Headline began as a printer's term for the line at the top of a page. The bold journalistic headline we know today was invented by competing New York newspapers in the 1890s.
A heading at the top of a newspaper article or page indicating the nature of the article below it; the most important item of news.
A compound of head + line. Originally a printing term meaning 'the line at the head (top) of a page', referring to the running header showing the page number and chapter title. The modern journalistic sense — a prominent title summarising a news story — developed in the late 19th century as newspapers competed for attention with bolder, larger type. The verb
Headlines were not always big and bold. Before the 1890s, newspapers stacked multiple small headlines in a 'headline deck' — sometimes six or seven lines, each in modest type. The single bold headline we know today was pioneered by yellow journalism papers like Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, competing to grab readers' attention from news-stands