Supermarket tabloid

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Supermarket tabloids are national weekly magazines in the United States and other countries, printed on newsprint in tabloid format, specializing in celebrity news, gossip, astrology, and bizarre (some would say apocryphal) stories about ordinary people. Supermarket tabloids are particularly notorious for the over-the-top sensationalizing of stories, the facts of which can be called into question. Tabloids - such as The Globe and The National Enquirer - often use aggressive and usually mean-spirited tactics to sell their issues. Unlike regular tabloid-format newspapers, supermarket tabloids are distributed through the magazine distribution channel, similarly to other weekly magazines and mass-market paperback books. They are often found for sale alongside the checkout lines of supermarkets, hence the name. Leading examples include The National Enquirer, Star, Weekly World News, and Sun.

The oldest tabloid known to date is the American "Daily News" in 1919. If it didn't have news, it would simply make it up and use a photograph staged by the newspaper staff, then use an editing technique called the composograph.