Tabloids are about more than trashy headlines
Love them or hate them, their history and future are long
BEFORE any journalist thought to use the word, a drugs company trademarked it in 1884. “Tabloid”, a portmanteau of “tablet” and “alkaloid”, denoted drugs in tablet form but quickly assumed a broader meaning: “anything compressed or concentrated for easy assimilation”. That also describes what has come to be known as tabloid journalism: brief sentences, punchy (and often incendiary) headlines, short articles, famous subjects.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “It’s an ink-stained world”
Culture September 14th 2024
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