I *know* they are completely within their rights to do so . . .

. . . but does that paper for which I voluntarily submit articles free of compensation have to 'tard up my headlines so much?

Take a look at my article here.

Now, tell me, isn't "The Winds Of Change Sweep Through Thayer City Hall" a perfectly reasonable headline for it?

But no.

The headline gods had to 'tard it up a little. When the edition came out, the headline was changed to something along the lines of "Incumbents Fall In Thayer Election."

In addition to being bland and witless, it creates the impression that all incumbents in the election were defeated. Only the ones located in City Hall, which is what my article was concerned with, were. There were two school board incumbents who were re-elected.

And since it's my name on the article and most readers don't realize that I didn't write the headline, I come off looking bland, witless, and incorrect.

You would think they would have at least called me first to see if there was anything wrong with the headline they wanted. There was. But they didn't.

I may have to rethink this article-writing thing.

Oh, well. At least a strategically-placed "only" in the second paragraph got past them. That's a partial victory.