Don't be too clever; this is for the Web

Don't be too clever; this is for the Web - Business - International Herald Tribune: "Journalists over the years have assumed they were writing their headlines and articles for two audiences: fickle readers and nitpicking editors.

Today, there is a third important arbiter of their work: the software programs that scour the Web, analyzing and ranking online news articles on behalf of Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The search-engine "bots" that crawl the Web are increasingly influential, delivering 30 percent or more of the traffic on some newspaper, magazine or television news Web sites. And traffic means readers and advertisers, both of which the media are desperate for.

The Sacramento Bee changed online section titles. "Real Estate" became "Homes," "Scene" turned into "Lifestyle," and dining information found in newsprint under "Taste" is online under "Taste/Food."

Some news sites offer two headlines. One headline, often on the first Web page, is clever, meant to attract human readers. Then, on a second Web page, a more quotidian, factual headline appears with the article itself. The popular BBC News Web site does this routinely on longer articles.

On the Web, space limitations can coincide with search-engine preferences. In the print version of The New York Times, an article on Tuesday about Florida's beating UCLA for the men's college basketball championship read: "It's Chemistry Over Pedigree as Gators Roll to First Title." On the Times Web site, whose staff has undergone search-engine optimization training, the headline of the article was, "Gators Cap Run With First Title."