Analyzing Parts of a Newspaper
Functions of a Daily Newspaper**** Hard News vs Soft News**** Fact vs Opinion **** News Judgement (what is newsworthy) ****Advertising **** Editorial Page ****
Functions of a Daily Newspaper
The daily newspaper, in its role as the free press, serves
several functions in the community:
· A newspaper informs by supplying facts, figures,
charts, maps, photos and illustrations.
· A newspaper educates, going beyond the basic facts
to in-depth analysis in opinion pieces, feature
stories, columns and editorials.
· A newspaper entertains with humorous columns, leisure features, comics and
puzzles.
· A newspaper provides a print marketplace for advertisers and prospective
customers.
· A newspaper provides a record for historians and members of a community
researching local history.
Types of News: Hard news and soft news
News can be divided into two general categories: hard news and soft news.
Hard news refers to a story in which time is a factor. In a hard news story, the task
of reporters and editors is to get the details of the event ( what happened? to whom?
when? where? why? and how?) into the newspaper as quickly as possible - either the
same day or the following day at the latest.
Soft news is usually not time sensitive. Nor is it necessarily related to a major event.
A daily newspaper strives for a mixture of local and national, hard and soft news so
its pages will have variety and offer something for every interest.
Fact versus opinion
A newspaper's primary purpose is to provide reliable information to its readers. To do
so, it must maintain certain standards. A reporter has to write from an objective
point of view.
To convey information fairly, a reporter must let the facts speak for themselves.
That's not to say opinion has no place in newspapers.
Opinions supporting or opposing policies and ideas have a place on the editorial page
and are regularly aired by columnists. If opinions are to have any value, they must
be supported by facts.
News Judgement
Trying to define what constitutes news is a delicate.business. Some of the key factors include:
Impact: Is the only factory in town closing down? That has
a bigger impact than two people being laid off, so it's bigger
news. A disaster is big news because of its impact, leaving
people hurt and homeless.
Conflict: A demonstration for animal rights in which people peacefully march and
chant slogans is not a major news story. But if a confrontation develops between the
protesters and a fur coat merchant, and someone gets hurt, it becomes a major
story because the level of conflict has increased.
Prominence: Are celebrities or politicians involved in a story? If so, it's a bigger
story. A failed marriage in the Royal Family is a big headline around the world, but
the same problems, if they happened to your next -door neighbour, wouldn't even
make the local paper.
Proximity: If your newspaper is in Timmins, Ontario, and a homeless person freezes
to death on Timmins' main street one winter night, that's big news. But if your
newspaper is in Whitehorse, Yukon, you are not as interested in a death in Timmins,
because it isn't close to your readers.
Freshness: News has a short shelf life. If a development happened an hour before
the paper's deadline, it's bigger news than if it's 24 hours old.
Novelty: There's a saying that "if a dog bites a man it isn't news, but if a man bites
a dog, that's news." Human interest: Related to novelty. Stories about the 96-yearold
who swims in the ocean every morning, winter and summer, or about the family
with 20 foster children and how they cope, are of interest to readers.
These factors are all a part of news judgement.
Advertising
Types of Advertising
There are three basic types of advertising in the newspaper.
They are: display, classified and advertorial.
· Display advertising: Display advertisements appear
in various sizes on most pages throughout the
newspaper. They contain artwork and other
information that informs the customer about a business, a product or a
service. Display advertising can be sub-divided into local or retail and national
advertising. local retail advertising emphasizes merchandise, products or
services available at stores or businesses in the community. National
advertising consists of ads that generally promote country-wide operations
such as Chrysler or Air Canada.
· Classified advertising: Classified ads are placed by individuals wishing to
advertise goods and services available or needed. The ads, as their name
implies, are grouped according to the product or service type. Classified
advertisers are billed by the word or the line. As a result, classified ads are
generally brief and descriptive.
· Advertorial sections: Most newspapers print supplements combining
advertising geared to a particular theme with stories relating to that theme.
Such supplements are called "advertorial" or are labelled as special
advertising features. These supplements are produced by the advertising
department. The editorial department is not involved in writing the stories in
these advertising features. These supplements are an important source of
revenue for newspapers and provide useful information for the readers.
However, they are not news and should not be confused with news.
How Advertising Helps the Newspaper
Advertising accounts for approximately 80 per cent of a newspaper's revenue.
Advertising is very important to the newspaper publisher. The quality of the
newspaper, its news coverage and its printing plant rely heavily on advertising
revenue. A newspaper tries to maintain a ratio of 60 per cent advertising to 40 per
cent news.
The amount of space sold to advertisers determines the number of pages in
the newspaper each day. Advertising is placed on the page first and the
space remaining becomes the newshole. Editors will arrange the stories to
be printed to fit the newshole.
The Editorial Page
The editorial page is one place in the newspaper where opinion
is not only permissible, but encouraged. The editorial page is
dominated by comment and analysis rather than objective
reporting of factual information. It is here that the opinions of
the newspapers editorial board are put forth in editorials and
that readers can put forth their opinions in letters to the
editor.
Opinions of newspaper staff members and outside correspondents appear in bylined
columns, usually located on the facing page, called the "Op-Ed" page. The Op-Ed
page also contains analysis and background pieces. At some newspapers the editorial
and Op-Ed page may be combined.
A typical editorial page consists of the following items:
· Editorials: although written by individuals, unsigned editorials reflect the corporate
opinion of the newspaper's editorial board. The viewpoint expressed is usually the
result of consensus among the editorial board members.
· Letters to the editor
· Editorial cartoon
· Columns
· Bylined pieces by newspaper staff.
Some newspapers divide this material between an editorial page and the Op-Ed
page.
Purposes of the Editorial Page
The editorial page provides a forum for the opinions of readers and editorial staff in
order to:
· provoke thought and discussion
· influence the actions of public officials
· campaign for reform and specific proposals
· provide background and analyze events
· serve as a community voice
Letters to the Editor
The letters section is the readers' forum. It gives readers space to react to domestic
and foreign news, criticize or praise editorials and columns, question the judgment of
editors, and offer personal comments on the human condition.
Reprinted from News is Not Just Black and White, a workbook produced by the Canadian Newspaper Association.