Why not? You may not look like one, but you sure sound like one. You can’t deny devoting space to show biz and celebrity ups and downs, or the speed at which you pounced on the story about Heath Ledger’s death. (And you can’t deny that Ledger is the third most searched term on your Web site.) And you can’t deny that sexy news sells, and you can’t deny people seem to crave entertainment. So tell me again: why aren’t you a tabloid?
Good question. One major reason is because even though topics between, say, The New York Times and The New York Post are similar, their presentation and location in the paper are telling. The Times is setup in such a way that the most important news is run out front and in the first section. This is news judgment. The paper is making decisions on what news of the day is most important, and what people most need to read about. The Post may do the same, but the results suggest a complete different set of principles.
A second major reason The Times differs from The Post is because news judgment also controls the amount of play - space, design and location - each story deserves. This ensures that big fonts and headlines are reserved for more important stories, acting as a sort of visual cue to the reader. In The Post, there’s really no communication with the reader about what stories deserve the most attention and what is just mindless gossip. It’s just a soup of stories will no logical order of relevance (and its international content is lacking).