Captions get 16% more readership than text

Too often, editors crank out captions (aka cutlines) in the 15 minutes before happy hour on a Friday night.

Made you look — **Reach ’em where their eyes are** Captions can be workhorses of communications — but only if you use them and use them well. *Image by Manda*

Their loss.

“No task involved in producing a newspaper has a greater disparity between its importance to the reader and its attention from most newsrooms than writing cutlines,” writes Steve Buttry, American Press Institute’s director of tailored programs.

“Too often, they are the first thing the reader reads (sometimes even before the headlines) and the last thing the newsroom slaps together.”

Handled well, captions can be workhorses of communication. That’s because:

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Lift Your Ideas Off the Screen

Draw readers in with display copy

Sixty percent of your audience members aren’t reading your copy, according to estimates by professors at the University of Missouri. So how can you craft messages that reach nonreaders?

Made you look eye — **Reach nonreaders** Get your message across to flippers, skimmers and lookers with display copy. *Image by Manda*

At Catch Your Readers — a two-day writing Master Class on Nov. 2-3 in Houston — you’ll learn how to use your display copy — headlines, decks and subheads, for instance — to pull readers into your copy, make your piece more inviting and even communicate to flippers and skimmers.

Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

Reach “readers” who spend only two minutes — or even just 10 seconds — on your webpage
Craft the piece of display copy that 95% of people read — but that many communicators drop
Run a simple test on your message to ensure that you get the word out to skimmers
Make your copy 47% more usable by adding a few simple elements
Pass the Palm Test to make your message more reader friendly

This is your last chance to learn to Catch Your Readers in 2016. Don’t miss out! Register now.