Daily news is an important part of the world’s media. Often published in tabloid format, it includes news articles and features about politics and current events, as well as celebrity gossip, fashion and beauty, and sports. It can also cover other topics such as science and technology, health and medicine, and the weather, among others. Newspapers can be printed on paper or on a variety of electronic formats.
The first newspaper was published in the 17th century, when people began to record daily happenings in writing and send them to other people to share. The word “newspaper” comes from the Latin word “noticia” meaning new or recent; it originally referred to a daily publication containing news about military battles, political upheavals, crime and punishments. The first newspapers were handwritten, but as printing improved and paper became less expensive, many more types of newspapers could be printed. Today’s newspaper industry has changed drastically. In addition to traditional newspapers, there are now many websites and other electronic formats for delivering the news.
In the United States, a newspaper is generally defined as a newspaper with a national or local circulation that is printed on a daily basis and contains news and feature stories, opinion columns, classified ads, and comics. There are two types of newspaper publications: broadsheets and tabloids. Broadsheets are larger, measuring 380 mm x 210 mm (11+3/4 in x 8+1/2 in). Tabloids are smaller and more sensationalist in content, and are typically used for more sensational stories and images.
Founded in 1919 as the Illustrated Daily News, the New York Daily News was the first successful tabloid newspaper in the United States. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, it was the nation’s biggest newspaper, largely due to its sensational coverage of crime and scandal, as well as its use of lurid photographs and cartoons. It was even willing to risk its reputation in order to get the attention of readers, such as when it commissioned Chicago Tribune reporter Tom Howard to strap a camera to his leg while Ruth Snyder was being electrocuted for murdering her husband—the picture, which appeared the next day in the Daily News with the headline “DEAD!”)
A popular measure of the health of a newspaper is market penetration, which is the percentage of households in a given area that receive a copy. In the 1920s, daily newspapers reached a peak of about 123 percent, but as other types of media began to emerge and printing became more affordable, that number started to decline.
The newspaper was sold in 1991 to British media mogul Robert Maxwell, who owned the Daily Mirror. The newspaper went through several difficult times under Maxwell’s ownership, including a 147-day strike by the News’s union workers. In 1996 the News launched a quarterly magazine insert called BET Weekend, which eventually became monthly. The News also owns a radio station, WFAN-FM, which shares its call letters with its namesake newspaper and broadcasts out of the News Building in New York City.