The daily newspaper

A fading institution that stilldrives the journalistic agenda

Broadsheet

• New York Herald (1836), the first modern daily

• “Penny press” attracted mass audiences

• Innovations in reporting and objectivity

Tabloid

• Daily News (1920) emphasized photos and sensationalism

• Populist press for the working classes

• Very few are left, as advertisers want upscale readers

Daily papers today

• 1,437 dailies and 907 Sunday papers, with a huge shift from afternoon to morning delivery since 1950

• Daily circulation has dropped from 63 million to 52 million since 1985

• Sunday circulation has dropped from 63 million to 53 million since 1993

Front page (broadsheet)

• Sets the news agenda by ranking stories

• Teasers pull readers inside the paper

• Customers mainly receive paper at home

Front page (tabloid)

• Makes a splash with whatever is unusual, startling or entertaining

• Most sales are “point of purchase”

• Often a second read

First section

• News stories–World news mainly from wire services– National news partly from staff, partly

from wires– Local news nearly all produced by staff

reporters and photographers

First section

• News stories

• News analyses– Treads a fine line between fair, neutral

coverage and opinion journalism– Aimed at helping readers understand

complicated issues

First section

• News stories

• News analyses

• Not all hard news– Front often used to reflect the diversity

of what’s inside — lifestyle, arts, business and the like

– Section editors make their pitch at daily news meetings

Editorial page

• Unsigned editorials on world, national and local issues

• Editorial cartoons• Letters to the

editor

Op-ed page

• Made its debut in the New York Times in 1970

• Staff columnists and outside contributors

• Purest expression of opinion in a daily paper

• One of the newer parts of the paper, yet possibly made obsolete by blogs

Metro section

• Local stories not strong enough for front page

• Largest operation at a daily newspaper

• Metro columnists such as Adrian Walker

Other sections

• Business

• Sports

• Lifestyle

• Specialty sections– Ideas– Science– Food– Book review