Once day in the not-too-distant future, the newspaper as we know it will cease to exist. Will it move entirely online or to another medium? I'm not really sure.

What I do know is that if the tabloids in particular go the way of the dinosaurs, one thing I'll miss is the headlines. Particularly in the New York papers. Just look at today's headline from the Daily News.

This type of headline writing is an art. It's hard to do and requires years of practice in the rough-and-tumble environment of the newsroom.

I'm afraid these things just won't happen online. And if they do, the presentation will be different. Not as compelling. Not as funny.

Sad, but true. We'd better read 'um while we can.

We've all been there.

You begin writing up a piece -- it could be a press release, op-ed, script, anything -- and a few paragraphs into it the words just aren't coming.  You don't know exactly where you're going anymore and you don't seem to be making a coherent point.  In other words, you're lost.

It's time to take a step back and think about what you intended to say in the first place.  What is the one key idea that drives the piece?  Here's a simple method I use to solve this problem. 

I write a headline. 

Now, I don't recall where I first came across this idea, though I'm pretty sure it was a newsroom somewhere.  I've found the approach works extremely well ... despite my lack of direct attribution.  (If you're the one who brought it to my attention, please respond with a comment.)