Newspapers are publications printed on newsprint and distributed or sold to the general public. They feature current events, opinions, insights and information, often including news photographs. They may also include advertising. Traditionally, newspapers are available for sale at newsstands and in shops, and since the 1990s have been published online. They are usually divided into sections, each with its own title or name (e.g., national/international news; local news; sports; entertainment/amusements; classified ads). Usually, the largest section is devoted to editorials written by the editor or a member of the newspaper’s editorial board and expressing an opinion on a topical issue, or “op-eds” that express the personal opinions of columnists.
Until the 20th century, most newspapers were distributed on a daily basis with each day’s edition consisting of a morning and an evening edition. Increasing competition from television and radio, along with declining readership, resulted in the decline of morning newspapers. However, as the world becomes more technologically advanced and people are becoming less dependent on physical media, daily newspapers are making a comeback.
A major tenet of journalism is that writers and reporters are impartial and do not take sides in the stories they write or report. This impartiality is intended to give readers a more objective perspective on the issues and events covered in each story. The journalist’s credibility and the credibility of a newspaper are often judged by how objective it is in its reporting.
The Yale Daily News Historical Archive is a collection of digitized copies of the Yale Daily News newspaper, one of the oldest college newspapers in the United States. The archive is made available to the world by a generous gift from an anonymous Yale alumnus and is maintained and operated by the Yale Library.
While many newspaper publishers aim to serve a broad audience, others target groups defined more by their interests than their location. These groups might be as specific as immigrant populations within a city or region, the gay community, or fans of a particular sport. While these specialty newspapers do not typically have a broad readership, they can often charge higher prices for their advertising and can command more attention than the regular weekly or monthly business newspapers.
In addition to general news, newspapers publish political and economic news, as well as sports and other sporting news. Some newspapers contain a variety of other articles such as comics, puzzles and lifestyle/fashion articles. In addition, some of the larger newspapers have a section that includes special reports such as investigative pieces and human interest stories.
Another measure of the popularity and success of a newspaper is its market penetration, which measures the percentage of households in a given area that receive a copy. This figure was high for newspapers in the 1920s, but has declined since then, as the number of competing media outlets increased and people turned away from print to other forms of communication such as television and the Internet.