It is important to remember when discussing the modern American newspaper that publications throughout the country differ widely in format, features and style. No two are exactly the same. Some papers will have items that others omit. They vary in section and feature sequence and type. One may have a Business Section while another calls it the Financial Section. Some papers may put city news first, others on the last page. Newspapers also differ greatly depending on the city or metropolitan population involved. Large cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and others will have newspapers that may differ greatly from those published in New Haven, Little Rock and Santa Fe. Papers may have a Farming Section, University Section or Shipping Section (i.e. Newport News).
Publications like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Washington Fost have a large readership outside their regions and would include more national and international news as a result of it. The Wall Street Journal concentrates exclusively on financial news as well as political and international news and how they affect the financial community.
The journalism curriculum discussed in the following units will use all types of newspapers as examples. The newspaper used in Unit 2, The New Haven Register, is an example of a modern urban publication serving a city of over 100,000 people in a metropolitan area consisting of approximately 500,000 readers.