April 11, 2008
When up is down, or Down Is Up...
By Robert Niles
2 comments | 
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A note posted to an online journalism e-mail list this week announced that the Associated Press will be changing its online headlines from upstyle to downstyle. (For those not familiar with the lingo, an upstyle headline capitalizes most words, e.g. "This Headline Goes Up". Downstyle applies normal language capitalization rules, e.g. "This headline goes down". In neither case would one use a period in the headline.)
Which brings us to... the question of the week. What do you say?
At OJR, we've used downstyle ever since I've been editor. It's easier to teach, since you don't have to go into all those additional rules on which words stay down. And, well, I just find it a bit more... relaxed and conversational. Normal, if you will.
That said, upstyle can help a headline stand out or provide a little extra formality to an important piece.
We invite you to explain your choice, up or down, in the comments.
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Comments:
From 70.193.189.59 on April 13, 2008 at 2:51 PM
To me, downstyle headlines (isn't that also called "sentence case?") look so much more professional and typographically clean. That's what I'm used to seeing in my local newspapers.This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
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From edward maurer on April 11, 2008 at 7:23 AM
At http://CanoeSailingMagazine.com, we use 'upstyle' in our heads to catch the eye and help the head stand out from body copy. Or maybe it's because we were trained on print.We're still new, and pretty simple, but it seems to work for us. We've seen other sites that use 'downstyle' and often find they are difficult to read because of the head, typeface size and clutter of the page. Too often we forget about the audience and its needs, especially when it's an adult demographic.
Ed