A regularly published account of recent events. Modern newspapers are printed, usually by offset lithography, on large sheets, folded once and inserted one within another, and published at daily, weekly, or (occasionally) monthly frequencies. Predecessors of the modern newspaper included official information sheets, as in the Roman Acta Diurna, hung in public places, and mediaeval manuscript news pamphlets, printed in Germany and the Netherlands. The modern newspaper can be traced back to the British publications, the Corante (1621) and Weekly Newes (1622). Many publications were suppressed during the 17th-c, but censorship was relaxed after the 1688 revolution. The first daily paper was the Daily Courant (1702), and the first true evening paper the Courier (1792). The reign of George III was marked by bitter conflict over the freedom of the press, not least the reporting of speeches in the House of Commons. In the USA the first newspapers (in Boston, 1689) avoided controversy, but the Boston Gazette (and the Massachusetts Spy, 1770) engaged in political debate. The New York Times was founded in 1851, its editors setting a pattern for the future by appealing to a cultured, intellectual readership instead of a mass audience.
In the 19th-c, fast rotary presses, the change to cheap paper, and the abolition of the Stamp Duty (1855) encouraged a great growth in publication. Technical improvements since then have successively brought in mechanized metal typesetting, photoengraved illustrations, phototypesetting, offset lithography, and facsimile transmission of text and pictures. The revolution in newsgathering and editorial preparation has equalled the technical advances. Recent developments include the use of electronic databases, facilities for journalists to type stories straight into the phototypesetter computer, make-up screens on which whole pages can be laid out and reviewed, and the inclusion of four-colour half-tone illustrations. Newspaper design and marketing saw rapid development in the 20th-c, with the tabloid circulation wars, price competition, and a reduction in the number of newspapers published. In the early 2000s, c.18 000 newspapers were being published around the world, with particularly important countries being Russia (over 4800), India (over 2000), Ukraine (over 1700), and the USA (over 1600); Canada had 110, the UK 99, Australia 71, and South Africa 20. Over 200 million newspapers are printed in the world daily.
| Topics in Journalism v • d • e |
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| Professional Issues |
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Ethics & Advocacy
Journalism Education & Books |
| Social Impact |
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Infotainment & Propaganda Model |
| News media |
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Newspapers & Blogging |
| Roles |
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Journalist, Reporter, Editor, News presenter, Photo Journalist, Columnist, Visual Journalist |
A newspaper is a publication containing news and information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint.
The first printed newspaper was published in 1605, and the form has thrived even in the face of competition from technologies such as radio, television, and the internet.
Content
General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news.
Some specific features a newspaper may include are:
weather news and forecasts an advice column critic reviews of movies, plays, restaurants, etc. editorial opinions a gossip column comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords, sudoku and horoscopes a sports column or section a humor column or section a food columnTypes of newspaper
A daily newspaper is issued every day, often with the exception of Sundays and some national holidays. Saturday, and where they exist Sunday, editions of daily newspapers tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and advertising inserts, and cost more.
Weekly newspapers are also common and tend to be smaller and less prestigious than daily papers. However, those Sunday newspapers that do not have weekday editions are not considered to be weekly newspapers, and are generally equivalent in size and prestige to daily newspapers.
Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country: a national newspaper, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city or region. In the United States and Canada, there are few truly national newspapers, with the notable exceptions The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in the US and The Globe and Mail and The National Post in Canada. Large metropolitan newspapers with expanded distribution networks such as The New York Times and The Washington Post can fill the role of de facto national newspapers. In the United Kingdom, there are numerous national newspapers, including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express and The Independent.
As English has become the international language of business and technology, newspapers formerly in non-English (only) languages have been publishing an English-language edition. In places as varied as Jerusalem and Bombay (Mumbai), newspapers are printed to a local and international English-speaking public. The advent of the Internet has also allowed the non-English newspapers to put out a scaled-down English version to give their newspaper a global outreach. Some, such as The Stageman International Weekly, Christian Science Monitor and The International Herald Tribune, have always had that focus, while others are repackaged national newspapers or “international editions” of national-scale or large metropolitan newspapers.
The owner of the newspaper, or person in charge, is the publisher.
Newspapers have been developed around very narrow topic areas, such as news for merchants in a specific industry, fans of particular sports, fans of the arts or of specific artists, and participants in the same sorts of activities or lifestyles.
Newspapers often refine distribution of ads and news through zoning and editioning.
Zoning occurs when advertising and editorial content change to reflect the location to which the product is delivered.
Editioning occurs in the main sections as news is updated throughout the night.
Format
Most modern newspapers are in one of three sizes:
Broadsheets: 600 mm by 380 mm (23½ by 15 inches), generally associated with more intellectual newspapers, although a trend towards “compact” newspapers is changing this.Newspapers are usually printed on inexpensive, off-white paper known as newsprint. These technologies have enabled newspapers to publish color photographs and graphics, as well as innovative layouts and better design.
To help their titles stand out on newsstands, some newspapers are printed on coloured newsprint.
Circulation and readership
The number of copies distributed, either on an average day or on particular days (typically Sunday), is called the newspaper’s circulation and is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not necessarily the same as copies sold, since some copies or newspapers are distributed without cost.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the daily circulation of the Soviet newspaper Trud exceeded 21,500,000 in 1990, while the Soviet weekly Argumenty i fakty boasted the circulation of 33,500,000 in 1991.
According to United Nations data from 1995 Japan has three daily papers —the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun— with circulations well above 4 million.
In the United Kingdom, The Sun is the top seller, with around 3.2 million copies distributed daily (late-2004).
In India, The Times of India is the largest English newspaper, with 2.14 million copies daily.
In the U.S., USA Today has a daily circulation of approximately 2 million, making it the most widely distributed paper in the country. In the 1920s, on a national basis in the U.S., daily newspapers achieved market penetration of 130 percent (meaning the average U.S. household received 1.3 newspapers). As other media, such as radio and television, began to compete with newspapers, and as printing became easier and less expensive giving rise to a greater diversity of publications, market penetration began to decline.
Advertising
Most newspapers make nearly all their money from advertising;
Publishers of commercial newspapers strive for higher circulation, so that advertising in their newspaper becomes more effective, allowing the newspaper to attract more advertisers and to charge more for the service. But some advertising sales also market demographics: some newspapers might sacrifice higher circulation numbers in favor of an audience with a higher income.
Many paid-for newspapers offer a variety of subscription plans.
Some newspapers provide some or all of their content on the internet, either at no cost or for a fee.
Newspaper journalism
Since newspapers began as a journal (record of current events), the profession involved in the making of newspapers began to be called journalism.
In the yellow journalism era of the 19th century, many newspapers in the United States relied on sensational stories that were meant to anger or excite the public, rather than to inform.
In the past, newspapers have often been owned by so-called press barons, and were used either as a rich man’s toy, or a political tool. More recently in the United States, a greater number of newspapers (and all of the largest ones) are being run by large media corporations such as Gannett (the largest in the United States), The McClatchy Company, Cox, LandMark, Morris Corp., The Tribune Company, etc. Whistle-blowers, and those who “leak” stories of corruption in political circles often choose to inform newspapers before other mediums of communication, relying on the perceived willingness of newspaper editors to expose the secrets and lies of those who would rather cover them.
Even though the opinions of the owners are often relegated to the editorial section, and the opinions of other writers and readers are in the op-ed (“opposite the editorial page”) and letters to the editors sections of the paper, newspapers have been used for political purposes by insinuating some kind of bias outside of the editorial section and into straight news.
Some ways newspapers have tried to improve their credibility are: appointing ombudsmen, developing ethics policies and training, using more stringent corrections policies, communicating their processes and rationale with readers, and asking sources to review articles after publication. Many larger newspapers are now using more aggressive random fact-checking to further improve the chances that false information will be found before it is printed.
The future of newspapers
The future of newspapers is cloudy, with overall readership slowly declining in most developed countries due to increasing competition from television and the Internet.
A report at the gathering indicated that China tops total newspaper circulation, with more than 85 million copies of papers sold every day, followed by India with 72 million—China and India are the two most populous countries in the world—followed by Japan with 70 million and the United States with 55 million. One growth area is the distribution of free daily newspapers, which are not reflected in the above circulation data. Smaller and easier to hold than broadsheets, but presenting serious journalism rather than traditional tabloid fodder, they appear to have drawn some younger readers who are otherwise abandoning newspapers.
Newspapers also face increased competition from internet sites such as Craigslist for classified ads, especially for jobs, real estate, and cars, the advertising of which has long been key sources of newspaper revenue. For instance, it allows newspapers to effectively compete with broadcast journalism in presenting breaking news online in a more timely manner than printing allows. The credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the close relationships they have with advertisers (particularly in the case of local newspapers), are also seen by many in the newspaper industry as strengthening their chances of survival. Some newspapers have attempted to integrate the internet into every aspect of their operations, for example with reporters writing stories for both print and online, and classified advertisements appearing in both media; Many in both camps believe that newspapers will increasingly leave breaking news to online and broadcast media, with print publications focused on comment and analysis.
The moderator of television’s longest-running program began his career in news delivering armfuls of newspapers in Buffalo, N.Y.
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