USA Today

USA Today is an American daily newspaper and news broadcasting company. It was founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982. The newspaper is based in New York City and is printed in 37 locations in the U.S. and five more facilities around the world.

Its unique style, with concise reports, colorful images, informational graphics, and popular culture stories, influenced many other newspapers. Today, USA Today gets more than 134 million visits to its website each month. It has the fourth largest print circulation in the United States, with 89,200 print subscribers. The newspaper is found in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and it also has an international edition in Asia, Canada, Europe, and the Pacific islands.

History

20th century

USA Today started on February 29, 1980, when a team met with Al Neuharth, the leader of Gannett, in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Early test versions of the paper included East Bay Today, a morning paper for Oakland, California, which was based on the _Oakland Tribune, a newspaper Gannett owned.

Gannett approved the launch of USA Today on December 5, 1981, with Neuharth becoming its leader. The paper began publishing on September 14, 1982, first in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., selling for 25 cents. It quickly became popular, doubling its expected sales by the end of 1982.

The paper stood out with its colorful graphics and photos. Unlike traditional newspapers, it used short, clear stories similar to television news. This new style was praised for making news easier to understand but criticized for being too simple.

Gannett built many printing factories to make sure USA Today could be distributed quickly. This allowed the paper to include late-breaking sports results. The sports section became one of the paper's most popular parts.

In 1984, USA Today switched to full-color photos and graphics. Later that year, it began an international edition for readers abroad, with the first satellite transmission to Singapore in October 1985. In 1985, it also published a special 12-page section about baseball for the upcoming season.

By late 1985, USA Use had become the second-largest newspaper in the U.S., with 1.4 million copies sold each day. By 1987, it reached 5.5 million readers daily, the most of any newspaper in the country. The paper started making a profit in May 1987, after four years of losses.

In 1988, USA Today published its largest ever edition, a 78-page weekend paper for Super Bowl XXII, selling over 2 million copies. That same year, it began an international edition in Hong Kong and started measuring Super Bowl commercials with the Super Bowl Ad Meter.

By 1991, USA Today had nearly 6.6 million daily readers. It opened international offices in London and Moscow in the mid-1990s. In 1995, it launched its website for live news. The international edition expanded to Frankfurt, Germany in 1995.

In 1999, USA Today started putting ads on its front page. In 2017, some web pages added features that played videos or sounds automatically.

21st century

In 2000, Gannett started USA Today Live, bringing news to TV stations and websites. That same year, it opened new printing sites in Milan, Italy, and Charleroi, Belgium.

In 2001, USA Today set a new sales record with 3,638,600 copies on September 12, the day of the September 11 attacks. Later that year, it moved its offices from Arlington, Virginia, to McLean, and in 2024, to New York, NY. In 2004, a reporter, Jack Kelley, was found to have made up stories and left the paper.

In 2005, Gannett combined the online and print newsrooms of USA Today. In 2010, it reorganized, cutting 130 jobs and focusing more on digital news. In 2011, it changed its design with a larger logo and new fonts.

In 2012, USA Today got a big redesign for its 30th anniversary, adding technology stories and more color. Its website also got a new look with better tools for reading and watching videos. The mobile website was improved for people reading on phones.

In the mid-2010s, USA Today began putting a shorter version of the paper into other newspapers. In 2014, it bought a website called Reviewed that reviews products. In 2015, it created the USA Today Network to share news and ads with local newspapers.

As print sales fell in the late 2010s, Gannett reduced its printing network. In 2021, USA Today started requiring payments for some online stories.

On November 4, 2025, Gannett announced it would rename itself to the USA Today Co., with the new ticker symbol TDAY, reflecting its ownership of USA Today.

Layout and format

The main edition of USA Today, sold in the United States and Canada, has four sections: News, Money, Sports, and Life. The Friday edition of Life is split into two parts: one for regular entertainment and another called Weekend, which includes TV listings, DVD reviews, film reviews, and travel tips.

USA Today does not publish on Saturdays and Sundays; the Friday edition serves as the weekend edition. In the past, special editions were published on weekends for events like the Gulf War and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Each section has a colored box on the first page to help readers identify it: blue for News, green for Money, red for Sports, and purple for Life. Special sections sometimes use orange.

The newspaper uses short summaries called "reefers" to highlight stories inside. The back page of the News section shows weather maps for the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with temperature lists for many cities around the world.

On business holidays, the Money and Life sections are often combined. The Money section sometimes reviews television ads, especially after Super Bowl Sunday. The Life section includes book reviews and television ratings on certain days.

A special feature in the News section called "Across the USA" gives a quick look at headlines from each state. The paper's design is unique and easy to recognize.

Personnel

In May 2012, Larry Kramer became the president and publisher of USA Today, replacing David Hunke. Kramer aimed to grow the newspaper's digital revenue.

In July 2012, Kramer chose David Callaway to be the editor-in-chief. Callaway had experience leading MarketWatch and worked at Bloomberg News and the Boston Herald. As of September 2024, Caren Bohan serves as the editor-in-chief.

Related publications and services

USA Weekend

Main article: USA Weekend

USA Weekend was a magazine that started in 1953 as Family Weekly. It was meant to be added to newspapers on Sundays. After Gannett bought it in 1985, it changed its name to USA Weekend. At its peak, it was included in about 800 newspapers across the country. The magazine talked about many topics like social issues, entertainment, health, food, and travel. It stopped being printed after December 2014 because it was becoming too expensive and not making enough money from ads. Many newspapers then started using another magazine called Parade instead.

USA Today Sports Weekly

Main article: USA Use Sports Weekly

USA Today Sports Weekly is a weekly magazine that shares news and facts about different sports. It started in 1991, talking mostly about baseball. Over time, it added more sports like football, college sports, and NASCAR racing. The magazine was its own team at first but later joined the sports group at USA Today.

The Big Lead

Main article: The Big Lead

The Big Lead is a sports website that began in 2006. It talks about sports news and also other topics like politics and popular culture. The site is updated many times each day during regular work hours. In 2012, Gannett bought the website.

USA Today: The Television Show

In 1987, work began on a television show based on USA Use. The show started in 1988 and tried to bring the newspaper's style to TV. It had sections for news, money, sports, and lifestyle stories. However, the show did not do well and was canceled in 1990 after only a short time on air.

VRtually There

VRtually There was a news program that used virtual reality. It began in 2016 and showed news stories using a first-person view. The program ended in 2017.

For the Win

USA Use has a sports website called For the Win, which started in 2013. It covers many sports and also talks about pop culture and video games.

Over-the-top and FAST channels

In 2018, Gannett created special TV channels for USA Use that could be watched online. These channels were later changed into free channels that could be found on different streaming services in 2021.

Award programs

USA Today gives out several special awards for great sports players and teams.

The USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award started in 1988 for the best minor league baseball player. The _USA Year All-USA High School Baseball Team began in 1998 to honor top high school baseball players. The _USA Year All-USA High School Basketball Team started in 1983 to recognize excellent high school basketball players and coaches.

There is also the USA Year All-Joe Team (NFL) which began in 1992 to celebrate 52 NFL players who had an amazing first season. The USA Year/National Prep Poll High School Football National Championship honors the best high school football teams in the United States. The _USA Year All-USA High School Football Team started in 1982 to highlight outstanding high school football players and teams. The _USA Year High School Football Coach of the Year award also began in 1982 for coaches of top high school football teams.

In popular culture

USA Today has been featured and parodied in several movies and TV shows. In 1986, the satirical magazine The Harvard Lampoon made a funny version of the newspaper. The 1989 film Back to the Future Part II showed a future version of USA Today from the year 2015.

The Simpsons made a joke version of the paper in a 1991 episode, and Futurama did the same in stories from 2010 and 2007. The movie Total Recall (1990) had a newspaper called Mars Today, and a 2004 film called C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America showed a made-up newspaper named CSA Today.