the whole town, not one group.
72. “Why I'm voting no on the stadium bond” — First person fits a signed column and promises reasons.
73. “Let teenagers sleep: start high school at 9” — The value, then the policy, split by a colon.
74. “The bridge is safe. The process wasn't.” — Concedes one point to make a sharper one.
75. “A rent cap would help this year and hurt in five” — Nuance fits in a headline when the time frames are concrete.
76. “Stop calling it a pilot program” — An objection to a phrase signals an argument about honesty.
77. “Letters: readers on the stadium vote” — A label is right for a letters page, where readers want the range of views.

Blog post headline examples

Blog headlines usually meet the reader in a search result or a feed, so they promise something specific and keep it. The blog post examples show the openings and outlines that go with each type.

How-to headlines

78. “How to price your first freelance editing job” — A specific reader at a specific moment.
79. “How to write a query letter in an afternoon” — A time limit makes the promise measurable.
80. “How to clean cast iron without ruining the seasoning” — “Without” names the fear the reader brought to the search.
81. “How to read a nutrition label in 30 seconds” — Small, fast and checkable.
82. “How to back up your manuscript, and test that it worked” — The second half is the step most people skip, so it's the reason to click.

List headlines

83. “9 questions to ask before you hire a contractor” — A numbered list framed around a decision, not a topic.
84. “17 hikes under 5 miles within an hour of Portland” — Three filters in one line: length, distance and place.
85. “12 cookbooks that taught us to cook, not just follow recipes” — The contrast says what kind of cookbook made the list.
86. “7 mistakes first-time landlords make, and what each one costs” — The cost turns a list of mistakes into a reason to read.
87. “25 picture books for kids who say they hate reading” — Names the exact child the parent is worried about.

Questions and comparisons

88. “Do you need a literary agent to publish a novel?” — A real question with a real answer, which the post gives in its first paragraph.
89. “Is a standing desk worth it? We used one for a year” — The second sentence says why this answer deserves trust.
90. “What does a copy editor actually change?” — “Actually” promises to clear up a misunderstanding.
91. “Electric vs gas mowers: the real cost after five years” — A comparison, plus the criterion that decides it.
92. “Paperback or hardcover first? What debut authors should know”

Stories, data and guides

93. “How one dental office halved its no-shows with a text message” — A case study headline: who, what result, by what means.
94. “We tried a four-day week for six months. Here's what happened” — An experiment with a duration. The reader wants the result.
95. “What I learned writing 1,000 words a day for a year” — Personal, specific and long enough to have taught something.
96. “We timed 200 checkouts. Here's what slowed people down” — Original data, with the sample size up front.
97. “The beginner's guide to sourdough, from starter to first loaf” — The range of the guide is in the headline.
98. “Everything to check before you adopt a rescue dog” — A checklist promise for a big decision.
99. “Stop writing mission statements nobody reads” — An opinion post that picks a fight with a habit.
100. “Your About page is about you. That's the problem” — A twist on the page's own name makes the argument.
101. “In defense of the boring headline” — A contrarian title aimed squarely at people who write headlines.
102. “The 2026 freelance rates survey: what 1,200 writers charge”

SEO title examples

The title tag is the headline a page gets in search results and browser tabs, and it can differ from the headline on the page. Google says there is no limit on how long a title element can be, but it shortens long titles to fit the screen, and it suggests setting the site name apart with a hyphen, colon or pipe. Character counts are given for each.

103. “How to write a cover letter, with 8 examples | Letterbright” — 59 characters. The keyword first and the brand last, where a cut costs least.
104. “Sourdough starter: feeding schedule and fixes” — 45 characters. The words people type, then what the page adds.
105. “Best hiking boots for wide feet, tested for 300 miles | Bootfield” — 65 characters. On a narrow screen the end is what gets cut, which is why the brand goes there.
106. “Gas vs electric dryer: cost per load compared” — 45 characters. “Vs” is how people search for comparisons, so the title uses it.
107. “Wexley Public Library: hours, locations and events” — 50 characters. A local title lists exactly what visitors look up.
108. “Evening dentist in Fairhaven | Brindle Street Dental” — 52 characters. Service, feature and place: the three parts of a local search.
109. “What is a nut graf? Definition and 6 examples” — 45 characters. The question as people type it, then the format of the answer. (A nut graf is the paragraph that says why a story matters.)
110. “Roof repair cost in 2026, by type of job | Roofledger” — 53 characters. The year tells searchers the prices are current. Update it, or it ages the page.
111. “Chicken thigh internal temperature for juicy, safe meat” — 55 characters. Two goals that pull against each other, which is exactly the cook's worry.
112. “Spanish for travel: 200 phrases with audio | Lingoshelf” — 55 characters. The format, audio, is a reason to pick this result over the next one.

Email subject line examples

A subject line is a headline read in a list of other subject lines, all competing for the same glance. It has to say what is inside, and it can't lean on a picture or a deck.

113. “Your March invoice is ready” — A transactional email: plain beats clever, because the reader is looking for it.
114. “The 3 books we couldn't put down in May” — A number and a month make a newsletter issue feel specific.
115. “Last day for early-bird tickets” — Real urgency, said plainly and only once.
116. “Thursday's workshop moved to 6 p.m.” — The change is the whole message, so it's the whole subject line.
117. “You left something in your cart” — A reminder, not a pitch.
118. “The bond vote, explained in 4 minutes” — A time promise for a topic readers feel they ought to understand.
119. “Quick question about your manuscript” — A one-to-one email: short, specific and nothing to sell.
120. “We're raising prices on April 1. Here's why” — Bad news with the date and a promise of reasons.
121. “Issue 48: one comma, two meanings” — An issue number for regulars and a hook for everyone else.
122. “Your weekend reading, sorted by how long you have”
123. “A correction to Tuesday's issue” — Plain and accountable. A newsletter that corrects itself earns trust.
124. “5 dinners, 1 shopping list” — Parallel numbers make the value visible in five words.
125. “Still want these emails?” — A re-engagement email.

Ad and landing page headlines

On an ad or a landing page the headline makes the promise and the button collects on it, so write them together. The call to action examples are the other half of each pair. A measurable promise, such as “paid in days” or “pitches in 90 seconds,” also needs evidence before it runs: in the US, the FTC says claims in ads must be evidence-based.

126. “Send invoices that get paid in days, not months” — A benefit and a contrast. The second half is the pain.
127. “Payroll for restaurants, done before the dinner rush” — Names the customer and their worst hour of the day.
128. “Walking shoes you don't have to break in” — Removes the objection everyone has about new shoes.
129. “Your first bike tune-up is on us” — An offer as a headline, with its price stated: nothing.
130. “Order dinner in Spanish within 30 days” — A concrete outcome instead of “Learn Spanish fast.”
131. “Tax help from a real accountant, from $49” — Answers “who?” and “how much?” before the reader asks.
132. “Built for teams that hate meetings” — Picks a side, and the right customers recognize themselves.
133. “Stop losing receipts” — Three words, one pain.
134. “Fresh flowers delivered the same day across Denver” — Product, speed and area: what a last-minute buyer checks.
135. “A planner for people who've quit every planner” — Speaks to the reader's history, not the product's features.
136. “The tent that pitches in 90 seconds” — One measurable feature, chosen because it's the one campers complain about.
137. “Hire a vetted bookkeeper this week” — “Vetted” is a claim, so the page it leads to should say how.

Press release headline examples

A press release headline is written for an editor deciding in seconds whether there is a story. Name the organization and the news, with the number or detail that makes it worth covering. Full releases behind headlines like these are in the press release examples.

138. “Brindle Street Dental opens second Fairhaven clinic with evening hours” — Who, what and where, plus the detail patients care about.
139. “Wexley Public Library wins $250,000 grant for teen media lab”
140. “Quillmoor raises $12 million to open offices in Europe”
141. “Marrowby Tea recalls one batch of chamomile over labeling error” — A recall headline says what, how much and why, with no softening.
142. “Calder Food Bank served a record 18,000 families in 2025” — “Record” needs the comparison behind it, in the first paragraph.
143. “Debut novel by Fairhaven teacher shortlisted for state book award”
144. “Calder Writers' Conference announces 2027 dates and keynote speakers” — An event release leads with what's new, not just the event's name.

Report, essay and talk titles

Longer works get titles rather than headlines. They can be calmer, and most use a two-part form: a short phrase, then a subtitle that says exactly what the work covers.

145. “The cost of a missed appointment: two years of no-shows at three clinics” — A report title: the subject, then the evidence behind it.
146. “Fixing the commute: a plan for Wexley's bus network, 2027–2030” — A plan title with its scope and dates.
147. “Silence and the sea in To the Lighthouse” — An essay title: the angle and the text in eight words.
148. “What the river remembers: flooding in Calder County since 1900” — A hook, then a subtitle that says exactly what the history covers.
149. “Three things I wish I'd known before my first book launch” — A talk title: personal, numbered and useful to the people in the room.
150. “Why your onboarding emails get ignored, and five fixes” — A webinar title with a problem and a payoff.

Weak headlines, rewritten

Many weak headlines fail the same way: they name a topic instead of saying something about it. Here are eight first drafts and the versions that replaced them.

What the best examples share

The stronger examples share a few habits, whatever the medium:

• A concrete subject. A name, a place or a number: “Calder Mills,” “Fifth Street,” “340 jobs.” Not “changes” or “big news.”
• A verb that carries the news. Approves, closes, wins, recalls. In a feature, an image does the same job: the last bell, the coat pocket, the night bus.
• The reader's own words wherever a search box or an inbox is involved: “vs,” “how to,” “cost,” the name of the thing.
• Nothing withheld that the reader needs to decide whether to read. A teaser that hides the point spends trust the next headline will need.
• Certainty matched to the facts. “Links,” “says,” “charged” and “police:” are there because the story can't support more. Dewey did not defeat Truman.
• A deck when the headline plays. Wordplay is a loan against the reader's patience, and the deck pays it back.

Run the certainty check last, against the story itself. If you draft in Strokes, paste your candidates under the story and ask the Strokes Assistant to review them against it; it tells you which ones claim more than the story supports and which numbers don't match the text.