A quick quiz: Can you decode the following? T, TG, TS, TN, UP, AP, MP, WB, Pjb, Hry, Ch, C’garh. If you can, you have either worked in an Indian newsroom or have the patience of a saint. If not, welcome to the chaos of the modern Indian headline, where cryptic abbreviations are the norm and creativity is on permanent leave.
From headlines to headaches
Across Indian newspapers, headline writing has slipped into a fog of lazy shorthand, formulaic constructions, abbreviations, and acronyms. Consider these examples:
‘’T signs pact with Japan for eco-town in Hyd’
‘CM to present TG model at AICC meeting’
‘Ch’garh Maoists prefer to surrender in T’gana’
‘Pjb speaker backs rally attacker in Hry’
Each one leaves the average reader scratching their head for clarity. What’s T – Tamil Nadu or Telangana? Is Ch or Ch’garh Chandigarh or Chhattisgarh? And Hyd might as well be a lab chemical. Then there are Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir – each conveniently squeezed into just two letters.
Sometimes, these cryptics occur on the same front page. A national daily recently ran T, TG, and TS – all meaning Telangana – in three different headlines. Welcome to alphabet soup, subeditor style.
When subeditors were diligent
This was not always the case. In the days of bromide paper, phototypesetters, and telex-fed or reporters’ typed copy, writing headlines was an art – and a pain. Every character counted (literally – w and m were 2 points, i and l were .5, rest were 1 point). Justifying headlines meant ensuring visual symmetry, no awkward gaps, and no sloppy commas, ampersands or abbreviations unless space demanded it.
And heaven help you if the chief subeditor did not like a trainee sub-editor’s headline. They would toss the headline slip into the trash can and rewrite it by hand – no questions asked. We lived for the rare day our headline made it to print unaltered.
Today, with drag-and-drop layout software and infinite rewrites at no cost (no bromide paper, you see!), you would expect an explosion of creativity. Instead, we get:
‘ED arrests B’deshi for forging Indian papers’
‘SC: We’ll protect ecology, environment’
‘Hyd firm installs doors for Ayodhya temples’
These headlines do not invite the reader – they repel.
When the headline was a playground
I am reminded of a cheeky headline I once gave during my student days. It was for a sports report on the notice board of our Osmania University Journalism Department’s ‘TeleNews’ bulletin. Our Journalism Department had just beaten the English Department in a spirited cricket match. I proudly wrote and pinned a headline that read: ‘The English meet their Waterloo’
Witty? I thought so. Historic? Certainly. But the English Department captain did not see it that way. He stormed in, ripped the headline off the board with dramatic flair, and walked off in a huff. A one-man editorial censure committee.
But that moment stayed with me, because it captured the power of the headline: to amuse, provoke, even offend. That is what a good headline does. It makes you feel something.
The lost art of wordplay
It is not all bad. Some subeditors still deliver zingers. The ‘British Metro’ recently ran this beauty: ‘Starmer’s Chaos Islands cave-in’
They replaced the ‘g’ in ‘Chagos’ with a red ‘X’ to spell ‘Chaos’ – a visual pun on political disarray.
And of course, there is the widely cited classic: ‘Nut screws nurse and bolts’
A notorious tabloid gem about a mental asylum patient who raped a nurse and escaped. It is often cited in journalism schools for its triple-entendre and tight phrasing. Provocative? Yes. Problematic? Also yes. But it lingers – as only a memorable headline can.
Indian headlines that shine
Even amid the clutter, there are flickers of brilliance:
‘Luckynow!’ – on Lucknow Super Giants’ thrilling IPL win.
‘Quip pro quo?’ – A riff on comedian Kunal Kamra’s parody backlash.
‘SAINERGY!’ – Celebrating Sai Sudharsan’s IPL heroics.
‘A wait off their shoulder’ – RCB finally lifting the IPL trophy.
‘RCB majors IPL at 18’ – Kohli’s jersey number, poetic justice.
‘BENGARULE’ – Benga in black, rule in red after RCB’win. Typography and sass in one.
‘High steaks at the meat market’ – Business meets barbecue in this meaty headline.
‘Grill in the name of love’ – Lifestyle reporting done right.
These headlines do more than inform. They entertain, provoke, and pull the reader in – which is the whole point of a headline.
Creativity is not optional
Today, too many headlines read like cut-and-paste jobs from a bureaucracy memo. Subeditors, under pressure to ‘SEO-optimise’, forget that a dull headline is just digital tumbleweed. Readers scroll past. But a good headline? That is a front-door invitation. It says: Hey, come in. This story is worth your time.
Newspapers today have the tools to write headlines faster, better, and more flexibly than ever before. What they need is to bring back pride in the craft. Train younger subs not just to fit words, but to finesse them. Reinstate the culture of the headline rethink. And yes, banish mystery acronyms and abbreviations unless necessary. Because every good story deserves a good headline, not a cryptic puzzle or a bored contraction.
Let us not lose the reader at hello
A good headline should invite, not alienate. Let us bring back the joy of headline writing – with clarity, wit, and style. Because the reader deserves better than alphabet soup. To paraphrase a cliche: ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’. And in journalism, the first impression is not the byline – it is the headline. Let it shimmer. Let it sing. Or at the very least, let it make sense. Or as a headline coach says: Follow the KISS rule – keep it simple and silly.
