Delivering the news
A rag is an informal word for a newspaper and it suggests that it is not of very high quality. The gutter press is a disapproving term used about the kind of newspapers and magazines that are more interested in crime and sex than serious news. A glossy is an expensive magazine printed on good quality paper.
Journalists produce copy,which has to be ready for a deadline. When everything is ready the newspaper goes to press. A very important story that comes in after going to press may find its way into a stop press column. A very new newspaper or story can be said to be hot off the press.
A story that is only to be found in one newspaper is an exclusive. A scoop is a story discovered and published by one newspaper before all the others. A major story can be said to hit the headlines on the day it is published. At that time the story breaks or becomes public knowledge. If it is an important story it will receive a lot of coverage or space in the press. A newspaper may be taken to court for libel or defamation of character if it publishes an untrue story that harms a person's reputation. If you are doing research into a news event, you may want to get hold of some previous issues of newspapers, or back copies,and you may wish to make a folder of cuttings from thepapers about the event.
