miércoles, 27 de julio de 2011

Cómo escribir excelentes titulares de portada



Vincent Musetto se ha jubilado. Era redactor jefe del New York Post cuando escribió el titular de portada/tapa más famoso del diario. También ejercía de crítico de cine. Explica:
I wrote HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR, the most infamous headline in journalism. They have T-shirts with it on, and buttons. It's all right. It's not one of my favorite headlines. Nobody expected it to become a classic, the Night of the Living Dead of headlines. One afternoon I got a report that there had been a murder in a bar, and that one of the victims had had his or her head cut off. Someone said it might be a topless bar, but we weren't sure, and then the idea of the headline came around, so we were really questioning to make sure it was a topless bar. We sent the reporter, this girl, and she so determined that it was a topless bar. I just wrote it, and everyone said "ha ha," but I didn't think it would live in infamy.
Y dice de Murdoch, propietario del Post: "convirtió los titulares en arte pop o así".

Musetto [<] es autor de otros titulares no menos inoxidables como KHADAFY GOES DAFFY o GRANNY EXECUTED IN HER PINK PAJAMAS, que es su favorito. De hecho, cuando The New York Times lo reprodujo cambiando "executed" por "slain" consiguió que publicaran una corrección.

Steve Dunleavy, columnista del Post, racionaliza el arte de escribir titulares en un libro dedicado a las portadas de ese diario:
How do you tell a sensational story other than sensationally? What should it say: 'Decapitated cerebellum in licensed premises, wherein ladies baring mammaries have been seen, to wit, performing acts counter to social mores?' I don't think so.
Musetto ofrece una lección de historia y de edición de titulares en este reportaje de People.

Hoy las cosas no son tan sencillas. Miren esta columna de la portada de ayer de The Independent:

La pista para este post viene de Kalasniblog, sensacional. Visítelo ahora mismo.

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