Newspaper of record

A "newspaper of record" is a colloquial term that generally refers to a newspaper that meets one (or both) of two criteria:

high standards of journalism, the articles of which establish a definitive record of current events, for use by future scholars, and/or
compliance with the legal requirements necessary to be recognized by the government as permitted to carry public or legal notices and have the notices be recognized as being made public by publication in that newspaper. Newspapers qualifying under this provision are sometimes also referred to as a newspaper of public record.

In its more common meaning, a newspaper of record is generally any public newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically unbiased.

Newspapers of record are usually found internationally at newsstands as representative of the publishing country's news. In some countries, newspapers of record may be the only ones that schoolchildren, particularly those in private schools, may quote from, or even be seen with in school. Newspapers of record generally have strong editors and proprietors and are allowed to hold independent views from those of their proprietor.

Controversy

Some editors of top Western newspapers consider the term obsolete and meaningless, when used in its strict, "record keeping" meaning. In that meaning, the term is considered a legacy of a time when newspapers were required to print official bulletins, shipping schedules and the like, before the advent of the more literary forms of modern journalism. Daniel Okrent, the public editor of the New York Times (which claims to have invented the term "newspaper of record" in 1927) wrote on April 25, 2004THE PUBLIC EDITOR; Paper of Record? No Way, No Reason, No Thanks, The New York Times, 25 April 2004 that his paper is no longer a newspaper of record, and that this change is to be welcomed. In his view, the journalism of a "newspaper of record" is "as much stenography as reporting, as much virtual reprinting of handouts (in the form of verbatim transcripts of unexceptional speeches) as provocative journalism." John Geddes, the managing editor of the New York Times, expressed this even more strongly: "I don't think there can be a 'paper of record.' The term implies an omniscient chronicler of events, an arbiter that perfectly captures the significance and import of a day in our lives. I don't work at that place."

Broadsheet, compact and tabloid

In a number of countries newspapers of record have generally been broadsheet, although now some of these publications have switched or are planning to switch to a tabloid/compact format, partially as a cost-cutting measure but also to appeal more to the commuter (as the smaller sizes are more suitable to reading on public transport).

List of newspapers of record

Newspapers generally considered "newspapers of record" include (classified by language):

Newspapers of record in English, by country

Australia

The Australian: National
The Australian Financial Review: Sydney
The Age: Melbourne
The Sydney Morning Herald: Sydney

Canada

The Globe and Mail: Toronto
The Toronto Star: Canada's highest circulating paper

Egypt

Al-Ahram Weekly: Cairo

Hong Kong

Lebanon

The Daily Star: Beirut, printed and distributed with the International Herald Tribune

Malaysia

New Straits Times: Kuala Lumpur

New Zealand

The New Zealand Herald: Auckland

Pakistan

Dawn: Karachi
The News International: Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad
Business Recorder: Karachi

Philippines

Philippine Daily Inquirer: Makati City
Manila Bulletin: Manila
Manila Standard Today: Manila
Manila Times: Manila
Philippine Star: Manila

Russia

The Moscow Times: Moscow

Singapore

The Straits Times:

South Africa

Mail & Guardian: Johannesburg

United Arab Emirates

Khaleej Times: Dubai

United Kingdom

=England

Traditionally, The Times: London has been considered as "without rival, the paper of record" (and gave its name to a typeface)
The Daily Telegraph: London has also been considered the "other paper of record"
The Guardian: London
The Independent: London
Financial Times: London (main base)

=Scotland

The Scotsman: Edinburgh, "Scotland's national newspaper"
The Herald: Glasgow

=Wales

The Western Mail: Cardiff, "The national newspaper of Wales".

=Northern Ireland

The Belfast Telegraph: Belfast, moderate Unionist
The News Letter: Belfast, Unionist (the oldest English language newspaper still in publication in the world, founded in 1737)
The Irish News: Belfast, moderate Nationalist

United States

Because of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Near v. Minnesota, the government does not (and can not) define certain papers as having a right to print or otherwise restrict or license newspapers. Therefore, in the U.S. a newspaper of record is generally any public newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically unbiased. This is why, for example, despite its having a large circulation, a newspaper such as The National Enquirer is not considered a newspaper of record (its news-gathering functions are not considered professional nor are its stories considered unbiased), while a paper such as the Boston Globe, with a much smaller circulation, is considered a newspaper of record. Most U.S. daily newspapers having a publication of 500,000 or 1,000,000 and above would qualify as newspapers of record.