Word: mcpaper
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When Gannett President John Curley wanted to alert Chairman Allen Neuharth that their five-year-old national newspaper (circ. 1.5 million) had broken into the black, the telegram was as short and peppy as any USA Today headline: MCPAPER HAS MADE IT. Thanks mainly to a 45% increase in ad revenues over last year, USA Today converted a nearly $900,000 loss in April to a $1.09 million profit in May. That was a pittance compared with the losses of nearly $400 million that Gannett is reported to have suffered since USA Today hit the newsstands in September...
...first USA Today was scorned for its short, punchy articles. Critics dubbed it "McPaper," the journalistic equivalent of fast food, but soon major papers began imitating USA Today's artful use of color and snazzy graphics...
...prove there would be an audience for a paper that deliberately lacked a regional or ideological focus and that reported widely but without much depth. When the first issue of USA Today appeared, journalists likened the rainbow-bright, telegram-terse new entry to fast food and nicknamed it "McPaper." USA Today editors steadfastly retorted that they were trying to please readers, not their peers...
...other newspapers, USA Today has been called "McPaper" because it delivers "fast food news," short articles packaged with colorful graphics. USA Today's controversial approach to delivering the news has in effect been treated like a news story itself: as the media tells it, the bite-sized items offered by television have now made their way into print. The results, critics conclude, is an alarming trend of superficiality that disregards the truth and threatens the institution of journalism...
Though such imitation is a form of flattery, USA Today still has few overt admirers among its competitors. Says Bruce Winters, editor of the San Fernando Valley (Calif.) Daily News: "If a computer could design a newspaper, it would be USA Today." Many in the industry call it "McPaper," in a slighting comparison to the McDonald's fast-food chain; the news briefs that predominate on more than a dozen of the paper's 40 daily pages are dismissed as "McNuggets." Says Anthony Insolia, editor of Long Island's Newsday: "I'm not sure USA Today...