THE NEWSPAPER

THE NEWSPAPER

1. HISTORY

   • Was not until the invention of the printing press in the late Middle Ages that mass-produced printed matter became possible.
   • the first regular newspaper, Avisa Relation oder Zeitung, appeared in Germany in the early 17th century.
   • The first English-language newspaper, the Weekly Newes, began publishing in England in 1622.
   • One of the first newspapers in the U.S. was Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, which began appearing in Boston in 1690.
     • Many of these papers and their successors over the next few generations were concerned with political issues of the day.
     • A growing literacy rate among the populace also helped make such printed matter more popular and profitable.

2. EDITORIAL PROCESS

   • The process of producing a daily edition of a large city newspaper begins with a meeting of the paper's editors, who determine the amount of editorial copy in an issue based on the advertising space that has already been sold.
     • is compiled from correspondents who send in their stories electronically
     • the editor checks the stories, sometimes rewriting them or increasing or decreasing their length
     • Timeliness is of the essence in the newspaper business.
       • Even 150 years ago, New York City publishers would have messengers waiting to meet ships coming from Europe
     • The Linotype machine, developed in the 1880s, combined the processes of composing text
       • The Linotype increased the speed of a typesetter fourfold. This allowed editors to cut labor costs while getting all the latest news.

3. William S. Pretzer

   • the process begins with a correspondent submitting a report
   • The rewrite journalist fine-tunes the wording of the story and makes sure it answers the six important questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
   • he city desk editor, who is responsible for the paper's local content, looks over the story, makes additional changes if necessary, and sends it over to the news desk.
     • The news editor, who makes the final call about which stories to run in the upcoming edition based on their relevance, may make further changes before submitting the piece to the copydesk