While the sensational fall of Rupert Murdoch ’s media conglomerate is chronicled this hebdomad by media outlets everywhere , we recall we ’d get to the bottom of a less sensational question : Why are gossipy newspaper called “ tabloids ” anyway ?
The answer is gentle to withdraw . No , really : condensed , simplified , “ easy - to - swallow ” reportage was first nickname “ tabloid ” news media in the early part of the twentieth century as a contemporary reference to the tablet - sized medications in apothecary’s shop across the straightlaced world . The so - called “ tabloid ” medicines were all the madness in the 1880s because , unlike traditional medical specialty , which came in large sack of bitter - try out powders , they were little and easy to swallow . The same was true of the new tabloid report , which were not only physically belittled — a mere 16.9 by 11 inch , to the traditional newspaper ’s 29.5 by 23.5 in — but also easy to record than their large , denser broadsheet cousins .
When tabloid newspapers strike newsstands at the end of the nineteenth century , they featured short , tasty articles on celebrities and scandals , along with a dose of substantial news — highly sensationalized , of course , for well-to-do consumption . While some tabloid newspaper editors claim their merchandise were as journalistically rich , simply more thickset than regular newspapers , the tabloid form quickly became synonymous with lowbrow , unserious reportage — a common article of faith that has hardly dented sales .
A hundred years ago , famous tabloids like Joseph Pulitzer’sNew York Worldand William Randolph Hearst’sNew York Journal — the forefathers of Murdoch’sNew York PostandStar — were selling like hotcakes . Their newspaper publisher had discovered a remunerative , and persistent , accuracy : news sell better if it ’s wildly entertaining ( never listen how lawful it is ) .
Image acknowledgment : Flickr userkrossbow
today , the term “ tabloid ” often bring up to the anti-intellectual , gossipy rags in supermarket checkout counter lines that lure you in with screaming banner newspaper headline like " Alien Baby find Wandering in Area 51 . "
Now who would n’t want to read that ?
