Whether exciting and uplifting, tragic and scary or sensationalistic and trivial, daily news can have a significant impact on people’s lives. It can help to shape opinions and debate and also provide a useful source of information for researchers and historians. Daily news is available in a variety of forms from the internet and television to radio and magazines. However newspapers remain the most time-honored method of delivering daily news to an extensive audience worldwide.
A newspaper is a periodical publication that reports current events in an objective, concise and engaging way. The main aim of a newspaper is to inform its readers about local, national and international news. Newspapers also provide a glimpse into the past, through historical articles and commentary.
While most newspaper are aimed at a specific geographic area, some specialise in niche groups such as sports fans, or culturally defined populations (e.g., the gay community in a city or region). Others are weekly and target a specific audience within a limited area, such as the business community of a particular city or country.
Unlike daily news, national publications tend to focus on issues that affect a wide population. They may also feature international news, particularly if it has a large impact on the overall economy of a country. This type of news can be helpful for gaining a perspective on other countries and their cultures. It can also be useful for determining the effects of global events on the economy of certain cities or regions.
A national newspaper can also be useful for keeping up to date on major political events. It can help to know who is winning and losing elections, and how they plan to implement new policies. It can also be helpful to know which states and countries are supplying the most or least oil, or where other natural resources are located.
Daily newspapers are often referred to as tabloids because of their size and sensational headlines. Some, such as the New York Daily News, are renowned for their pictorial coverage of a variety of events, including murders, disasters, and other shocking incidents. A notorious example was the newspaper’s front page in 1975, which read “Ford to City: Drop Dead” after President Gerald Ford vetoed a bankruptcy bailout for New York City.
In the late 1990s, the paper began to build a reputation for investigative journalism and writing about social issues. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1996 for E.R. Shipp’s pieces on welfare and social issues, and another in 1998 for Mike McAlary’s reportage of police brutality against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. In 1995, the paper left its home of 65 years, the News Building at 220 East 42nd Street in Manhattan, for a single-story facility in Brooklyn. Its 42nd Street location, now known as 5 Manhattan West, is an official City and National Landmark designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, and still features a giant globe and weather instruments in its lobby.