Welcome to the Newspapers on Wikipedia (NOW) WikiProject Newspapers!
Scope: This project covers the creation and editing of articles about newspapers in all countries and administrative divisions within countries. As a starting point, there should be a list for each country and sometimes administrative divisions showing current as well as defunct newspapers headquartered in those regions. (See the #Lists at the bottom of this page that includes links to lists of newspapers in each country in continents and other topical lists.) The lists should be comprehensive and give important information about the name, headquarters location, frequency of publication, date established, date the newspaper ceased publication for defunct newspapers, owner of the publication, circulation numbers for a given year, and references for each newspaper. Lists of newspapers are often found in articles about newspaper publishing companies. The template {{WikiProject Newspapers|class=|importance=}} should be included and completed with a selection for class (stub or higher) and importance (low or higher) on the talk page of each article that is part of this project.
This project is closely related to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Journalism, which covers more broadly history, persons, companies, and other aspects of the field of journalism.
As of 25 December 2024, there are 11,767 articles within the scope of WikiProject Newspapers, of which 3 are featured and 34 are good articles. This makes up 0.17% of the articles on Wikipedia, 0.03% of all featured articles and lists, and 0.08% of all good articles. Including non-article pages, such as talk pages, redirects, categories, etc., there are 30,890 pages in the project.
The following steps should be used to create new articles and lists about newspapers:
Research the newspapers to find the name and location of a newspaper
Add the newspaper with link (if notable), to the "List of newspapers in State/Country", if it is not already on the list. If it is not a notable newspaper, the newspaper name and data in the list of newspapers without a link (e.g. without [[ ]]. See /Notability for a description of what makes a newspaper notable.
If the newspaper is historically notable or notable for other unique reasons, such as only foreign language newspaper in the state or covers a unique topic, add the link and create the article by clicking on the link on the state newspaper list. Use data from WikiData, the Library of Congress database, state newspaper association, or other reliable source to complete the article:
Create in the article an infobox using "Infobox newspaper" template. Include name, type, location, OCLC, ISSN
Create an introductory paragraph explaining why the newspaper is significant
Create a history section for the newspaper using inline references
Create a section on notable awards, events, controversies, or people connected with the newspaper with inline references
Create a Reference section with the {{reflist}} template
Add Categories: It's worthwhile to add at least two categories to every article upon publication. This is a good general rule of thumb, and for newspaper articles there are two easy choices, which should be pretty easy to find: Newspapers published in <state> (You can find the right one by browsing in: Category:Newspapers published in the United States by state) <name of county or city> (You can find the right one by browsing in: Category:Counties of the United States by state)
add coordinates for the newspaper headquarters at the bottom of the article. This can be done by adding "coord" to the Wikidata item, if it exists, and then using {{WikidataCoord}}. Or enter the coordinates locally, e.g. {{coord|43.644548|-93.379474|region:US-MN|display=title|name=D: Albert Lea Tribune}} This will put coordinates at the top of the article and enables mapping of Category pages. If the address is known, the coordinates are easily obtained from Google maps.
Finally, add a template on the talk page of the newspaper article, e.g. {{WikiProject Newspapers|class=Start|importance=Low}}. Take a guess as to the class and importance of the article using the guidance on Review page. Generally, articles with just a short introduction and infobox are Stub class. Most local newspapers are low importance.
For difficult problems about new newspapers, go to Resolve Issues to either put difficult pages in that queue or attempt to resolve them. If editors hit thorny issues with a page (e.g. can't find anything on a page, can't sort through convoluted history, etc) they will put it here for people looking for a challenge.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Newspapers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Newspapers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.NewspapersWikipedia:WikiProject NewspapersTemplate:WikiProject NewspapersNewspapers
