The Gardeners' World Blog

Time to answer a common question about our headlines, namely why they sometimes seem longer than they need to be, or conversely not long enough to explain all angles of a particular story.

Well, in short, this is because our stories are fed to various BBC services, and therefore need to conform to certain parameters to work everywhere they appear. So currently, for example, the main reason our headlines are between 31 and 33 characters is so they fit adequately on Ceefax.

In days gone by, Ceefax journalists valiantly endeavoured to make every headline exactly the same length, and so 'justify' to the end of the line on your TV screen. But we relaxed this rule when we introduced multi-platform authoring - and justified that on the basis headlines should above all make sense, even if they don't fit perfectly.

Having said that, we recognise our present constraints still sometimes mean players eye rather than contemplate a transfer, officials launch probes rather than investigations and occasionally, a manager slams rather than criticises a counterpart. And that isn't ideal.