USA Today
Identification First general-interest national daily
newspaper
Publisher Gannett Company
Date Launched on September 15, 1982
Founded by Gannett Company CEO Al Neuharth,USA
Todaywas designed to represent a completely novel alterna-
tive to the traditional newspapers of the 1980’s.
In style, content, and physical appearance, the new
national newspaperUSA Todaywas designed for the
television generation, and it rejected established
rules about what a newspaper should be. It focused
on celebrity news written in short, attention-getting
articles with simplistic prose that could be read easily
and quickly by busy people. It included many sen-
tence fragments that began with typographical
bullets, instead of complete, grammatically correct
sentences.USA Todayalso featured bold color photo-
graphs, charts, and graphics, along with a huge, col-
orful national weather map. The color ink used to
publishUSA Todaydid not rub off on readers’ hands
the way traditional gray newsprint could. Gannett
Company chief executive officer (CEO) Al Neu-
harth founded the magazine in the belief thatUSA
Today’s new type of journalism and design would be
an effective way to communicate to readers a greater
number of discrete news items.
When the first issue ofUSA Todayhit the stands in
1982, it sold out. By the end of its first year,USA To-
day’s circulation reached almost 400,000, and seven
months later the newspaper had more than one mil-
lion readers. By 1985,USA Todaywas publishing in-
ternationally, printing via satellite in Singapore and
Switzerland. The success ofUSA Todaywas not with-
out its challenges, however. The newspaper was an
expensive, high-risk venture, and it had a difficult
time securing advertising. It took five years before
USA Todaybegan to make a profit.
Newspaper traditionalists did not welcome the
entry ofUSA Todayand disapproved of its departure
from the rules of traditional journalism. Critics com-
paredUSA Today’s content to the offerings at a fast-
food restaurant, earning the newspaper the nick-
name “McPaper, the junk food of journalism.” While
critics coined this nickname to show their contempt
of the newspaper, Neuharth, confident about its suc-
cess, used the “McPaper” image to his advantage.
One columnist would later describeUSA Todayas the
“Big Mac of journalism,” and over time traditional
newspapers began adaptingUSA Today’s “McNug-
gets” style of journalism in their own publications.
Impact USA Todaychanged the world of journal-
ism. Its enterprising approach to journalism, using
colorful layout and short, easy-to-read articles,
would later be copied by its competitors, who had to
reinvent themselves to keep newspapers relevant in
the digital age.USA Todaywould later publish more
serious news stories and would one day be ranked
withThe Wall Street JournalandThe New York Times
as one of the top-selling newspapers in the United
States.
Further Reading
Mogal, Leonard. “The Three Titans:USA Today,The
Wall Street Journal, andThe New York Times.” InThe
Newspaper: Ever ything You Need to Know to Make It
in the Newspaper Business. Pittsburgh: GATFPress,
2000.
Neuharth, Al.Confessions of an S.O.B.New York:
Doubleday, 1989.
Pritchard, Peter S.The Making of McPaper: The Inside
Stor y of “USA Today.”Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews,
McMeel & Parker, 1987.
Eddith A. DashiellSee also CNN; FOX network; Journalism; Tabloid
television; Television; Turner, Ted.USSStarkincident
The Event An Iraqi fighter jet launches two
missiles into a U.S. Navy vessel
Date May 17, 1987
Place The Persian Gulf
The USSStarkincident was at the time the worst peace-
time naval disaster in American histor y. It was surpassed
only by the explosion of a gun turret on the USSIowain
1989.
During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), an Iraqi
Dassault Mirage F1EQ fighter launched two Exocet
missiles, hitting the American Oliver Hazard Perry-
class guided-missile frigate USSStarkand severely
damaging the vessel. TheStarkwas in international
waters in the Persian Gulf at the time of the attack.
President Ronald Reagan had ordered a U.S. naval
fleet to the Persian Gulf to monitor the area.The Eighties in America USSStarkincident 1011