Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

(usually dramatized and sometimes unverifiable or even blatantly false), which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as half broadsheet. The size became associated with sensationalism, and ''tabloid journalism'' replaced the earlier label of '' yellow journalism'' and ''scandal sheets''. Not all newspapers associated with tabloid journalism are tabloid size, and not all tabloid-size newspapers engage in tabloid journalism; in particular, since around the year 2000 many broadsheet newspapers converted to the more compact tabloid format. In some cases, celebrities have successfully sued for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

, demonstrating that tabloid stories have defamed them. Publications engaging in tabloid journalism are known as rag newspapers or simply rags. Tabloid journalism has changed over the last decade to more online platforms that seek to target and engage youth consumers with celebrity news and

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Scandal sheets

Scandal sheets were the precursors to tabloid journalism. Around 1770, scandal sheets appeared in London, and in the United States as early as the 1840s. Reverend Henry Bate was the editor of one of the earliest scandal sheets, '' The Morning Post'', which specialized in printing malicious society gossip, selling positive mentions in its pages, and collecting suppression fees to keep stories unpublished. Other

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scandal sheets were Theodore Hook's '' John Bull'', Charles Molloy Westmacott's ''The Age'', and Barnard Gregory's ''

The Satirist ''The Satirist, or the Censor of the Times'' was a controversial 19th-century British newspaper which featured reports of scandals involving well known residents of London. It was published by Barnard Gregory, who faced multiple libel charges ...

''. William d'Alton Mann, owner of the scandal sheet '' Town Topics'', explained his purpose: "My ambition is to reform the Four Hundred by making them too deeply disgusted with themselves to continue their silly, empty way of life." Many scandal sheets in the U.S. were short-lived attempts at blackmail. One of the most popular in the States was the '' National Police Gazette''. Scandal sheets in the early 20th century were usually 4- or 8-page cheap papers specializing in the lurid and profane, sometimes used to grind political, ideological, or personal axes, sometimes to make money (because "scandal sells"), and sometimes for extortion. A Duluth, Minnesota example was '' The Rip-saw'', written by a puritanical journalist named John R. Morrison who was outraged by the vice and corruption he observed in that 1920s mining town. ''The Rip-saw'' regularly published accusations of drunkenness, debauchery, and corruption against prominent citizens and public officials. Morrison was convicted of criminal libel in one instance, but his scandal sheet may have contributed to several politicians losing their elections. After Morrison published an issue claiming that State Senator Mike Boylan had threatened to kill him, Boylan responded by helping to pass the Public Nuisance Bill of 1925. It allowed a single judge, without jury, to stop a newspaper or magazine from publishing, forever. Morrison died before the new law could be used to shut down ''The Rip-saw''. ''

The Saturday Press ''The Saturday Press'' was the name of at least two periodicals: * ''The Saturday Press'' (literary newspaper), a New-York based literary weekly newspaper that appeared from 1858 to 1860 and again from 1865 to 1866. * ''The Saturday Press'' (Minnea ...

'' was another Minnesota scandal sheet. When the Public Nuisance Bill of 1925 was used to shut down ''The Saturday Press'',

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made its way to the

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which found the

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to be unconstitutional.

Supermarket tabloids

In the United States and Canada, "supermarket tabloids" are large, national versions of these tabloids, usually published weekly. They are named for their prominent placement along the

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

checkout lines. In the 1960s, the ''National Enquirer'' began selling magazines in supermarkets as an alternative to newsstands. To help with their rapport with supermarkets and continue their franchise within them, they had offered to buy back unsold issues so newer, more up to date ones could be displayed. These tabloids—such as '' The Globe'' and the ''National Enquirer''—often use aggressive and usually mean-spirited tactics to sell their issues. Unlike regular tabloid-format newspapers, supermarket tabloids are distributed through the magazine distribution channel like other weekly magazines and mass-market paperback books. Leading examples include the ''National Enquirer'', ''

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'', '' Weekly World News'' (later reinvented as a parody of the style), and the '' Sun''. Most major supermarket tabloids in the U.S. are published by American Media, Inc., including the ''National Enquirer'', ''Star'', '' The Globe'', and '' National Examiner''. A major event in the history of U.S. supermarket tabloids was the successful libel lawsuit by Carol Burnett against the ''National Enquirer'' ('' Carol Burnett v. National Enquirer, Inc.''), arising out of a false 1976 report in the ''National Enquirer'', implying she was drunk and boisterous in a public encounter with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Though its impact is widely debated, it is generally seen as a significant turning point in the relations between celebrities and tabloid journalism, increasing the willingness of celebrities to sue for libel in the U.S., and somewhat dampening the recklessness of U.S. tabloids."How the Supermarket Tabloids Stay Out of Court"
January 4, 1991, ''The New York Times'', retrieved January 1, 2017. (Opinion essay by libel attorney for Carol Burnett and others) Other celebrities have attempted to sue tabloid magazines for libel and slander including Richard Simmons in 2017 and

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in 2016. Tabloids may pay for stories. Besides scoops meant to be headline stories, this can be used to censor stories damaging to the paper's allies. Known as "

catch and kill Catch and kill is a surreptitious technique employed by newspapers and media outlets to prevent an individual from publicly revealing information damaging to a third party. Using a legally enforceable non-disclosure agreement, the tabloid purpor ...

", tabloid newspapers may pay someone for the exclusive rights to a story, then choose not to run it. Publisher American Media has been accused of burying stories embarrassing to Arnold Schwarzenegger,

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, and Harvey Weinstein.

Red tops

The term "red tops" refers to British tabloids with red mastheads, such as '' The Sun'', the '' Daily Star'', the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ci ...

'', and the '' Daily Record''.

Modern tabloid journalism

In the last decade, much of tabloid journalism and news production has changed mediums to online formats due to the transition to

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. '' ...

. This change is to keep up with the era of digital media and allow for increased accessibility of readers. With a steady decline in paid newspapers, the gap has been filled by expected free daily articles, mostly in the tabloid format. Tabloid readers are often youths and studies show that consumers of tabloids are on average less educated. It can often depict inaccurate news and misrepresent individuals and situations.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control News media manipulation Media bias Types of journalism