Newspapers in the US

A daily newspaper from a medium-sized US city has between 50 and 75 pages, divided into differ­ent sections. The most important stories, whether international, national or local, are printed on the front page, which usually has the beginnings of four or five articles, and colour photographs. The articles continue inside. The rest of the first section contains news stories, an opinion pagewith editorials, and letters to the editor, written by people who read the paper. Another section contains local news. The sport section is near the end of the paper, with the features section. This contains comics and also advice columns,such as Dear Abby. There are advertisements throughout the paper.

Tabloids contain articles about famous people but do not report the news. They are displayed in supermarkets, and many people read them while they are waiting to pay but do not buy them.

On Sundays newspapers are thicker. There are usually fewer news stories but more articles ana­lysing the news of the past week and many more features, including a colour section of comics.

America has many papers in languages other than English for people from various ethnic back­grounds.

The Press

In Britain, the newspaper industry, often called Fleet Street, has a major influence on public opinion and is a strong force in political life. The freedom of the press to publish whatever it wants, without the government interfering, is considered important. The tabloids often rely on cheque-book journalism(= paying people large amounts of money for their story) in order to be the first to publish a human-interest story. Many people do not like this approach. Recently, there has been concern about people's rights to privacy and now a voluntary press codegives guidelines on, amongst other things, photo­graphing famous people.

In the US journaliststry be objective and report facts, but financial pressures can work against this. Most of a paper's profits come from advertising, and if a company is offended by something the paper writes, it may decide not to advertise there again.

Newspapers get material from several sources. Staff reporterswrite about national or local news. Major newspapers also have their own foreign correspondentsthroughout the world. Others get foreign news from press agenciesor wire services,such as Associated Press or Reuters. Some papers have their own features writers.In the US features are usually syndicated,which means that one newspaper in each area can buy the right to print them. The editor decides what stories to in­clude each day but the publisheror owner has control over general policy. Newspaper owners are very powerful and are sometimes called press barons.The most famous in recent years have been Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch.

Magazines

Many magazines are of general interest. Some of these are aimed specifically at women, men, or young people, while others cover a hobby or leisure interest, e.g. sailing. Other magazines are for specialists in a particular field.

Most magazines contain news items, features(= articles), colour pictures, reviews and stories which establish an identity for the magazine. They also carry advertisements. Some have a page of readers' letters commenting on articles in a previous issue or asking for advice.

In Britain there are nearly 7 000 weekly and monthly magazines. The best-sellers are the tele­vision guides, such as Radio Times. Nearly as popular is the Reader's Digest, a collection of articles and short stories. In the US TV Guide and People, and news magazinessuch as Time, Newsweek and US News and World Report, are most popular. Magazines like Ebony, which are for people from a particular race or culture, have a smaller circulation (= number of readers).

Magazines with a restricted circulation (= available only to certain people) include inflightmagazines published by airlines for people to read during a flight, and store magazines which cus­tomers can buy at a supermarket checkout. Special-interest clubs and societies publish magazines for their members.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2535