L.A. Times Earns Top Honors in National Headline Contest
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The Los Angeles Times has received two honors in the ACES: The Society for Editing 2025 Headline Contest. Times copy editor David Bowman won first place in the individual category for national media organizations and The Times’ copy desk staff earned first place in the staff category for national media organizations. The competition aims to recognize exceptional headline writing in print and digital media.
For Bowman, this honor marks his third ACES headline title. The competition judges lauded his headlines, noting, “His entire package of headlines compelled the reader to want to read the story, not just the headline. The headline matched the text and picture perfectly and enhanced the story.”
Bowman’s winning headlines included:
Say what? In S. Korea, a different sort of term limits
The government is fighting to keep English ‘loanwords’ from diluting the language.
Some late shots at the Clippers’ arena?
State bill would allow members of private suites to be served alcohol until 4 a.m.
Hardly a cracked response to L.A.’s ruptured sidewalks
Service call backlog is at 50,000, with no long-term fix-it plan
The headlines in The Times’ staff entry were recognized for capturing the right tone and ability to draw the audience in. The winning headlines were written by copy editors Rubaina Azhar, Dave Bowman, Rachel Dunn, Marina Levario and Hannah Ly.
The judges noted: “ ‘Gag me with a memoir’ for a story about Moon Unit Zappa’s reflections on her famous musician father, Frank, has perfect pitch. ‘After a string of messes, L.A. barred this goo on Halloween,’ for a story about silly string, is appropriately sticky. And the onomatopoeia of ‘KICK. CRASH. BOOM.’ for a story calling for a stunts Academy Award, has the stunt people practically jumping out of the page.”
According to ACES, competition entries are judged “not just on the cleverness of the headlines, but on their sophistication, uniqueness, appropriateness, and likely success in capturing readers’ attention.”
To view the full list of winners, visit aceseditors.org.
