A middle-market newspaper is one that attempts to cater to readers who want some entertainment value from their newspaper as well as sufficient coverage of significant news events. Middle-market status is the halfway point of a three-level continuum of journalistic seriousness; upmarket newspapers generally cover hard news and down-market newspapers favor sensationalist stories. In the United Kingdom, since the demise of Today (1986–95), the only national middle-market papers are the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, distinguishable by their black-top masthead, as opposed to the tabloids' red-top mastheads. The best known American mid-market papers are USA Today, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the New York Daily News.[1]