Sections in the newspaper

Regardless of whether you read newspapers that are large and nationwide, or small and local, when you browse through them, they mostly appear pretty similar... On the front page, are the paper's main news items. This is the news, which the journalists on the paper judge as the most important from the previous day and night. Turn to the next page, and you can be almost certain to find one or more sections where the newspaper takes a stand, and has an opinion, on some current event. This is the editorial page.

It comments, analyses, and argues. Different papers have different political profiles. Some are left leaning, others are more conservative, or liberal, in their editorial pages. A well written editorial is an interesting read, even if you don't agree with the opinions that are presented in it. The journalist behind the editorial is the editorial writer.

Most often they don't sign the editorial with their name. Instead it's thought of as representing the entire newspaper. Turn another page or two, and you often find a page containing debate. Here, there's also opinions and not news, but this time it's not the paper's opinions, but that of politicians, researchers, or organisations. Both the editorial page and the opinion piece is often a reaction, or a reply, to something that has happened or that a politician has said.

And tomorrow it might happen that one of the other newspapers' editorials or opinion pieces, will reply and comment on what's written here today. So, if you read the editorial and opinion piece every day, you'll soon notice that they are part of an ongoing conversation, a public discourse, about society, the economy and other things that many find important. Let's keep browsing! Now we get to the news. Here you can read about current events.

Journalists have asked questions, they have interviewed people, read up on documents and dug up facts, in order to be able to tell you about what has happened. Quite often the news items are sorted, according to what they are about, and where the events have taken place. World, or foreign affairs, are terms used to describe the section where news items about other countries are found. Domestic, means news from this country. Local news, is news from the city or the area where the newspaper is issued.

Then, most newspapers have a section of culture and entertainment, with news and reviews about film, theater, fine art, and music. News about the economy, companies, banks, and how the stocks are doing in the market, is often given its own section too. Then there might be a few letters from the readers. They are a bit like the opinion piece, only here, just about anyone can be published. And then there's a section with sports...

Near the end, quite often, you find pages with what's on TV, ... tomorrow's weather... ... and maybe some comic strips. There you go, an example of how a pretty typical newspaper is arranged! But of course, all papers don't look exactly the same.

Try for yourself! Browse through three or four different newspapers, and create a table of contents for each of them, with the various sections, and then compare, with each other, and with this list!