Newspapers belong to the oldest methods of getting information to the public and keeping people well-informed on important events. They can cover more news in greater detail than other media and reporters have more time to get the facts straight.
Producing a newspaper requires speed and good organisation. Reporters, editors and photographers always face deadlines. Many other workers are also involved in making a paper: advertising salespeople, artists, printing press operators and truck drivers.
Format of newspapers
Standard papers are large papers that can have a size of up to 55 cm by 33 cm. Generally, these newspapers are more serious and present more facts than tabloids.
Tabloids are smaller papers with a size of up to 37 cm by 25 cm. They concentrate on sensational stories and often publish gossip combined with big pictures.
Types of newspapers
Newspapers can be divided into three basic types:
dailies
weeklies
special interest newspapers
In addition , many newspapers have their own online edition which provides news over the Internet.
Daily newspapers print world, national and local news. Many of them also have a section about events that happen in the area in which the reader lives. Most dailies are distributed in the morning, but in some large cities newspapers have an afternoon or evening edition that comes out when people travel home from work.
Sunday newspapers have additional features and more pages than weekday editions. Topics like entertainment, finance or travel are included in separate sections, which sometimes make Sunday papers so large that they are difficult to handle.
Weekly papers are distributed in a much smaller area and have news that is more local and personal. In small communities people know each other and are often interested in activities of their friends and neighbours.
Special interest papers are newspapers for a special part of the population, like Hispanics in America. Some of them also focuson certain topics like sports or business.
Contents of a newspaper
International news – large format papers publish more news about world affairs than tabloids
National news covers the main events that happen in the country.
Local news centres on what happens in the state or district that the reader lives in . Tabloids have more local stories than others.
Editorials are articles that show the opinion of the writer .
Letters to the editor come from readers and show their opinion on certain topics or agree or disagree with an editorial.
Comic strips are a series of drawn pictures , mostly by a cartoonist, that show a story
Crosswords and other puzzles give the reader the chance to solve certain tasks
Horoscopes give you a description of your character and the things that may happen to you, based on the position of the stars and planets at the time of your birth.
Television guides give the reader an overview of the programmes they can watch throughout the day.
Sports are a very important part of most newspapers . That’s why they are given a larger section at the back of a newspaper.
Weather reports and forecasts give the readers information on local as well as travel and international weather
Death notices appear mostly in local papers . They show a list of people who have died in the region in the last few days.
Advertisements take up large parts of a newspaper and are positioned throughout the paper. Sometimes they can be a whole page in size, in other cases they make up only a few lines.
Advice columns offer tips for readers and answer their questions on certain topics.
Movie, art, book and music reviews give the reader information on new releases Reporters give their own opinion on how good a new film, book or a newly released CD is.
