NEWSPAPER - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

NEWSPAPERAuthored

The Law Mind • 1024 words

Definition

A newspaper is a periodical publication issued at regular, stated intervals—typically daily or weekly—that conveys intelligence of current events to the public through news reporting, editorial commentary, and notices. In legal contexts, the term carries a more specific and functional meaning than its everyday sense: statutes and court rules frequently define "newspaper" as a threshold qualification for official or legal publication, requiring that the publication meet criteria related to regularity of issuance, general circulation, and establishment within a community. A publication that fails to meet the statutory definition cannot serve as the vehicle for legally required notice, even if it otherwise resembles a newspaper in appearance and content.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A publication, usually published daily or weekly, containing news and other articles. Traditionally a print publication printed on cheap, low-quality paper; today usually digital and often also available in print. Also used to refer to the news organization producing such a publication, or to the paper stock itself.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A sheet of paper printed and distributed at stated intervals, for conveying intelligence of passing events, advocating opinions, etc.; a public print that circulates news, advertisements, proceedings of legislative bodies, public announcements, etc.

The gap between common and legal meaning is narrow in description but consequential in application. Both ordinary and legal usage agree on the core character of a newspaper. The legal difference lies in qualification: statutes governing notice by publication—service of process, foreclosure, probate, government procurement—impose additional requirements such as general circulation, continuous publication for a prescribed period, and adjudication or formal designation as a "newspaper of general circulation." A publication that looks and functions like a newspaper in everyday terms may be legally ineligible to publish required notices if it cannot meet those statutory thresholds.

Common Confusion

Newspaper of general circulation vs. newspaper: Many publication statutes require not merely a "newspaper" but a "newspaper of general circulation"—a term of art with its own statutory and sometimes judicially established criteria. The distinction matters acutely in notice-by-publication contexts. A neighborhood shopper, a trade publication, or a newly launched periodical may be a newspaper in the ordinary sense while failing to qualify as a newspaper of general circulation under the governing statute. Researchers should not assume that the bare term "newspaper" in older sources carries the same qualifying weight as the phrase in more recent statutory frameworks.

Why It Matters in Research

The legal significance of "newspaper" in the Law Mind corpus is almost entirely procedural and statutory rather than substantive. The term's importance concentrates in two research areas: (1) notice by publication, and (2) libel and press law.

In notice contexts—service of process on absent defendants, foreclosure sales, probate notices, tax sales, charter amendments, and similar matters—validity of the entire proceeding may turn on whether the publication used qualified as a newspaper under the relevant statute. Historical statutes varied considerably in what they required. Early American practice often demanded only that the publication be a "newspaper printed in the county," with no circulation or longevity requirements. Later statutes layered in requirements for general circulation, continuous operation over specified periods (commonly six months to a year before the relevant notice), and in some jurisdictions formal judicial or administrative designation. When reviewing historical proceedings in the corpus, never assume that a publication described as a newspaper satisfied the applicable statutory definition; trace the specific statutory language in force at the time.

In libel contexts, whether a defendant was a newspaper had bearing on defenses, damages, and—particularly in English-influenced sources in the corpus—special statutory procedures. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry notes English rules requiring the director of public prosecutions' fiat before criminal libel prosecution and provisions for summary trial of newspaper libels, neither of which applied to non-newspaper publications.

The digitization of newspapers does not appear in historical sources and is a live definitional question in contemporary statutory construction. Researchers working on modern notice-by-publication questions should expect that statutory language drafted for print may have been amended, interpreted, or left unresolved with respect to digital-only publications.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on a compact functional definition: a printed periodical publication conveying intelligence of current events. Black's (1st ed.) quotes an 1843 Attorney General opinion defining the term as "a publication in numbers, consisting commonly of single sheets, and published at short and stated intervals, conveying intelligence of passing events." Burrill offers the same core: "a printed publication, issued in numbers at stated intervals, conveying intelligence of passing events." Anderson's similarly describes it as "a publication containing a narrative of recent events."

None of the historical dictionaries develop the qualification framework that dominates modern legal practice—the requirements of general circulation, continuous publication history, and formal designation. This is a significant gap. A researcher relying solely on these definitions would have no warning that a publication meeting the plain-English description might still fail statutory requirements for notice purposes. The historical sources also do not address the distinction between daily and weekly publication as a qualifying factor, which some statutes have made relevant.

Bouvier's entry, as reproduced in the source material, does not provide a substantive newspaper definition and instead reflects indexing text. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is the most practically useful of the historical sources for press-law research, noting the English procedural rules around newspaper libel that influenced early American doctrine.

Jurisdictional Note

Qualification requirements for newspapers authorized to publish legal notices are creatures of state statute and vary considerably. Some states maintain formal lists of adjudicated newspapers of general circulation; others require only that the publication meet definitional criteria at the time of publication. A handful of states have begun amending their notice statutes to accommodate online publication. Researchers should identify the specific statute in force in the relevant jurisdiction and time period before concluding that a historical notice was legally effective.

NEWSPAPERmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

According to the usage of the commercial world, a newspaper is de- fined to be a publication in numbers, con- sisting commonly of single sheets, and pub- lished at short and stated intervals, conveying intelligence of passing events. 4 Op. Attys. Gen. 10.

NEWSPAPERmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

222; Veasie v. Marrett, 6 Allen (Mass.) 372. —New assignment. Under the common-law practice, where the declaration in an action is ambiguous, and the defendant pleads facts which are literally an answer to it, but not to the real claim set up by the plaintiff, the plaintiff's course is to reply by way of new assignment; 4. €., allege that he brought his action not for the ‘cause supposed by the defendant, but for some other cause to which the plea has no aplication. 3 Steph. Comm. 507 ; ishop v. Travis, 51 Minn. 183, 53 N. W. 461. —New cause of action. With reference to the amendment of pleadings, this term may refer to a new state of facts out of which liability is claimed to arise, or it may refer to parties who are alleged to be entitled under the same state of facts, or it may embrace both features. Love v. Southern R. Co., 108 Tenn, 104, 65 S. W. 475, 55 L. R. A. 471. See Nelson vy. First Nat. Bank, 139 Ala. 578, 36 South. 707, 101 Am. St. Rep. 52.—New for old. In making an adjustment of a partial loss under a policy of marine insurance, the rule is to apply the old materials towards the payment of the new, by deducting the value of them from the gross amount of the expenses for repairs, and to allow the deduction of one-third new fer old upon the balance. 3 Kent, Comm, 339.—New Inn. An inn of chancery. See INNS OF CHANCERY.— New matter. In pleading. Matter of fact not reviously alleged by either party in the pleadngs.—New promise. See PROMISE.—New style. The modern system of computing time was introduced into Great Britain A. D., eo the 3d of September of that year being reckon as the 14th—New trial. See TRIAL.—New works. In the civil law. By a new work is understood every sort of edifice or other work which is newly commenced on any ground whatever. When the ancient form of work is changed, either by an addition being made to it or by some part of the ancient work being taken away, it is styled also a “new work.” Civ. Code La. art. 856.—New Year’s Day. The first day of January. The 25th of March was the civil and legal New Year’s Day, till the alteration of the style in 1752, when it was permanently fixed at the lst of January. In Scotland the year was, by a proclamation, which bears date 27th of November, 1599, ordered thenceforth to commence in that kingdom on the Ist of January instead of the 25th of March. Ene. Lond. According to the usage of the commercial world, a8 newspaper is defined to be a publication in numbers, con» sisting commonly of single sheets. and published at short and stated intervals, conveying intelligence of passing events. 4 Op. Attys. Gen. 10. And see Crowell v. Parker, 22 R. I. 51, 46 Atl. 35, 84 Am. St. Rep. 815; Hanscom v. Meyer, 60 Neb. 68, 82 N. W. 114, 48 L. R. A. 409, 83 Am. St. Rep. 507; WHlliams v. Colwell, 18 Misc. Rep. 399, 43 N. Y. Supp. 720; Kellogg v. Carrico, 47 Mo. 157; Kerr v. Hitt, 75 Il. 51. —Official newspaper. One designated by a state or municipal legislative body, or agents

NEWSPAPERn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A sheet of paper printed and distributed, at stated intervals, for conveying intelligence of passing events, advocating opinions, etc.; a public print that circulates news, advertisements, proceedings of legislative bodies, public announcements, etc.

newspapernoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A publication, usually published daily or weekly, containing news and other articles. Traditionally a print publication typically printed on cheap, low-quality paper; today usually digital and often also available in print. | The news organization that produces such a publication. | A quantity of or one of the types of paper on which newspapers are printed.

newspaperverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To cover with newspaper. | To engage in the business of journalism | To harass somebody through newspaper articles.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In