What is the headline? "Headline means to choose"
The journalist who proposes a topic must answer the inevitable question from the section editors or newsroom staff: What's the headline? "No crime, no perpetrator," goes the legal jargon, and if there's no headline, there's no news, we could say in the journalistic realm. The headline is, in every sense, even topographically and typographically, the most important part of an article. Everyone will read it; it's 100% readership.
I'm sharing the comments of two readers on this issue, which has received so much media attention. One is the anthropologist Dolors Reguant Fosas, with a distinguished career in theoretical and practical feminism, whom I've asked to elaborate on an initial email. She writes:
"A few days ago, when I looked at any article in the ARA newspaper, a headline kept popping up that said: 'It pissed us off that Serrat sang in Spanish and told us we were closed-minded,' about an interview that Albert Om conducted with Lluís LlachI listened to the entire interview announcing the fiftieth anniversary celebration of a historic concert at the Palau de la Música on January 27th and 28th. They discussed the harshness of Francoist repression, even after the dictator's death. They also talked about how socialism failed to reverse the previous regime. These and other topics concerning the Setze Jutges (Sixteen Judges) and Catalan song were addressed throughout the interview. It's worth mentioning that, briefly, the words in the headline came up in response to a question from Albert Om, but, in my opinion, what was really evident was the good-natured rapport between the two singers, despite their differing opinions. This is hardly surprising given Lluís Llach's inherent humanism. It has always been said of Catalonia that we are a peaceful people, something I greatly value. Instead, we have allowed ourselves to be indoctrinated into the patriarchal idea of bipolarity, and thus we will neither resolve any current problems nor achieve the goal of emancipation. If we intend to create unrest among different groups, then this is the ideal formula: distort the main ideas of any thesis with sensational headlines, as most do.influencers on social media currently."
Albert Om gives me his version of the procedure for titling the piece, and I'll stick with his first sentence as an example of a good headline:
"A headline means choosing. Highlighting one of the many ideas that emerge in a generous conversation, like the one Lluís Llach gave to the 100 people who came to the event at the Palau de la Música and to all the readers of ARA who later saw or read the interview. The headline seemed to me to have a double journalistic value: to underline the importance of the Catalan language in the Nova Cançó movement and to add perspectives to understand why two key figures in Catalan culture have followed different paths."
Dr. Helena Guardiola Ponti, a prominent medical researcher, writes to me regarding another headline: "I read in the ARA newspaper on February 1, 2026 the news about Ricard Ustrell's interview in Morning on Catalonia Radio to Marta Torné, presenter ofEuphoriaThe headline reads, "I'll do radio when I'm uglier and older." It's a headline that, among other things, promotes ageism and labels radio professionals as ugly and, consequently, old. I'm sorry that the newspaper ARA chose it, without any context or critique.
Àlex Gutiérrez, head of the Media section, gives me his contrasting opinion on the reader's complaint:
"Choosing a headline for an interview—whether your own or someone else's—is always a delicate matter: that phrase sets the overall tone of the piece and is served raw, without the context that makes it easier to understand. However, I believe that the implicit contract with the reader makes it clear that a quote elevated to a headline doesn't automatically imply the reader's acceptance. The 'spice' of scandal that encourages reading, precisely because it deviated from the script of political correctness. That is to say, outside the official narrative, it illuminates how prevalent ageism is on television... and it did so despite Torné." buys but rather understandable criticism. On the other hand, if we disregard the headlines of the interviewees that personally outrage us, wouldn't we be applying censorship or controlling the individual and depriving them of their voice?
I have requested an expert opinion from Antoni Coll Gilabert, who has barely published anything. Will you grant me an interview?This essay moves from the practical to the theoretical aspects of this complex genre of face-to-face interaction. Coll boasts extensive professional experience as an editor in various roles at several newspapers, including The Vanguard, director for twenty years of Tarragona Daily and author of some twenty books. This is the text he sent me:
"What rules should a newspaper interview headline follow? Essentially, in my opinion, two. The first is not to betray the interviewee's thoughts, not to make them say what they didn't say, or to exaggerate them. That's why the reader appreciates a quoted phrase that lends credibility to the statement, even if it's not always necessary."
The second is to entice the reader into the text. If they don't find the headline appealing (due to its novelty, sincerity, or impact), they won't delve into the content. It doesn't have to refer to the main ideas or try to be a summary, but rather to the most striking statement. A newspaper, while it should be serious, must avoid being boring.
Without wanting to be an example, I once titled an interview: "A Coca-Cola with Julio Anguita." The title was just the entrance. Inside, the reader found his defense of the relevance of Marxism. It was during a national congress of the PCE (Communist Party of Spain). He asked me to meet him at a bar and ordered a Coca-Cola, which wasn't exactly a symbol of Marxism.
The headlines of both journalistic pieces conform to the criteria set forth by Antoni Coll, as well as to the classic theorists on headlines such as Chillón, Vilchez, and Martínez Albertos, pending new lines of research on the changes brought about by synergies with networks and algorithms. Let's now examine the specific cases one by one. Om's headline, who is very familiar with the subject of Catalan song (as evidenced by his recent "intimate portrait" of Marina Rossell), makes sense in the context of the Nova Cançó's strict adherence to language, initially advocating monolingualism and, in some cases, featuring monolingual singers who avoided sharing the stage with other singers. The headline about Ustrell's interview is explained by Àlex Gutiérrez, who knows what he's getting into. a daily close-up look at the media landscapeBut since it ends with a question, I give my answer: in my opinion, since the headline is one option among several, discarding a headline is not censorship, it is the return of the choice, which will find another without touching a single comma of the text.
In conclusion, written journalism can afford to use headlines that add sensitivity to informational criteria on delicate issues, such as those raised by readers Reguant and Guardiola, whose intellectual backgrounds support them, and which the Ombudsman appreciates and for which this debate has been useful to us.
The Reader's Advocate pays attention to doubts, suggestions, criticisms, and complaints about the newspaper's content in its digital and print editions, and ensures that the handling of information is in accordance with the codes of ethics.
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