USA Today (newspaper)
USA Today is a national newspaper in the United States, launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth as part of the Gannett Company. Initially conceived to cater to a general audience, especially travelers and businesspeople, it offered a unique format designed to be attractive and easy to read. The newspaper aimed to provide succinct yet deeper coverage of news, sports, and lifestyle topics compared to local papers, incorporating colorful graphics and information boxes to enhance readability. Despite skepticism from industry experts about its viability, USA Today quickly gained popularity, becoming the most widely read newspaper in the U.S. within its first decade.
With a commitment to accessibility, USA Today established distribution in numerous major cities and became a staple in hotels, airports, and other travel venues. Its influence led other newspapers to adopt similar features, such as color and expanded leisure sections. As of 2016, it boasted a daily print and online readership of seven million, making it one of the top-circulated newspapers globally by 2018. Over the years, USA Today has also diversified its offerings with various offshoots and has received multiple awards for its journalism, underscoring its impact on the media landscape.
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USA Today (newspaper)
Identification Daily national newspaper
Date Founded on September 15, 1982
USA Today, targeted at a general, less sophisticated audience than other national newspapers, was credited with an innovative strategy for successful journalism, even as it was criticized for lowering the standards of the journalistic profession.
In 1981, Allen Neuharth, chief executive officer of the Gannett Company, announced plans to produce a new national newspaper that would target a general audience. In an era when many newspapers had decreasing circulations, this plan to print another paper caused many people in the industry to doubt its business practicality. Despite this cynicism, Neuharth’s innovative paper USA Today rapidly gained a following and soon influenced other editors to adopt some of its features.
The original premise of the paper was not to replace local or national newspapers but to provide travelers, businesspeople, and the general public with a weekday paper that had an attractive, easy-to-read format. USA Today was to have deeper coverage of news, money, sports, and life than local papers generally provided, but it would feature more succinct articles than the New York Times and its competitors, as well as colored pictures and graphics and simple information boxes. Special features also were to include a front-page index and a color weather map. The paper was designed to be a commuter’s paper, featuring top news and sports stories.
The first edition of USA Today was launched in the Washington-Baltimore area. Soon thereafter, editions were available in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Denver. Over the next few months, the paper spread to other large cities, including Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. Although not greeted equally well in each city, circulation grew substantially as distribution increased.
Although the popularity of USA Today was quickly assured, many media reports continued to describe the paper with disfavor. They likened its format and content to the food served at fast-food chains, sometimes referring to USA Today as “McPaper.” During the first decade, readership increased, finally making it the most widely read newspaper in the United States, but advertising sales did not increase proportionally. In 1993, USA Today finally reported a profitable year. As the paper found its niche, increasing the depth of some of its news coverage and evaluating and analyzing new marketing opportunities, other newspapers followed its lead by adding color and increasing their leisure and travel sections.
In 2016, USA Today had a combined daily print and online readership of seven million. In 2018, USA Today was the third most circulated newspaper in the world. Bed and breakfasts, hotels, airports, and other travel centers also rely on it as a standard media offering that is available both in print and online. Offshoots of the paper include USA Today Sports, USA International, USA Today Travel, and book and video projects. USA Today has become one of the most influential newspapers in the United States with thirty-six print sites across the country. The newspaper has received a number of recognitions, including the GLAAD Media Award for its news coverage (2003, 2006), the Billie Award for Journalism (2006), the Red Smith Award (2017), and multiple National Headliner Awards.
Bibliography
"About USA Today." USA Today, static.usatoday.com/about/. Accessed 3 Jan. 2019.
Prichard, Peter. The Making of McPaper: The Inside Story of “USA Today.” Kansas City: Andrews, McMeel & Parker, 1987.
Rider, Rem. “Against All Odds: Left for Dead by the Pundits, USA Today Celebrates Its Twenty-Fifth Birthday.” American Journalism Review 29, no. 5 (October-November, 2007): 4.