Q:

Why is the present perfect used in headlines?

In news reports, we often read or hear events introduced with the present perfect, and then the past simple like this:

The film star Jim Cooper has died of cancer. He was 68 and lived in Texas.

What's wrong if we use both first and second sentence in past simple?

The film star Jim Cooper died of cancer. He was 68 and lived in Texas.

A:

This is a specific usage, in its original context and native habitat, of what is technically called the Hot News sense of the English Perfect construction. There are four senses in all (cf. McCawley 1971):

(a) The Universal sense of the Perfect, used to indicate that a state of affairs prevailed throughout some interval stretching from the past into the present

I've known Max since 1960.

(b) The Existential sense of the Perfect, used to indicate the existence of past events

I have read Principia Mathematica five times.

(c) The Stative/Resultative sense of the Perfect, used to indicate that the direct effect of a past event still continues

I can't come to your party tonight - I've caught the flu.

(d) The Hot News sense of the Perfect, used to report hot news

Malcolm X has just been assassinated.

This sense frequently occurs with the intensive temporal adverb just, as in this example.

A:

Present perfect is used to say that the past event has current consequences or happened recently. So it's telling us that this is a recent occurrence (in this case, that would seem to be the meaning), or that it might be of current importance (for example, that you might want to attend his funeral).

