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Supermarket tabloids are national weekly magazines printed on newsprint in tabloid format, specializing in celebrity news, gossip, astrology, and bizarre stories about ordinary people. Supermarket tabloids are particularly notorious for the over-the-top sensationalizing of stories, the facts of which can be called into question. Tabloids - such as The Globe and The National Enquirer - often use aggressive and usually mean-spirited tactics to sell their issues. Unlike regular tabloid-format newspapers, supermarket tabloids are distributed through the magazine distribution channel, similarly to other weekly magazines and mass-market paperback books. They are often found for sale alongside the checkout lines or cash registers of supermarkets, hence the name. Leading examples include The National Enquirer, Star, and Sun.

The oldest tabloid known to date is the American "Daily News" in 1919. If it did not have any news, it would simply make it up and use a photograph staged by the newspaper staff, then use an editing technique called the composograph.

[edit] List of supermarket tabloids in the United States

• Star
• Sun
• The Globe (originally known as Midnight)
• The National Enquirer
• Weekly World News (Discontinued)
• The National Examiner

[edit] Supermarket tabloid allusions in pop culture

• In the Scooby-Doo prequel series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the National Examiner was frequently referred to by Freddie Jones.
• A number of episodes of The Simpsons feature the Springfield Shopper, which often carries sensationalist-type headlines (e.g., "Woman Weds Ape"), often in response to the previous scene. Such headlines are often placed in lieu of legitimate news headlines, with the secondary headline either being regular news featuring a smaller point-sized headline, or one commenting either on the upper headline or on journalism in general.

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