Crossword Genius

Made haste to punctuate Barking newspaper title (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

masthead

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'newspaper title' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'made haste to punctuate barking' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'haste' is 'asthe' which is present in the answer.
'barking' could be 'mad' (barking mad) and 'mad' is present in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for masthead that I've seen before include "Times title here?" , "Big name appears here" , "Title of a newspaper printed at the top of the front page" , "Telegraph, perhaps" , "furthest point from sea" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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