Quintessential Masthead

December 3, 2007 7:27 PM

What is the quintessential newspaper masthead?

I'm looking for newspaper mastheads that are traditional. Ones that could appear in a cartoon as the essence of a newspaper.
Also interested in mastheads that have evolved over time.
Links to see it would be good, as often the online paper masthead is different than the print version.

posted by bystander to media & arts (14 comments total)

Do you have a particular era in mind? I believe masthead style may have evolved over time.
posted by amtho at 7:42 PM on December 3, 2007

The New York Times comes to mind.
posted by princesspathos at 7:43 PM on December 3, 2007

There used to be a slideshow here showing 221 years of Time of London mastheads. It was probably exactly what you're looking for.

There are some examples here
posted by maledictory at 7:47 PM on December 3, 2007

New York Times came to my mind too.
posted by MiffyCLB at 7:47 PM on December 3, 2007

You should definitely check out Today's Front Page, which has the current front page from the printed version of over 400 newspapers from around the world.
posted by parmanparman at 7:48 PM on December 3, 2007 [4 favorites]

Ok, found them.
posted by maledictory at 7:49 PM on December 3, 2007

The Times of London. There's a link in there to 222 years of Times mastheads that is defunct but worth trying to find again.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:05 PM on December 3, 2007

Believe it or not, the large-typeface banner announcing the name of the paper is not the masthead. The masthead usually appears inside the paper, often on the inside of the front page, and lists the publisher, date, location, and significant staff positions such as managing editor and department editors. The paper's name is announced in the nameplate.

This longstanding usage seems to have become somewhat more loosely applied in recent years with the advent of the web - web page nameplates are often referred to as 'mastheads' now.
posted by Miko at 8:08 PM on December 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

what milo said ... Almost. In the UK the masthead appears on the leader page (editorial in the US) and the thing on P1 is the flag. That said, even the most pedantic production journalists I know call the flag the masthead.

As for the Q: anything in gothic script. NY Times, Daily Televraph, IHT, etc.
posted by bonaldi at 8:30 PM on December 3, 2007

flag, right. I've heard that in the US too.
posted by Miko at 9:19 PM on December 3, 2007

Quintessential masthead=large, gothic/calligraphic typeface. NY Times, Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune.
posted by HotPatatta at 11:35 PM on December 3, 2007

As a student journalist in the U.S., we called the thing on the front page the "nameplate," and the box with the staff in it the "masthead" or the "staff box."
posted by grouse at 1:46 AM on December 4, 2007

You are looking for the "flag" or the "nameplate", as Grouse noted. The masthead is usually the list of staff, at least in Canada.
posted by acoutu at 8:37 AM on December 4, 2007

Thanks for the great response. Added tags for nameplate but I don't think flag will help any future searchers.
posted by bystander at 2:19 PM on December 4, 2007