User:Wiki Wistah/Newspaper articles

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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.
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This is the second draft of my proposal of suggestions on how to write and maintain Wikipedia articles dealing with individual newspapers and newspaper companies. The improvements in this draft I owe to the following members of WikiProject Journalism: Tobogganoggin, IvoShandor and jtowns. Thanks, guys, and keep the constructive criticism coming.

As for the rest of you, please feel free to jump in the fray on the talk page. I want this to be a collaborative effort. 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 ``` 04:59, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Notability

Before adding any article to Wikipedia, an editor should ask: Is this notable?

In the case of newspapers, the following are always notable:

  • Daily newspapers are notable and each separate newspaper should have its own article.
  • Newspaper companies that own more than one newspaper, daily and/or weekly, are notable and should have their own articles with company history, personnel and properties. In the case of larger companies, reserving a separate article for the listing of the company's holdings may be appropriate.

The following are generally notable, with some exceptions:

  • 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, if the newspaper is perceived as a significant voice in its city's or region's cultural scene.

The following are generally not notable, with some exceptions:

  • Magazine inserts generally are not notable and should be mentioned in the parent newspaper's article. Exception: national inserts such as USA Weekend.
  • School newspapers generally are not notable. But university-related daily newspapers, or weeklies that otherwise meet the WP:NOTE standards of notability or the standards of this guideline for weeklies, are notable.
  • Weekly newspapers generally are not notable, but should be listed (with a paragraph of explanation, if possible) in the article about their parent company. In the case of larger companies, several separate articles dealing with geographic or corporate divisions may be appropriate. 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; and 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, or a weekly that found a major scoop that was picked up by the national media) are notable. If the weekly is only notable enough for a stub article -- or would be a stub if not for cruft, unsourced statements or other violations of What Wikipedia Is Not -- it should not have its own article.

The following are never notable and should not have their own 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 editions of daily 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 above.
  • Joint operating agreements and other consortia or associations between newspapers are not notable, but may be detailed in individual newspapers' articles.
  • Wire services and syndicates are not notable. If they are important, give details in the article on the company that owns or operates them.

[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), you may add the community name in parentheses (in this case, The Daily Item (Sunbury)) and provide a disambiguation page. If using the community name is not possible (for example, there is a Washington Times-Herald in Washington, Ind., and a defunct Washington Times-Herald in D.C.; the alternative weekly The Phoenix publishes in several locations), use a regional name ("Washington Times-Herald (Indiana)") or some other disambiguation word ("The Phoenix (newspaper)"). If at all possible, however, use the community name.

[edit] Infobox

The Daily Planet

Little did you know that all these papers, and indeed all European papers of quality, are actually just foreign editions of The Daily Planet. Actually, this image (click on it) does a good job of explaining newspaper formats.
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner Galaxy Communications
Publisher Bruce Wayne
Editor Perry White
Founded 1932, as Metropolis Daily Star
Headquarters 220 East 42nd Street, Metropolis, New Troy 12345 Flag of the United States United States
Circulation 654,321 daily, 789,987 Sunday in 2006[1]
ISSN 1234-5678
Website: dailyplanet.com

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, 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 responsible for the paper's finances and hiring the publisher. 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.
  • Publisher should be the executive ultimately responsible for the business of running the newspaper. It should be a person's name, not a company's. If a newspaper is published by the subsidiary of a larger company, list the larger company as "owner" and the head of the subsidiary as "publisher", and discuss the subsidiary (or -ies) in the body text.
  • Editor should be only one person -- the top-ranking member of the newspaper's news-gathering ("editorial") team. This person may have the title "managing editor", "executive editor", "editor-in-chief", etc.; if this is important, explain it in the text, not the infobox.
  • 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 bureau. Additional locations can be cited in the article text. As a courtesy 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. Also, give the name of the country at the end of the address using the country flag template: {{CAN}} for Flag of Canada Canada, {{ENG}} for Flag of England England, {{USA}} for Flag of the United States United States, and so on.
  • 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).
  • ISSN is the paper's unique "serial number". Include it whenever possible.
  • 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.

[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.

The last two sections of the body text should be "References" and "External links" (in that order). All factual material in the body text -- and the circulation figure in the infobox -- should be sourced; the preferred way to handle references is through footnotes (the <ref> tag). Inline citations (such as this one: [1]), however, are preferable to no citation at all. In "External links", please give a link to the newspaper's Website and the Website of the company that owns the paper, if applicable; other sites may also be appropriate (blogs, online articles about the newspaper, etc.).

[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. Please ensure that the article is categorized both as a newspaper stub and as a geographical stub; this can be accomplished by using both {{US-newspaper-stub}} and the applicable state article stub (e.g., {{NewMexico-stub}}). Alternatively, some states or regions have proprietary stubs such as {{California-newspaper-stub}}. There's no need to have two stub markers, in that case.

Additionally, each newspaper should be placed in Wikipedia categories with other newspapers from its country, state or region (the place in which it is published, not every place it covers); other newspapers in its chain; and other points of interest in its county or region (again, the place in which it is published, not every place 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]]

Some larger cities or regions have their own categories for newspapers, nested within the state or national category. Use the local category: put Chicago Tribune in Category:Newspapers of Chicago, not Category:Newspapers published in Illinois.

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.