Spotted this on the BBC just now:
Of course, anybody reading that is supposed to fall for the teasing suggestion it could be some memorable soul from hit UK TV show Pop Idol, making it a fairly interesting story for the millions of people who watched that show. The headline certainly works, because out of interest I clicked on it to see which poor wannabe had come a cropper. Only to find out:
Clever. But hardly big news, even in the UK showbiz world.
So the headline works, turning a bit of a nothing story this side of the pond, into a must-read for those of us who list Pop Idol among our guilty pleasures. However, a good metric as to how likely it is readers feel cheated by such click-harvesting tactics is evident in the fact the most-read story is nowhere to be seen in the list of most shared as readers quickly click away after the first paragraph:
The BBC has a very strict character count for headlines on its website but you can be sure, if the headline read: 'American Idol...' it would not be the most read story today.
Will Sturgeon is director of media strategy at LEWIS PR and a former editor of silicon.com. He also blogs at sturgeonslaw.blogspot.com.
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