WHAS 11- Are Vague Titles Necessary?

Looking at the front page of WHAS11 online site, the fourth top story reads:

Her husband's plea for kidney donors went viral; now she's recovering from transplant

This story is on WHAS11, but I also found another story from The New York Times under their international category: 

A Store Had to Move Thousands of Books. So a Human Chain Was Formed.

These stories are two of a "clickbait" title trend that has been growing over the years and has reached national sites like the New York Times. These titles are intentionally vague as a marketing ploy to get people to read the story. Vague titles are exhausting and unprofessional as the title's purpose is to tell the most important information. In the WHAS11 article, readers do not know who "she" is or how her husband asked for a kidney donor or where this happened. In my opinion, if the title tells readers the  important details and the story is newsworthy, the reader is more inclined to click as they want to know the smaller details too. The bottom line is, most people only have time to glance at a story headline. The titles need to be informative so their time is not wasted. 

Link to WHAS11 article
Link to New York Times article









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