The Media Has Found a Title Format. You Won't Believe How Well It Works.

If you're in any communications field, you are probably aware of the new title format craze that's sweeping the Internet: Upworthy titles. Named after the site that created the fad, Upworthy titles are designed to catch your attention, hook you emotionally, and often oversell the content they promote. This media discovery that was once found mainly on Upworthy.com is now being carefully tested by mainstream media, much to the chagrin of long-time professionals and, in some cases, even readers.

Launched in March 2012, Upworthy.com is on a mission to change the way media sites bring news to the masses. The site is slick and visual with an easy-to-navigate interface, and it is obvious that being politically correct isn't in the company charter. To induce readers to click on headlines and share its stories, it developed a new title format that has become the media discovery of the decade. Whether that's for better or for worse is the issue that's up for debate.

Using buzzwords like "literally" and "amazing" and phrases like "you won't believe," Upworthy titles are often deemed nothing more than clickbait—a title format with little substance and no purpose other than to get clicks. And it's working. The New York Times reported that a video posted on YouTube at the height of the gay marriage discussion initially managed to garner 700,000 views. Once the title was changed to the Upworthy format, it wound up with more than seventeen million views in five days.

This fad has even moved beyond YouTube and other social media sites and made its way into mainstream media. CNN stirred up quite a bit of controversy in January 2014 when it used an Upworthy title to report the story of a teen who was killed by her half-sister. The writer has so far stuck with the Upworthy title and opted not to self-edit despite the negative comments it has received.

Now that the company has passed the startup phase, there is some debate as to how well this clickbait title format is actually working. TheVerge.com reports that it has found little correlation between the amount of time spent reading an article with an Upworthy title and whether it is shared, concluding that people are definitely being hooked by the title format itself and are not necessarily reading the articles.

Is this a prediction of more to come? It's too soon to tell, but the numbers so far indicate that Upworthy titles work if you want people to click through to your content and possibly even share it on social media sites with friends and followers. But it is questionable whether this title format will detract from your reputation and make your site look more like a tabloid than a professional media publication.

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