Tabloid News

Brief

In the early 90’s and late 2000’s, tabloids were immensely popular amongst all audiences especially in supermarkets, drugstores, and convenient stores.  

 

Tabloids can be defined as a newspaper that has news in condensed form and much photographic matter. In simple terms, tabloids can be described as modernized newspapers in complete color that is in portrait orientation that holds lots of photos.  

 

Origin 

 

The name Tabloid is derived from a London-based pharmaceutical company called Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to the compressed tablets they marketed as “tabloid” pills in the late 1800’s that meant all things small. 

 

Tabloids Reputation 

 

As mentioned earlier, tabloids were mostly popularized in the early 90’s and the late 2000’s, to which they all branded themselves to show some type of gossip, deception of headlines and titles and its target audience are prying individuals. 

 

The topics that tabloids consist of are Celebrity Gossip, News/Political Gossip, and Television Shows Gossip. 

The top three tabloid brands that have grown with me over the years are: 

 

Soap Opera Digest: I loved these small booklets due to watching General Hospital with my mother because I could read of upcoming spoilers, returning or leaving of characters, and the over drawn love affair of Sam and Jason. https://www.soapoperadigest.com/

 

Tiger Beat: up and coming teen and children's actors, cute stickers, boyfriend and girlfriend compatibility tests, and small life-sized posters that you can either rip out or cut out and place all over your walls and ceilings. https://tigerbeat.com/

US Weekly: top named celebrity news, drama, and of course gossip.   https://www.usmagazine.com

  

The Downfall of tabloids  

 

Tabloids in any local stores or franchises were very prominent, but once social media began to do more in a visual and interactive way the sales of tabloids began to decline. 

 

Youtube has played a leading role in the demise of tabloids by supplying outlets of content creators to center their content around celebrity gossip.  

                                   

 

     

Tik- Tok (formerly known as Musical.ly) has grown its popularity more and more especially during the pandemic providing its users with relatable deep topics, dance tutorials, refrigerator organizations, lots of diy projects, and my favorite of them all would be the videos that help those who have passed due to unnatural circumstances to gain justice and also to help remember their names to serve as a news outlet gossip. 

 

                                     

 

Facebook has been popular since before my mother was alive and now it has become very notable to being a social outlet known for funny commentary, sharing of our personal lives through memos or imagery, and the most crucial to my well-being would are the spoilers of popular television shows that upset me completely.  

                                                

 

Tabloids staying alive despite social media 

 

Even though social media has taken physical tabloids almost out of the picture, but the fact that older persons do not want to keep up with the innovative technology and the fact that you cannot ignore it whenever it is in your face at checkout with big bold letters, well-known figures, and eye-catching phrases has kept the movement afloat. 

 

“Though it’ll never regain its firstly presented popularity, it will always remain as the blueprint for social media gossip and news."