Talk:Tabloid

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I'm not sure about the existance of The Examiner (Launceston?) and the Mercury (Hobart) in this list - they are your standard regional city newspapers. True, they aren't fantastic, but they aren't exactly in the Weekly World News league! --Chuq 10:44, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, the above comment was mine, I forgot to sign it at the time! I'll remove Examiner and Mercury from the list.--Chuq 10:44, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Compact newspapers

Is it worth pointing out that at least 2 of the 3 (not sure about the scotsman) are only compact monday to saturday?

Quite possibly - although I'd also note why that's the case; namely, UK newspapers traditionally only publish Monday to Saturday, and have a "sister publication" which publishes only on Sundays. This is most obvious with pairings like The Guardian/The Observer and The Sun/News of the World, but I believe the same administrative distinction (different editorial teams, etc) is true of The Times/The Sunday Times, Daily Mail/The Mail on Sunday, etc. Thus the "weekly" Sunday papers are able to make a decision on paper size independent of their "daily" relatives. [Anecdotally, one can guess that one reason for reluctance would be that it would be quite hard to stuff all the supplements of the Sunday Times inside a tabloid - those things are fat!]
On a side note, I notice that the way our articles mention that relationship varies (there appears to be no link from The Times to the The Sunday Times, although there is one back the other way), so if anyone feels like it, something should probably be done about that. - IMSoP 19:08, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Further complication, in that I beleive the Independent is a 7-days-a-week paper, the Sunday edition is broadsheet but otherwise has the smae editorial team etc. I think....Grinner 09:51, Mar 31, 2005 (UTC)
No, I think this just goes to prove my point about people not realising the distinctions: "The Independent on Sunday" is not simply the Sunday edition of "The Independent", as can be seen if you look closely at the company's websites, e.g.: "The group publishes the quality national titles The Independent and The Independent on Sunday."[1]; "The Independent was launched on 7 October, 1986, the first UK national quality newspaper for 131 years. The Independent on Sunday followed just over three years later in 1990." [2]; "...leading articles from The Independent and Independent on Sunday." [3]
What the distinctions are, in terms of editorial/managerial arrangements, I have not managed to clarify, but I'm pretty sure that from the company's perspective, the Independent is a 6-days-a-week paper, and thus publishes as a "compact" on "all 6" days of its working week. - IMSoP 22:41, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] List

This is one of many Wikipedia articles that runs a long list (in this case of Tabloid papers from around the world) at the bottom of the page. When is it appropriate (ie: what is the Wikipedia convention) to create an individual list page? --Commander Keane 12:44, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Indian Tabloids

Somebody has submitted stardust and filmfare as Indian tabloids. In reality both these could be classified as monthly film magazines. mid-day is the one that could be classified as tabloid. -manju

[edit] "News International red tops sweep the board"

Why is the above external link there? The link does not help explain what a red top is. --Tomwalden 17:34, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

The article explains what a red-top is, the link is there as a citation of the term being used. boffy_b 08:29, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Correct alternative

I've removed tabloid press from the "For information about tabloids" section at the beginning of the article because it redirects here. Also redirecting here are tabloid journalism. I searched for an article about tabloid journalism in print to replace this link and wasn't able to find one. Surely there was one that was eaten by these redirects. 24.107.202.145 04:30, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Paper format vs. style of journalism

The article structure does not differentiate clearly enough between "tabloid" as a physical paper format and as a style of downmarket journalism. With more and more upmarket broadsheets switching to tabloid or similar formats, there no longer is any convergence of paper format and style/targeted readership. I suggest to create two articles, like Tabloid (format) and Tabloid journalism, with Tabloid becoming a disambiguation page. There will be some overlap between Tabloid journalism and Yellow journalism, but this can be resolved without too much trouble, because Yellow journalism is mostly historical in content, this just needs to be clarified. Comments welcome. --Thorsten1 10:41, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Semi-relatedly, I don't know what the following paragraph is about but I assume it refers to US usage of the term, and if so should say so:

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.

Ben Finn 21:48, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

I have removed most of these links. External links should only be included where they enhance the subject of the article. Here, links on the concept or history of tabloids are fine but we do not want link directories to tabloid headlines. I have removed the forum since it seems to have stopped being used (no post since April). BlueValour 01:52, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lacks emphasis on the lies in tabloids

This article forgets to emphasize the amount of lies that modern tabloids have. There are of course some truths, but what you see on the cover is LIES! At least in what I define as a tabloid! (ie The Globe/National Enquirer) 71.116.104.7 21:02, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Black top?

"The term red top [...] distinguishes them from the black top Daily Express and Daily Mail."

What is the source for the use of "black top" here? The lettering is on a white background. So surely they are white tops, and the only black top among UK national papers was the Mirror for a while. Or should the red tops be called white tops? -- Smjg 16:47, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Just thinking about it, the term "black top" doesn't seem to be particularly notable in this context, if Google is to go by. Most of the uses of the term seem to be either here on Wikipedia, on mirror sites or on other sites that seem likely to have got the term from here. -- Smjg 16:52, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] visual media

Are newspapers not a visual medium? The Storm Surfer 16:47, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Train tabloid?

What is a train tabloid? The term is mentioned in the article, but no further explanation is given. If it is a special size it should be mentioned as such. If it is just another name for a tabloid distributed in trains, then it should be called just tabloid. ʍαμ$ʏ5043 06:59, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

I guess it means the free newspapers predoiminatly distributed at railway stations and other public transport, which people generally read on the train/bus and then hand on to other passengers. Here in the UK Metro is probably the best known. Because of the commuter target audience the papers tend to have very short stories, next to no indepth analysis and a heavy dose of celebrity news. Timrollpickering (talk) 00:35, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] What does "legal" stand for as a format?

Where does the name come from? I see a detailed description of where "letter" comes from, but none for "legal". Dpotop (talk) 13:34, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Does Paper_size#North_American_paper_sizes have what you're looking for? -- DanielPenfield (talk) 13:43, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
No. This is why I asked. The supposed origins of "letter" and its use are explained. But who uses the "legal" paper size? And why (if it's known)? Dpotop (talk) 15:01, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
You lost me, D00D. Why would you ask about legal paper size in an article about tabloid? Seems like the question would be more appropriately posed on Paper size. It's a bit like posting a question about Appaloosas on Cow. -- DanielPenfield (talk) 17:56, 13 March 2008 (UTC)