Tabloid

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This article is about the newspaper format. For information about tabloids in the visual media see Tabloid television.

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A tabloid is a newspaper format particularly popular in the United Kingdom. A tabloid format newspaper is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches (597 mm × 375 mm) per spread. This is the smaller of two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers, traditionally associated with 'higher-quality' journalism, are called broadsheets (although some British 'quality' papers have recently adopted the tabloid format; 'The Guardian' being the exception by adopting the Berliner Format). A third major format for newspapers is the Berliner, which is sized between the tabloid and the broadsheet.

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 "tabloid." 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. A modern tabloid can be positioned upmarket (quality), middle-market (popular) or downmarket (sensational). Newspaper studies have shown that readers prefer the smaller size - particularly commuters.

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.

Other prominent US tabloids are the Philadelphia Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the Boston Herald, Newsday on New York's Long Island and The Examiner, which is a free newspaper published in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. (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.

This style of journalism has been exported to various other countries, including the United States. 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 by engaging in critical investigative reporting.

Recently, three traditionally broadsheet daily newspapers—The Independent, The Times, and The Scotsman—have switched to tabloid size, although they call it 'compact' to avoid the connotation of that word.

In the Netherlands, several newspapers have started publishing tabloid versions of their newspapers, including the major 'quality' newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, with NRC•Next in 2006. Two free tabloid newspapers were also introduced in the early 2000's, 'Metro' and 'Spits', mostly for distribution in public transportation. In 2006 a third, higher quality 'train tabloid' was announced (name as yet unknown).

[edit] Tabloids and sensationalism

In its traditional sense, the term tabloid refers to a newspaper that tends to emphasise sensational stories and which is suspected of or prone to creating its news if the publication's management believes 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.

Tabloid newspapers in Britain, collectively called the tabloid press, tend to be simply and sensationally written, and to give more prominence than broadsheets to celebrities, sports, crime stories and even hoaxes; they also more readily take a political position (either left- or right-wing) on news stories, ridiculing politicians, demanding resignations and predicting election results. The term red top (as in "News International red tops sweep the board") refers to tabloids with red nameplates, such as The Sun, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star, and distinguishes them from the black top Daily Express and Daily Mail. Red top newspapers are usually simpler in writing style, dominated by pictures, and directed at the more sensational end of the market. Tabloid newspapers are sometimes pejoratively called the gutter press.

Since 1999, most of the 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.