Headline rewrites
Online headlines change after they are published. The first wording is often the one people shared.
A printed headline is fixed once the paper is out. An online one isn’t. Publishers change headlines after publishing: to correct a mistake, to add news as it comes in (a death toll rises, an arrest is made), or to make the headline clearer or easier to find.
A rewrite can matter. The first wording is often the one that spread, in shares and screenshots. A correction may never reach the people who saw the first version.
A change isn’t a mistake in itself, and most are routine. Put the two wordings side by side and ask what was added, what was taken out, and whether a claim became firmer or softer.
Some publishers note a change at the foot of the article (“This story has been updated”). Many don’t, and the headline on the page is simply different.
On Huduku
When a headline changes on the same link, Huduku keeps up to five earlier wordings. The story page marks the headline “changed”, and Compare coverage (Details, if only one outlet carried it) shows each wording with when Huduku saw it. Huduku reads each feed about once an hour, so a change made and undone within the hour can be missed.
Questions for you
- What changed between the wordings? What might explain the change?
- If someone shared the first wording, what would their readers have taken from it?