User:Wiki Wistah/Newspaper articles
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This is an essay. It is not a policy or guideline, it simply reflects some opinions of its authors. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page. |
As part of WikiProject Journalism, I'd like to submit the following as suggestions for how to write and maintain Wikipedia articles dealing with individual newspapers. Please let me know what you think on the talk page. As time goes by, I'll update this page with an eye toward having it be adopted by the WikiProject as "official" guidelines. -- W i k i W i s t a h W a s s a p
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[edit] Notability
Before adding any article to Wikipedia, an editor should ask: Is this notable? In the case of newspapers:
- Daily newspaper companies are notable for inclusion in Wikipedia, each with individual articles, except companies whose decisionmaking apparatus consists entirely of personnel from one particular newspaper, or one particular other company.
- Daily newspapers are notable for inclusion in Wikipedia, each with individual articles.
- Daily newspaper editions are not notable. If a newspaper publishes slightly different content in different adjoining neighborhoods, or publishes a slightly different afternoon or late-morning edition, note it in the newspaper's article, not in a separate article.
- Sunday newspapers, even if they have a different name, are not notable and should be mentioned in the "parent" daily newspaper's article. Sunday newspapers not associated with daily newspapers are weeklies; see below.
- Magazine inserts generally are not notable and should be mentioned in the parent newspaper's article. Exception: national inserts such as USA Weekend.
- Joint operating agreements and other consortia or associations between newspapers are generally not notable, but may be detailed in individual newspapers' articles.
- Defunct daily newspapers and defunct daily newspaper companies are notable if they otherwise meet Wikipedia's notability standards, or if they represented the last daily newspaper headquartered in a city. They are not notable if they are simply otherwise-named predecessors to current products or companies; describe them in the text of their descendent's article.
- Alternative weekly newspapers generally are notable.
- School newspapers are notable if other campus organizations from that school, college or university are considered notable enough for their own articles.
- Weekly newspaper companies are notable, with the same restrictions as daily companies.
- Weekly newspapers generally are not notable, but should be listed (with a paragraph of explanation, if possible) on the article about their parent company. But:
- Weeklies that are the only paper published by their owner are notable and should get a Wikipedia article in lieu of an article on the owning company.
- Weeklies that meet Wikipedia's standards of notability for readers outside their circulation areas (e.g., a weekly embroiled in a plagiarism scandal that receives regional coverage) are notable.
- Weeklies that are the only print medium in their region are notable.
- Other weeklies may be notable depending on the degree to which they represent a significant source of hard news in a large community. The article should show that this is the case.
[edit] Naming
The name of the article should be the name of the newspaper as it appears in large type on the front page. If the newspaper's nameplate starts with the word "The," the article should, as well. This follows Wikipedia's definite article style guide for artistic works.
If more than simply the name is required to identify the paper (e.g., "The Daily Item" is the name of newspapers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts), add the community name in parentheses (in this case, The Daily Item (Sunbury)) and provide a disambiguation page.
[edit] Infobox
| The Daily Planet | |
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 Another reader here to complain about late Sunday delivery ... and cub reporter Clark Kent is once again nowhere to be found. |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
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| Owner | Galaxy Communications |
| Publisher | Bruce Wayne |
| Editor | Perry White |
| Founded | 1932, as Metropolis Daily Star |
| Headquarters | 220 East 42nd Street, Metropolis, New Troy 12345 USA |
| Circulation | 654,321 daily, 789,987 Sunday in 2006[1] |
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| Website: Daily Planet Website | |
Every individual newspaper article should have an infobox, like the one at the right (but slightly more serious, please). The template for this is {{Infobox Newspaper}}. When writing the article, the infobox code should precede all other code. Run only one infobox on each page; if an article concerns more than one newspaper, do not run an infobox.
Some guidelines on filling in the infobox:
- Name should be the same as the name of the article, minus any disambiguation words. If it is suitably legible, feel free to use an image of the newspaper's flag (the name as displayed on the front page) instead of writing the name.
- Image (where possible) can be a picture of the paper's headquarters, as at right, but preferably should be a photo (or electronic copy) of a typical front page; see The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal for examples. Explain to readers what the image is (a more traditional caption would be, "The February 29, 2005, front page of the Daily Planet")
- Type should be one of these: Daily newspaper; Free daily newspaper; Weekly newspaper (includes twice-weeklies and thrice-weeklies); Alternative weekly; Magazine; Newsmagazine; or Newspaper (only use if one of the above categories does not apply).
- Format should be Broadsheet (as are The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and most major dailies); Tabloid (as are the New York Post, Chicago Sun-Times and Rocky Mountain News); or Berliner or Compact (the last two being found primarily in Europe).
- Owner should be the parent company most responsible for the paper's finances. In the case of chain newspapers, this may not be the same as the paper's direct owner. For example, The Boston Globe is published by Globe Newspaper Company, but it's shortfalls at Globe Co.'s owner, The New York Times Company, that cause Globe staffers to sweat, so that's what goes in the infobox. For newspapers owned independently, give the name of the owner, if known, or "Independent", if not.
- Founded should be the earliest date that this news organization published a newspaper serving this community. In the case of merged newspapers, it should be the founding date of the older/oldest of the former papers. In the case of daily newspapers, include their weekly predecessors (and vice versa), where applicable. If the newspaper was founded with a different name than it now has, note it, as at right. If the paper has gone through several name changes, explain them in the text of the article, not in the infobox.
- Headquarters should be the physical location of the main newsroom -- not a P.O. box, printing plant or minor news bureaux. Additional locations can be cited in the article text. As a help to non-U.S. readers (and U.S. readers who don't work for the Postal Service), do not abbreviate state names or street types.
- Circulation refers to the number of papers sold, not the number of readers (if that is the only number available, put it in the main text of the article, not in the infobox). If one particular edition's circulation (usually Sunday's) is reported separately, give it. Circulation information should be dated and footnoted (as at right).
- Several attributes of {{Infobox Newspaper}} are omitted from this example. One, Ceased publication, is the last date of publication for defunct newspapers. Another, Language, should be used on English Wikipedia for English-language newspapers only if they are located in non-English-speaking areas. It should be used for all foreign-language papers and papers in non-English-speaking areas. Political allegiance should be used only if the article text details, with citations, how the paper is formally aligned with a political party or ideology; or how several reasonable, impartial observers consider the paper to be biased or engaged in advocacy journalism. Another attribute is ISSN, for the paper's unique "serial number".
[edit] Body text
The introduction should restate the name of the newspaper, bolded and italicized. If the paper has a different name on some days (such as Sunday), note it in parentheses; see The Boston Globe for an example. If a newspaper is still (or was until recently) known by a another name, note it in bold somewhere in the introduction; see Daily Times Chronicle for an example. The introduction should also establish the newspaper's home city; its coverage area; and its owner.
In body text, italicize the names of newspapers and follow the nameplate style regarding the word "The". Spelling, grammar and punctuation should follow national English standards corresponding to the newspaper's staff: American English for U.S. and U.S. expatriate-run newspapers, British for newspaper staffed primarily by Britons, and so forth.
[edit] Categories
If a newspaper article contains little besides the name of the paper, its coverage area and infobox trivia (ownership, personnel, dates), it is a stub and should be tagged as such. For United States newspaper stubs, please use {{US-newspaper-stub}} and the applicable state article stub (e.g., {{NewMexico-stub}}).
Additionally, each newspaper should be placed in Wikipedia categories with other newspapers from its state (the state in which it is published, not every state it covers); other newspapers in its chain; and other points of interest in its county (again, the county in which it is published, not every county it covers). Remember to pipe out the word "the" if it appears at the beginning of the article name. Thus, categories listed at the end of the article for The Sun of Lowell, Massachusetts, are:
[[Category:Newspapers published in Massachusetts|Sun]]
[[Category:Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Sun]]
[[Category:MediaNews Group|Sun]]
For articles about weekly newspaper companies, include state and county categories for every location for which the company publishes a newspaper. Additional categories are available for Category:Pulitzer Prize winning newspapers and other designations.
What do you think? tell me!
See also: WikiProject Journalism.
