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Revision as of 15:06, 10 December 2005

File:NewspaperSizes200508.jpg
Newspaper sizes in August 2005. Le Monde is in the Berliner format. The Guardian was (until September 2005) in the British broadsheet format, whereas the Daily Mail is a tabloid, and The Times a "compact". Berliner Zeitung and Neues Deutschland are of sizes between broadsheet and Berliner. A piece of white A4 paper is placed in front for scale.

A tabloid is a newspaper format particularly popular in the United Kingdom. A tabloid format newspaper is roughly 23½ by 14 3/4 inches (597 mm × 375 mm) per spread. This is the smaller of two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers, associated with higher-quality journalism, are called broadsheets. A third major format for newspapers is the Berliner, which is sized between the tabloid and the broadsheet. The phrase tabloid press is used to refer to newspapers focusing on less "serious" content, especially celebrities, the British Royal Family, sports, and sensationalist crime stories, though in recent years several "mainstream" newspapers have begun printing in the tabloid format (see below). The term red top (as in News International red tops sweep the board) is also used in Britain for these less serious newspapers, on account of the red nameplates used by most of them.

Recently, three traditionally broadsheet daily newspapers—The Independent, The Times, and The Scotsman—have switched to tabloid size; due to the negative connotations of the label, these are generally referred to instead as 'compact' format.

Overview

The name seems to derive from Burroughs-Wellcome's 1884 trademark for their process of making "tablet-like" compressed pharmaceuticals. The connotation of compressed tablet was soon applied to other small things and to the "compressed' journalism that condensed stories into a simplified, easily-absorbed format. The label of "tabloid journalism" (1901) preceded the smaller sheet newspapers that contained it (1918).

There are two distinct uses of the term today. The more recent usage, actually deriving from the original usage, refers to weekly or semi-weekly alternative papers in tabloid format. Many of these are essentially straightforward newspapers, publishing in tabloid format. What principally distinguishes these from the dailies, in addition to their less-frequent publication, is the fact that they are usually free to the user, relying on ad revenue, as well as the fact that they tend to concentrate more on local entertainment scenes and issues.

In its traditional sense, tabloids tend to emphasise sensational stories and are reportedly prone to create their news if they feel that the subjects cannot, or will not, sue for libel. In this respect, much of the content of the tabloid press could be said to fall into the category of junk food news.

This style of journalism has been exported to the United States and various other countries. In the People's Republic of China, Chinese tabloids have exploded in popularity since the mid-1990s and have tested the limits of press censorship by taking editorial positions critical of the government and for engaging in critical investigative reporting.

Since 1999 all major US supermarket tabloids (as distinct from local newspapers in the tabloid format) ; i.e., the Enquirer, Star, Globe, Examiner, ¡Mira!, Sun, and Weekly World News) have been under single ownership, which some readers fear has undermined the tabloids' traditional competitiveness and has significantly altered their editorial policies and news coverage.

The daily tabloids in the United States -- which date back to the founding of the New York Daily News in 1919. are slightly less overheated than their British counterparts. Since its initial purchase by Rupert Murdoch in 1976, the New York Post has become the exemplar of the brash British-style tabloid in the US, and its competition with the Daily News has become newspaper legend (though the News usually refrains from matching the Post 's level of sensationalism).

Other prominent US tabloids are the Philadelphia Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times and Newsday on New York's Long Island. (Newsday co-founder Alicia Patterson was the daughter of Joseph Patterson, founder of the New York Daily News.)

The biggest tabloid (and newspaper in general) in Europe, by circulation, is Germany's Bild-Zeitung, with around 4 million copies (down from above 5 million in the 1980s). Although its paper size is bigger, its style was copied from the British tabloids.

Famous tabloids

Australia

Austria

Bangladesh


Bosnia and Herzegovina

Canada

Czech republic

  • Blesk
  • Sip

Finland

Germany

Hong Kong

India

Japan

Malaysia

Mexico

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Russia

Singapore

Slovakia

Sweden

Serbia

Switzerland

United Kingdom

Daily tabloids

Sunday tabloids

Compacts and others

The Independent, a broadsheet in terms of content, began producing an alternative, tabloid-sized edition (with the same content as the main paper) in October 2003. The Times followed suit the following month. Since 17 May 2004, The Independent has been published in tabloid format only, billing itself as the "only quality compact" perhaps as a mocking jibe at The Times or the Daily Mail (which considers itself a quality newspaper). However, The Times hit back, pointing to its higher circulation, with a slogan "the no. 1 quality compact" and phased out the broadsheet format completely as of November 1 2004. The idea is to appeal to commuters who can read the smaller paper more easily on public transport. Subsequently, The Guardian changed to a "Berliner" or "midi" format on 12 September 2005. This is a format new to the UK, slightly larger than the traditional British tabloid, for which The Guardian needed to buy and install completely new printing presses from MAN Roland of Germany.

United States

See also

External links

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