Technically speaking, the term "tabloid" refers only to the half-broadsheet size of the papers. It is now almost invariably used to refer to the paper whose "stock in trade is the human-interest, graphically told story, heavy on pictures and short, pithy, highly stereotyped prose" (Bird 8).  The audience for tabloid magazines usually includes the masses of society, mainly because "from the start the tabloid identified itself completely with the common people.  It concentrated upon their interests, dramatized their heroes and villains, responded with keen sensitivity to their needs and spoke their language" (Bessie 17). 

      Tabloids have flourished "in times of increased competition in the news industry as well in times of rapid social change, such as that experienced by the immigrants of the 19th and early 20th centuries" (Ehrlich 3). The New York Illustrated Daily News (Illustrated was shortly dropped from its name) was introduced in 1919 and immediately broke all records in newspaper circulation.  From as early on as 1924, the objective of tabloid journalism has been to entertain rather than to inform: "We intend to interest you mightily," explained Bernarr MacFadden, publisher of the New York Daily Graphic, perhaps the loudest of the tabloids of the Roaring Twenties, "We intend to dramatize and sensationalize the news and some stories that are not news... If you read it from first to last and find anything therein that does not interest you, we want you to write and tell us about it" (Bird 7).  Closely following the introduction of the Graphic -- soon nicknamed by wit as the Pornographic -- was the New York Mirror,  whose circulation in March 1925 "crossed the 250,000 mark and by the summer of 1926 . . . had mounted to 370,000," a total exceeded by only the Daily News (Bessie 143).  With these two prominent publications, the awareness of tabloids swept the nation and became a popular source for news regarding crime, sex and celebrity gossip. 

     YOU DON'T CLEARLY INTRODUCE WHAT EXTRA IS OR WHAT ENQUIRER YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. THE BIG CHUNKS OF QUOTES DON'T HELP EITHER, AS THEY OCCUR WITHOUT AN ESTABLISHED CONTEXT. IN ANY CASE, SUPERMARKET TABLOIDS ARE LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE TABLOID APPROACH TO NEWS IN MORE TRADITIONAL OR RESPECTABLE NEWS MEDIA. YOU START IN ON THAT WHEN YOU BRING UP TV AT THE END.

ANOTHER THING -- WHAT HAPPENED TO TABLOID BETWEEN 1920 AND 1960? DID DEPRESSION DAMPEN IT? WORLD WAR II?

MORE: WHY WERE CLASSIC TABLOIDS POPULAR (BESSIE QUOTES OR OFFERS SOME THEORIES)? WHAT WAS THEIR FORMULA (HE EXPLAINS THAT AT LENGTH, TOO)?

After World War II, radical changes in newspaper production in particular and mass communication in general occurred on a par with those brought by the Industrial Revolution. Electronic and communications technology have continued to revolutionize the ways in which newspapers are written, edited, and printed, while radio, television, and the Internet have developed into serious competitors as sources of news, official information, and entertainment—and as vehicles for advertising. - Encyc Britannica

The introduction of the "supermarket tabloid" started a revolution within the tabloid journalism genre in the 1960s.  One of the first major transformations of the tabloids that motivated other huge publishers to do it as well was Allied's News Company's tabloid, National News Extra, and its spur of the moment stray from their normal issue early in the 1970's.  With the group's limited budget for Extra and focus on its other publications, such as the National Tattler and National Insider,  Allied's owners decided that "[The] 25,000 copies it sold in a typical week to lunatic-fringe readers and campy college kids didn't justify spending money on agency pictures or freelance articles.  The idea was to stuff Extra with file photos, bizarre in-house columns, a few knockoffs from other papers, and cover stories concocted out of desperation, alcoholic fantasy, and whole cloth" Sloan (12). 

      This new layout and attractive pictures and random articles influenced the owner of The National Enquirer to change up their usual issue as well.  The owner also took note of how successful Woman's Day magazine was in supermarkets and decided to revamp his own tabloid: "The suddenness of the Enquirer's transformation of 1967-68 caught [...] imitators completely by surprise.  The magnitude and totality of the change left other tabloid publishers blinking their eyes, scratching their collective heads, and wondering if [the owner] had taken leave of his senses.  By the time some of them figured out what was happening, Enquirer display racks were already being installed at score of supermarket checkouts, and its outflanked competitors were left to play a desperate game of catch-up.  At a casual glance, the 'new' Enquirer still looked pretty much like the old Enquirer.  It still had the same splashy photo layouts, blaring headlines, circus makeup, and breezy, rat-tat-tat writing.  But the different in tone and subject matter was like the difference between night and day.  Now, instead of 'MOM BOILED HER BABY AND ATE IT,' it was 'YOU CAN'T GET A DOCTOR WHEN YOU NEED ONE' and 'Outraged Public Authorities Demand... GET TOUGH WITH COLLEGE RIOTERS'" (Sloan 79). 

     This transformation shocked the public and started the major revolution of "supermarket tabloids" which, "[a]s any checkout-lane browswer knows, [...] serve up a mixture of celebrity gossip, human-interest features, usually with a 'sensational' twist, stories about occult and psychic phenomena, UFOs and so on, and large doses of advice, self-help tips, and medical news" (Bird 8). 

     Tabloidism has since extended itself onto television and into many magazines.  These entertaining news venues are often confused with real, genuine news and have become widespread within today's media sources.       

Works Cited

Bessie, Simon. Jazz Journalism. New York: Russell & Russell, 1938, rev. 1966.

This book recounts the rapid rate at which tabloids swept the nation and how the picture-packed newspapers came to be.  It contains reprints of front pages of The New York Graphic, the most flamboyant of the early tabloids.

Bird, S. Elizabeth. For Enquiring Minds : A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids. New York: University of Tennessee, 1992.

This book explains monumental stepping stones throughout tabloid history with sample tabloid covers.  This book also explains the tabloid from the writer's and the reader's points of view.

Ehrlich, Matthew C. The Journalism of Outrageousness: Tabloid Television News vs. Investigative News. Columbia, SC: The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1996.

This monograph explains why and how tabloid journalism became so popular and what topics tabloids thrive on. It also exposes the real thoughts behind tabloid journalists’ approaches to their scandalous stories.

Sloan, Bill. I Watched a Wild Hog Eat My Baby! : A Colorful History of Tabloids and Their Cultural Impact. New York: Prometheus Books, 2001.

This book describes how tabloids came to be sold at supermarkets and gives a brief chronology of tabloid journalism.  It also offers a synopsis of the process tabloid writers use to develop stories.

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