Talk:Tabloid/Archive 1

Archive 1

Examiner and Mercury

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)

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)

I disagree with the statement that in America the term "tabloid" is mostly associated with the size and format. In my experience, a reference to a "tabloid" or to "tabloid journalism" is always meant to invoke gutter journalism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.146.162.236 (talk) 21:06, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

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)

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

"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)

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)

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)

---

In Spanish we have two articles es:Tabloide and es:Prensa del corazón (heart press). Doloco (talk) 21:51, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

---

There is an article called Compact (newspaper). --Alvestrand (talk) 06:19, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

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)

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)

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)

visual media

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

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)

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)

Anyway, to finally respond, "legal-size" paper was developed in the U.S. legal industry (attorneys, etc.) as the standard size for filing briefs and other documents with a court. Thus, there are also "legal-sized" metal filing cabinets. This size is seldom used any more. GeorgeLouis (talk) 19:17, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Terrible Article

This has to be the least neutral article in Wikipedia history, and there's so much irrelevant and extraneous, not to mention uncited, information. 71.59.41.87 (talk) 17:28, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Merge of Yellow journalism

It has been suggested that Yellow journalism be merged with this article. Please give comments below in bulleted format.--DanielRigal (talk) 23:08, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose. Tabloid covers two different things: The tabloid style and the tabloid printing format. Obviously the printing format is not relevant to the style of journalism (tabloid or yellow) so this article would need to be split before the merge could go ahead. Even if we do this, I don't think a merge is a good idea as I am not convinced that the tabloid style and yellow journalism are really the same thing. Sure, a lot of tabloids are pretty damn yellow but some manage to be popularist without deserving such a negative term. Besides, yellow journalism is not just a newspaper style. In countries where there is no legal requirement for broadcast journalism to be factual and impartial, yellow journalism is just as likely to turn up on the TV or radio.--DanielRigal (talk) 23:08, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
• Oppose. Per DanielRigal, the concepts are quite different. While tabloid newspapers do have a reputation for that kind of journalistic practice, tabloids have other notable and defining features, while yellow journalism has much more negative connotations and isn't just found in the press. 84.92.117.93 (talk) 15:08, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
• Strongly oppose. Per DanielRigal. The Ministry (talk) 18:03, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
• Oppose. Per 84.92.117.93, I see the two as separate concepts that are both fully deserving of their own pages. --mcpusc (talk) 12:14, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
• Oppose. One is a type of paper, one is a style of reporting. I'm gonna be bold and remove the merge tag. GreenReaper (talk) 01:22, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
• Support in the context of being combined with the proposed split. "Tabloid journalism" is a style of reporting that appears to be the similar to the term "yellow journalism". I think one article should clearly be about the paper size of newspapers only and another article should be about yellow/tabloid or "gutter press" journalism. In view of my proposal here I'm returning the template.
• Oppose. Yellow journalism, as a term, was conceived in 19th-century USA by Hearst (and others), who printed in broadsheet-size newspapers. GeorgeLouis (talk) 19:14, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
• Oppose. Per DanielRigal This page should just focus on the one thing, tabloids. Yellow journalism is not just connected to tabloids, but other media aswell. samfenton89 (talk) 22:35, 15 September 2010 (UTC)