WSJ headlines loosen up

Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, notes that the headlines in The Wall Street Journal have some added life to them recently.

Morris writes, “Several headlines — one including the word ‘boffo’ — in The Wall Street Journal yesterday illustrated how the business newspaper has loosened up in that area in recent months, notes Grumpy Editor.

“A five-column headline, over a major story on expected strength of second-quarter results that start coming out this week, read:

Clouds Hover Over Boffo Profits

“A reader would expect that line to appear over a report on entertainment companies financial results in Variety, the daily journal that covers the show business industry.

“It’s probably the first time ‘boffo’ appeared in a headline of The Wall Street Journal, published since 1889 by Dow Jones & Co. But that wasn’t the only eye-catching headline in yesterday’s Journal.”

Read more here. UPDATE: Talking Biz News received an e-mail from a Wall Street Journal editor noting that the word “boffo” appeared in a January 1997 headline about Los Angeles real estate.