A daily newspaper is a periodical publication that reports on current events, usually in a local or regional area. Typical content includes news, weather, classified ads and sports scores. A daily newspaper may also contain a variety of opinion and feature articles. Often, it has editorial staff. A daily newspaper is typically printed on a regular schedule and has a specific circulation.
Newspapers are generally aimed at a broad segment of the population in a geographical area, but some are targeted at a more limited audience, such as businesspeople or sports fans within a region. Others are targeted at a group of readers defined more by their interests than by their location, such as immigrant communities, gay people or indie rock enthusiasts within a city or region.
The most famous of all daily newspapers is the New York Daily News, a tabloid that was founded in 1919 and reached its peak circulation in 1947 at around 2.4 million copies a day. It was the first newspaper in the United States to use a tabloid format and was the inspiration for the name of the popular Superman character. The paper’s original building, 220 East 42nd Street, was a city and national landmark designed by architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood and resembled the Daily Planet building from the Superman films. The Daily News moved to its present headquarters at 450 West 33rd Street (also known as Manhattan West) in 1995.
Some of the most popular daily newspapers are those covering national and international news. These are known as flagship newspapers, and they typically have a high circulation and brand recognition. Many of these newspapers have a particular political affiliation or ideology, which can be reflected in their coverage and in the style of writing and design. In the United States, for example, there are a number of influential daily newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
In addition to major daily newspapers, there are many smaller, locally focused publications. These are often less expensive to produce and distribute than larger papers, but they usually lack the brand recognition of the larger newspapers. They may be printed in a small town or rural area, cover local news and events, or focus on a specific interest group such as business, agriculture, education or sports.
In the early modern era, increased trade and travel created a need for rapid communication of political and economic events. This was met by the development of concise handwritten newsletters called avvisi, which cost one gazetta, a coin that was then worth about 50 cents. The avvisi did not fully meet the classical definition of newspaper, but they were the precursor to the modern newspaper. From the 1920s on, market penetration of daily newspapers began to decline as other media gained prominence. In the mid-2010s, newspaper circulation was at its lowest level in decades. The trend is likely to continue as digital media expands and people turn to social networking sites for their daily news.