Talk:Red tops

Origins
I always understood the term Redtop was to distinguish between the two main types of national tabloid newspaper- namely the Sun/Mirror etc and the slightly more traditional papers such as the Daily Mail and Daily Express. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.81.199.40 (talk) 16:20, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

The phrase "red tops" certainly predates the move by some of the broadsheets to a more compact format. However, I don't have a reference outside my own head. :-)

mathie (talk) 13:06, 25 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The earliest newspaper reference I found was in The Times (London) of 13 August 1997, in an article by Brian Macarthur entitled "Diana: mover and shaker - Media and Marketing" (or at least that is how it is stored in NewsBank). I quote:
 * Just as broadsheets only exceptionally outsell any of the tabloids, so middle-market tabloids - the Mail and Express - only rarely outsell the red tops (although the upmarket Sunday Times outsells the mid-market Express on Sunday and The Mail on Sunday outsells The People).
 * Pingku (talk) 06:19, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Red mast head?
It's only more difficult to understand what "red tops" means if the definition recursively uses "red" to explain it. Does this have something to do with left-wing parties? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.88.223.2 (talk) 09:24, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, I think the author meant "masthead". Googling that word let me understand it. I will go ahead and fix that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.88.223.2 (talk) 09:32, 21 April 2009 (UTC)