Three Functions of a Newspaper

1. To inform, educate and advise
2. To interpret and influence
3. To entertain

From these categories come the four kinds of news stories - international, national, state and local.

Local reporters usually only cover local news stories. To find out what is happening across the state and around the world, newspapers pay for wire services such as Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI). Reporters and photographers who are all over the world write stories and take pictures that are distributed to many different newspapers using satellites. Sometimes, a unique local story is picked up by a wire service and distributed nationally.

Local reporters have a beat, or specialty area of news that they cover. Here are a few examples of beats: police, education, religion, sports, city government, entertainment, lifestyles. There may be more or less beats depending on the size of the newspaper and the size of the community.