A middle-market newspaper is one that attempts to cater to readers who want some entertainment value from their newspaper as well as sufficient coverage of significant news events. Middle-market status is the halfway point of a three-level continuum of journalistic seriousness;
upmarket newspapers generally cover hard news and
down-market newspapers favor sensationalist stories. In the
United Kingdom, the only national middle market papers are the
Daily Mail and the
Daily Express, distinguishable by their black-top masthead, as opposed to the
tabloids' red-top mastheads. The best known
American middle market papers are
USA Today, the
Chicago Sun-Times, the
New York Post, and the
New York Daily News.
