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Current News: a dictionary of current search terms and popular interest topics.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a publication containing news, information and advertising,
usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or
special interest, most often published daily or weekly.
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. Recent developments on the Internet are, however, posing
major challenges to the business model of many newspapers. Paid circulation
is declining in most countries, and advertising revenue, which makes up the
bulk of most newspapers' income, is shifting from print to online, resulting
in a general decline in newspaper profits. This has led to some predictions
that newspapers’ role in society will shrink or even disappear, although
historically, new media technologies such as radio and television never
supplanted print media.
General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news. Those can
include political events, crime, business, culture, sports, and opinions
(either editorials, columns, or political cartoons). Newspapers use
photographs to illustrate stories; they use editorial cartoonists, usually
to illustrate writing that is opinion, rather than 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 column
* Classified ads are commonly seen in local or small newspapers.
Reading the newspaper: Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, South Carolina,
United States.
Reading the newspaper: Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, South Carolina,
United States.
Types 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. Typically, the majority of these
newspapers' staff work Monday to Friday, so the Sunday and Monday editions
largely depend on content done in advance or content that is syndicated.
Most daily newspapers are published in the morning. Afternoon or evening
papers are aimed more at commuters and office workers.
Weekly newspapers are common and tend to be smaller than daily papers.
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 Independent,The Times, The Daily
Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily
Express and The Daily Mirror.
As English has become the international language of business and technology,
many newspapers formerly published only in non-English languages have also
developed English-language editions. 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.
There is also a small group of newspapers which may be characterised as
international newspapers. Some, such as 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. Often these international editions are
scaled down to remove articles that might not interest the wider range of
readers.
Job titles within the newspaper industry vary greatly. In the United States,
the overall manager of the newspaper - sometimes also the owner - may be
termed the publisher. This usage is less common outside the U.S., but
throughout the English-speaking world the person responsible for content is
usually referred to as the editor. Variations on this title such as
editor-in-chief, executive editor, and so on, are common.
While most newspapers are aimed at a broad spectrum of readers, usually
geographically defined, some focus on groups of readers defined more by
their interests than their location: for example, there are daily and weekly
business newspapers and sports newspapers. More specialist still are some
weekly newspapers, usually free and distributed within limited areas; these
may serve communities as specific as certain immigrant populations, or the
local gay community.
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. The editorial
content often may change merely to reflect changes in advertising — the
quantity and layout of which affects the space available for editorial — or
may contain region-specific news. In rare instances, the advertising may not
change from one zone to another, but there will be different region-specific
editorial content. As the content can vary widely, zoned editions are often
produced in parallel.
Editioning occurs in the main sections as news is updated throughout the
night. The advertising is usually the same in each edition (with the
exception of zoned regionals, in which it is often the ‘B’ section of local
news that undergoes advertising changes). As each edition represents the
latest news available for the next press run, these editions are produced
linearly, with one completed edition being copied and updated for the next
edition. The previous edition is always copied to maintain a Newspaper of
Record and to fall back on if a quick correction is needed for the press.
For example, both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal offer a
regional edition, printed through a local contractor, and featuring locale
specific content. The Journal's global advertising rate card provides a good
example of editioning.[1]'
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.
* Tabloids: half the size of broadsheets at 380 mm by 300 mm (15 by 11¾
inches), and often perceived as sensationalist in contrast to broadsheets.
Examples: The Sun, The National Enquirer, The National Ledger, The Star
Magazine, New York Post, The Drudge Report, The Globe.
* Berliner or Midi: 470 mm by 315 mm (18½ by 12¼ inches) used by European
papers such as Le Monde in France, La Stampa in Italy and, since 12
September 2005, The Guardian in the United Kingdom.
Newspapers are usually printed on inexpensive, off-white paper known as
newsprint. Since the 1980s, the newspaper industry has largely moved away
from lower-quality letterpress printing to higher-quality, four-color
process, offset printing. In addition, desktop computers, word processing
software, graphics software, digital cameras and digital prepress and
typesetting technologies have revolutionized the newspaper production
process. 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. For example, the Financial Times is printed on a
distinctive salmon pink paper, and the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta
dello Sport is printed on pink paper. Sheffield's weekly sports publication
derives its name, the " Green 'Un", from the traditional colour of its
paper, while L'Équipe (formerly L'Auto) is printed on yellow paper. Both the
latter promoted major cycling races and their newsprint colours were
reflected in the colours of the jerseys used to denote the race leader;
thus, the leader in the Giro d'Italia wears a pink jersey.
Online-only newspapers
With the introduction of the Internet, web based newspapers have also
started to be produced as online only publications, like the Southport
Reporter[1]. To be a Web-Only newspaper they must be web published only and
must not be part of or have any connection to hard copy formats. To be
classed as a Online Only Newspaper the paper must also be regularly updated
at a regular time and keep to a fixed news format, like a hardcopy
newspaper. They must also be only published by professional media companies
and regarded under the national/international press rules and regulations
[2] unlike blog [3] sites. and other news websites it is run as a newspaper
and is recognized by media groups in the UK, like the NUJ and/or the IFJ.
Also they fall under the UK's PCC rules.
Electronic Paper
In February 2006, the Flemish daily De Tijd of Antwerp announced plans to
distribute an electronic-ink version of the paper to selected subscribers.
This will be the first such application of electronic ink to newspaper
publishing. This type of electronic ink will be able to update any newspaper
instantly.
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. Readership figures may be higher than circulation
figures because many copies are read by more than one person, although this
is offset by the number of copies distributed but not read (especially for
those distributed free).
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. Germany’s Bild, with a circulation of 4.5 million, was the
only other paper in that category.
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. According to the 2006 National Readership Study, the
Dainik Jagran is the most-read, local-language (Hindi) newspaper, with 21.2
million readers [2].
In the U.S., USA Today has a daily circulation of approximately 2 million,
making it the most widely distributed paper in the country.
A common measure of a newspaper’s health is market penetration. Market
penetration is expressed as a percentage of households that receive a copy
of the newspaper against the total number of households in the paper’s
market area. 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. It wasn't until the early 1970s,
however, that market penetration dipped below 100 percent. By 2000, it was
53 percent 1.
Advertising
Most newspapers make nearly all their money from advertising; the income
from the customer’s payment at the news-stand is small in comparison. For
that reason, newspapers are inexpensive to buy, and some are free. The
portion of the newspaper that is not advertising is called editorial
content, editorial matter, or simply editorial, although the last term is
also used to refer specifically to those articles in which the newspaper and
its guest writers express their opinions. In recent years, the advertorial
emerged. Advertorials are most commonly recognized as an opposite-editorial
which third-parties pay a fee to have included in the paper. Advertorials
commonly advertise new products or techniques, such as a new design for golf
equipment, a new form of laser surgery, or weight-loss drugs. The tone is
usually closer to that of a press release than of an objective news story.
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. For example,
someone might want only a Sunday paper, or perhaps only Sunday and Saturday,
or maybe only a workweek subscription, or perhaps a daily subscription.
Some newspapers provide some or all of their content on the Internet, either
at no cost or for a fee. In some cases, free access is available only for a
matter of days or weeks, after which readers must register and provide
personal data. In other cases, free archives are provided.
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. Much emphasis has been placed upon the accuracy and fairness of
the journalist — see Ethics.
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. The more restrained style of
reporting that relies on fact checking and accuracy regained popularity
around World War II.
Criticism of journalism is varied and sometimes vehement. Credibility is
questioned because of anonymous sources; errors in facts, spelling, and
grammar; real or perceived bias; and scandals involving plagiarism and
fabrication.
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
Corporation, The Tribune Company, Hollinger International, News Corporation
etc. Many industry watchers have concerns that the growing need for profit
growth natural to corporations will have a negative impact on the overall
quality of journalism.
There is no doubt, however, that newspapers have, in the modern world,
played an important role in the exercise of freedom of expression.
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. However,
there have been many circumstances of the political autonomy of newspapers
being curtailed.
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. For
example, The New York Times is often criticised for a perceived leftist
slant to its stories, or, by others, for supporting the American political
establishment, whereas the opinion pages (but not the news pages) of the The
Wall Street Journal generally take right-wing positions.
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. The 57th annual World Newspaper Congress, held in Istanbul
in June 2004, reported circulation increases in only 35 of 208 countries
studied. Most of the increases came in developing countries, notably China
and India.
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. The report said circulation declined by an average
of 2.2 percent across 13 of the 15 countries that made up the European Union
before May 1. The biggest declines were in Ireland, down 7.8 percent;
Britain, down 4.7 percent; and Portugal, where numbers fell by 4.0 percent.
One growth area is the distribution of free daily newspapers, which are not
reflected in the above circulation data. Led by the Metro chain of
newspapers, they grew 16 percent in 2003.
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.
Also from online only newspapers. Already in the UK a newspaper called
Southport Reporter started out in 2000 and remains online as a recognized
newspaper, but only published online and others now exist through out the
world. This opens the debate as to "What is a newspaper". See Online
Newspapers.
However, many believe that the Internet can itself be used to newspapers’
advantage. Again see online Newspapers also broadcast journalism.
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