A newspaper used to be easy to define as a daily or weekly publication featuring news, articles and advertising about current events. Nowadays, the term has been expanded to cover a much broader range of possibilities. With many news websites essentially just being online companions to print newspapers, the modern reader is likely to refer to the news site they read as their newspaper, rather than buying a print copy.

Newspapers, in detail.

As it has become harder to define what a newspaper is by the medium it is uses for publication and by format, the definition is sometimes expanded to any publication that offer news and articles about current or recent events in substantial text form, though not necessarily excluding audio and video content.

The necessity is a substantial text component, which excludes video and audio news broadcasts alone, as they do not have substantial text components. This definition includes news sites and the various forms of written news publications that have generally been considered as newspapers or newspaper-like.

The currency of what is reported is also an issue, as is frequency of publication. It can be difficult to distinguish between a newspaper and a magazine based on more than just printing format, so the currency of the news being reported is key, hence the frequency of publication playing a part in defining what constitutes a newspaper.

Exceptions abound, with some magazines publishing weekly and thus capable of reporting on recent events. Regardless, both newspapers and magazines tend to follow common distinct patterns. Newspapers report mostly on current events, while magazines devote more room to in-depth articles on subjects or events that have occurred less recently, to provide a broader picture of a complex topic. Sometimes both will diverge from their standard roles, but publishers of newspapers understand that they are poorly served by trying to report on old news, and magazines understand that they usually do not have the resources, space or audience to try to compete with newspapers on up-to-date news.

The need for both current news reportage and reflection on past events is one of the major advantages of online newspapers. While they often get criticised for being too caught up in the moment and not engaging in ongoing research into events that have a long term impact, this is somewhat a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. Blogs have been used to not only replace the role of the columnist at online newspapers, but also to house feature ideas. While often written in a much more personal style than traditional feature stories, many professional bloggers write what can amount to the same kind of in-depth study into a subject as the traditional feature story. This is part of why many are considering news sites an improvement in medium on the print newspaper rather than an entirely different creature.