Newspaper of record is a term that may refer either to any publicly available
newspaper that has been authorized by a government to publish
public or legal notices, or any major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically authoritative.
The first type of newspaper of record (or newspaper of public record) is often formally defined by a statute or other official action of a governing body. Such a newspaper is supposed to be available to the public, and publication of notices in that newspaper is considered sufficient to comply with legal requirements for public notice.
The second type of "newspaper of record" is not defined by any formal criteria. The use of the term implies that a newspaper is a reliable institution that publishes trustworthy descriptions of events, but this assessment may be disputed. Major newspapers of record may be expected to have independent editorial policies, and to publish statements of opinion that are distinct from those of their proprietor or their government. They are more likely than other newspapers to be sold abroad and to be cited in scholarly publications.
Because of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Near v. Minnesota, the government does not (and cannot) define certain papers as having a right to print, or otherwise promote, restrict, or license newspapers. Therefore, in the U.S. a newspaper of record is generally held to be any public newspaper that has a large circulation (in many states, public notices are required to be published in a paper "of general circulation" in the vicinity where the notice is being issued, such as the county or city), professional editorial and news-gathering functions, and generally unbiased/objective reporting.
