Claim: Columns are part of newspapers.

A newspaper is a serial publication containing news about current events , other informative articles about politics , sports , arts , and so on , and advertising . A newspaper is usually , but not exclusively , printed on relatively inexpensive , low-grade paper such as newsprint . The journalism organizations that publish newspapers are themselves often metonymically called newspapers . As of 2017 , most newspapers are now published online as well as in print . The online versions are called online newspapers or news websites . Newspapers are typically published daily or weekly . News magazines are also weekly , but they have a magazine format . General-interest newspapers typically publish news articles and feature articles on national and international news as well as local news . The news includes political events and personalities , business and finance , crime , weather , and natural disasters ; health and medicine , science , and computers and technology ; sports ; and entertainment , society , food and cooking , clothing and home fashion , and the arts .   Usually the paper is divided into sections for each of those major groupings -LRB- labeled A , B , C , and so on , with pagination prefixes yielding page numbers A1-A20 , B1-B20 , C1-C20 , and so on -RRB- . Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing editorials written by an editor -LRB- or by the paper 's editorial board -RRB- and expressing an opinion on a public issue , opinion articles called `` op-eds '' written by guest writers -LRB- which are typically in the same section as the editorial -RRB- , and columns that express the personal opinions of columnists , usually offering analysis and synthesis that attempts to translate the raw data of the news into information telling the reader `` what it all means '' and persuading them to concur . Papers also include articles which have no byline ; these articles are written by staff writers .   A wide variety of material has been published in newspapers . Besides the aforementioned news , information and opinions , they include weather forecasts ; criticism and reviews of the arts -LRB- including literature , film , television , theater , fine arts , and architecture -RRB- and of local services such as restaurants ; obituaries , birth notices and graduation announcements ; entertainment features such as crosswords , horoscopes , editorial cartoons , gag cartoons , and comic strips ; advice columns , food , and other columns ; and radio and television listings -LRB- program schedules -RRB- . As of 2017 , newspapers may also provide information about new movies and TV shows available on streaming video services like Netflix . Newspapers have classified ad sections where people and businesses can buy small advertisements to sell goods or services ; as of 2013 , the huge increase in Internet websites for selling goods , such as Craigslist and eBay has led to significantly less classified ad sales for newspapers .   Most newspapers are businesses , and they pay their expenses with a mixture of subscription revenue , newsstand sales , and advertising revenue -LRB- other businesses or individuals pay to place advertisements in the pages , including display ads , classified ads , and their online equivalents -RRB- . Some newspapers are government-run or at least government-funded ; their reliance on advertising revenue and on profitability is less critical to their survival . The editorial independence of a newspaper is thus always subject to the interest of someone , whether owners , advertisers , or a government . Some newspapers with high editorial independence , high journalism quality , and large circulation are viewed as newspapers of record .   Many newspapers , besides employing journalists on their own payrolls , also subscribe to news agencies -LRB- wire services -RRB- -LRB- such as the Associated Press , Reuters , or Agence France-Presse -RRB- , which employ journalists to find , assemble , and report the news , then sell the content to the various newspapers . This is a way to avoid duplicating the expense of reporting from around the world . Circa 2005 , there were approximately 6,580 daily newspaper titles in the world selling 395 million print copies a day -LRB- in the U.S. , 1,450 titles selling 55 million copies -RRB- . The late 2000s -- early 2010s global recession , combined with the rapid growth of free web-based alternatives , has helped cause a decline in advertising and circulation , as many papers had to retrench operations to stanch the losses . Worldwide annual revenue approached $ 100 billion in 2005-7 , then plunged during the worldwide financial crisis of 2008-9 . Revenue in 2016 fell to only $ 53 billion , hurting every major publisher as their efforts to gain online income fell far short of the goal .   The decline in advertising revenues affected both the print and online media as well as all other mediums ; print advertising was once lucrative but has greatly declined , and the prices of online advertising are often lower than those of their print precursors . Besides remodeling advertising , the internet -LRB- especially the web -RRB- has also challenged the business models of the print-only era by crowdsourcing both publishing in general -LRB- sharing information with others -RRB- and , more specifically , journalism -LRB- the work of finding , assembling , and reporting the news -RRB- . In addition , the rise of news aggregators , which bundle linked articles from many online newspapers and other sources , influences the flow of web traffic . Increasing paywalling of online newspapers may be counteracting those effects . The oldest newspaper still published is the Ordinari Post Tijdender , which was established in Stockholm in 1645 .