Tabloid (newspaper Format)

A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.

Etymology

The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to the compressed tablets they marketed as "Tabloid" pills in the late 1880s. The connotation of ''tabloid'' was soon applied to other small compressed items. A 1902 item in London's ''Westminster Gazette'' noted, "The proprietor intends to give in tabloid form all the news printed by other journals." Thus ''tabloid journalism'' in 1901, originally meant a paper that condensed stories into a simplified, easily absorbed format. The term preceded the 1918 reference to smaller sheet newspapers that contained the condensed stories.

Types

Tabloid newspapers, especially in the United Kingdom, vary widely in their target market, political alignment, editorial style, and circulation. Thus, various terms have been coined to describe the subtypes of this versatile paper format. There are, broadly, two main types of tabloid newspaper: ''red top'' and ''compact''. The distinction is largely of editorial style; both red top and compact tabloids span the width of the political spectrum from socialism to capitalist conservatism, although red-top tabloids, on account of their historically working-class target market, generally embrace populism to some degree. Red top tabloids are so named due to their tendency, in British and Commonwealth usage, to have their mastheads printed in red ink; the term ''compact'' was coined to avoid the connotation of the word ''tabloid'', which implies a red top tabloid, and has lent its name to tabloid journalism, which is journalism after the fashion of red top reporters.

Red top tabloids

Red top tabloids, named after their distinguishing red mastheads, employ a form of writing known as tabloid journalism; this style emphasizes features such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news. Celebrity gossip columns which appear in red top tabloids and focus on their sexual practices, misuse of narcotics, and the private aspects of their lives often border on, and sometimes cross the line of defamation.

Red tops tend to be written with a simplistic, straightforward vocabulary and grammar; their layout usually gives greater prominence to the picture than to the word. The writing style of red top tabloids is often accused of sensationalism and extreme political bias; red tops have been accused of deliberately igniting controversy and selectively reporting on attention-grabbing stories, or those with shock value. In the extreme case, tabloids have been accused of lying or misrepresenting the truth to increase circulation.

Examples of British red top newspapers include '' The Sun'', the '' Daily Star'' and the '' Daily Mirror''. Although not using red mastheads, the '' Daily Mail'' and '' Daily Express'' also use the 'tabloid journalism' model.

Compact tabloids

In contrast to red-top tabloids, compacts use an editorial style more closely associated with broadsheet newspapers. In fact, most compact tabloids formerly used the broadsheet paper size, but changed to accommodate reading in tight spaces, such as on a crowded commuter bus or train. The term ''compact'' was coined in the 1970s by the '' Daily Mail'', one of the earlier newspapers to make the change, although it now once again calls itself a tabloid. The purpose behind this was to avoid the association of the word ''tabloid'' with the flamboyant, salacious editorial style of the red top newspaper.

The early converts from broadsheet format made the change in the 1970s; two British papers that took this step at the time were the ''Daily Mail'' and the '' Daily Express''. In 2003, ''The Independent'' also made the change for the same reasons, quickly followed by '' The Scotsman'' and ''The Times''. On the other hand, '' The Morning Star'' had always used the tabloid size, but stands in contrast to both the red top papers and the former broadsheets; although ''The Morning Star'' emphasizes hard news, it embraces socialism and is circulated mostly among blue-collar labourers.

Compact tabloids, just like broadsheet- and Berliner-format newspapers, span the political spectrum from progressive to conservative and from capitalist to socialist.

International use

Africa

In Morocco, '' Maroc Soir'', launched in November 2005, is published in tabloid format.

In South Africa, the Bloemfontein-based daily newspaper ''Volksblad'' became the first serious broadsheet newspaper to switch to tabloid, but only on Saturdays. Despite the format proving to be popular with its readers, the newspaper remains broadsheet on weekdays. This is also true of Pietermaritzburg's daily, ''The Witness'' in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The '' Daily Sun'', published by Naspers, has since become South Africa's biggest-selling daily newspaper and is aimed primarily at the black working class. It sells over 500,000 copies per day, reaching approximately 3,000,000 readers. Besides offering a sometimes satirical view of the seriousness of mainstream news, the ''Daily Sun'' also covers fringe theories and paranormal claims such as tokoloshes (hob-goblins), ancestral visions and all things supernatural. It is also published as the ''Sunday Sun''.

In Mauritius, the afternoon popular newspaper, ''Le Mauricien'', shifted from tabloid (1908-2008) to the Berliner format (2008-2013) and now adopts the compact format with 32 pages during the week and 48 pages on Saturday.

Asia

In Bangladesh, the Daily ''Manab Zamin'' became the first and is now the largest circulated Bengali language tabloid in the world.

In Georgia, the weekly English-language newspaper ''The Financial'' switched to a compact format in 2005 and doubled the number of pages in each issue. Other Georgian-language newspapers have tested compact formats in the early 1990s.

Tabloid journalism is still an evolving concept in India's print media. The first tabloid, ''Blitz'' was started by Russi Karanjia on February 1, 1941 with the words "Our Blitz, India's Blitz against Hitler!". ''Blitz'' was first published in English and then branched out with Hindi, Marathi and Urdu

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