135 Newspaper Trivia Questions (Ranked from Easiest to Hardest)

Newspapers have been a staple of society for centuries, providing information and entertainment to people all over the world. They offer a unique glimpse into the past, as well as a valuable source of information about current events. In this list of newspaper trivia questions, we will test your knowledge of the history and workings of newspapers.

From the first newspaper ever printed to the most popular newspapers today, these questions will cover a wide range of topics. You will learn about the different types of newspapers, the various formats they come in, and the role they play in society. Whether you're a journalist, a history buff, or just someone who loves trivia, this list of newspaper trivia questions is sure to challenge and educate you.

So, grab a pen and paper, and get ready to test your newspaper knowledge. Let's see how well you know the world of newspapers and the impact they have had on society throughout history.

135 Newspaper Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2025)

1. Der Tagesspiegel and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung are daily newspapers published in what country?

Answer: Germany

2. The Sun and the Daily Mirror are popular tabloids that are both based out of what European capital city?

Answer: London

3. The section of a newspaper that states the title, ownership, management, and other administrative information is known by what name? It’s also a part of a sailboat.

Answer: Masthead

4. What “G”igantic owner of several U.S. local newspapers, as well as USA Today, had its TV news division split into the company Tegna in 2015? It was founded by Frank of its namesake family in 1906.

Answer: Gannett

5. N Michigan Avenue in Chicago is home to what large neo-Gothic Tower, built in 1925? It gets its “T” name from the popular Chicago newspaper and media company that used to have its offices in the building.

Answer: Tribune Tower

6. Started in 1944, "Le Parisien" is one of the top-selling daily what in France?

Answer: Newspapers

7. Along with Libération and Le Figaro, Le Monde is considered one of the three "newspapers of record" in which European nation?

Answer: France

8. Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was born in Minneapolis in 1922 and grew up in nearby St. Paul. What’s the name of the most famous dog drawn by Schulz that has long frequented the comics section of newspapers?

Answer: Snoopy

9. What British newspaper, which moved to tabloid in 2003 and online only in 2016, is owned by the Lebedev family and has a name implying that they are free from outside control?

Answer: The Independent

10. What newspaper, founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson, was the first tabloid released every day? Its two-word name denotes its regular release, and it’s currently owned by Mort Zuckerman and the Tribune Company.

Answer: New York Daily News

11. The first "USA Today" newspaper was printed September 15, 1983, and featured a story on the death of which Princess of Monaco?

Answer: Grace Kelly

12. Major papers in Orlando and Milwaukee share their name with what S-word for a soldier whose job it is to stand watch?

Answer: Sentinel

13. Boston Globe editor Ben Bradlee, Jr. headed up what infamous investigative reporting unit of The Boston Globe, later memorialized in an award-winning film?

Answer: Spotlight

14. What is the largest U.S. newspaper not published on the East Coast, having been published on the West Coast since 1881? Owned by Nant Capital, it is currently based in El Segundo, CA.

Answer: Los Angeles Times

15. What tear-inducing satire news site was founded by two students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1988?

Answer: The Onion

16. Three newspapers made Nixon's Enemies List, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch and The New York Times. What was the third?

Answer: The Washington Post

17. What Arizona newspaper, the state’s largest, is published in Phoenix and has been owned by Gannett since 2000? Its name might remind you of a classic book by Plato.

Answer: Arizona Republic

18. TASS (or TACC, if you wanna get all Cyrillic about it) is a federal news agency owned by the government of what ginormous country?

Answer: Russia / Russian Federation

19. The North Star was a 19th-century anti-slavery newspaper founded by what famous abolitionist and formerly enslaved Black American?

Answer: Frederick Douglass

20. What super-popular online game was purchased in 2022 by the New York Times for inclusion alongside its crossword puzzle and Spelling Bee games?

Answer: Wordle

21. After 150 years, the last edition of The Herald was published in 1990 in Melbourne, Australia. At that time, it folded into The Sun News-Pictorial. Together, they formed which tabloid that still runs today?

Answer: Herald-Sun

22. The 1948 United States presidential election ended with the winner holding a newspaper with what erroneous three word headline? The phrase implied that the then Governor of New York had in fact won against a former vice president who assumed office when his predecessor died.

Answer: Dewey Defeats Truman

23. What two-word newspaper is a British daily middle-market periodical that’s published in London as a tabloid and is the UK’s highest circulating paper? Founded in 1896 by the Harmsworth family, its name sounds like it should be delivered regularly by the postman.

Answer: Daily Mail

24. Featuring a trumpet-like instrument on its cover page, what fictional New York City newspaper frequently reports on the exploits of the Amazing Spider-Man?

Answer: Daily Bugle

25. "Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the official slogan of what daily newspaper that Jeff Bezos snapped up in 2013?

Answer: The Washington Post

26. Kit Kittredge is a Great Depression-era kid who dreams of being a journalist with the fictional Cincinnati Register newspaper in what series of historical dolls for children?

Answer: American Girl

27. What “E” online newspaper, founded in 2021 by Boston Globe staff members, is named after an anti-slavery newspaper that was founded in 1833, and pledges itself to discuss modern racial inequality? Its name literally means a person or entity that frees enslaved people.

Answer: The Emancipator

28. Headquartered in the city of Kanpur, Dainik Jagran has the highest daily circulation of any newspaper written in what Asian language?

Answer: Hindi

29. Richmond's historically conservative-leaning Times-Dispatch newspaper broke with a long tradition in 2016 by endorsing what Libertarian candidate over Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton?

Answer: Gary Johnson

30. Often considered the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.S., Hartford's daily newspaper is also the largest daily newspaper in Connecticut by circulation. What is its name?

Answer: The Hartford Courant

31. Built in San Simeon, CA in 1947, there is a large estate known as the Castle of what “H” American newspaper tycoon? His empire inspired the movie “Citizen Kane.”

Answer: William Randolph Hearst

32. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison used the pen name "Publius" to publish what set of 85 essays in New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788?

Answer: The Federalist Papers

33. Often attributed to a 1980 Virginia newspaper article, the common acronym NIMBY holds what meaning related to local politics and anti-development tendencies?

Answer: Not in my backyard

34. Which international daily newspaper based in New York City, published in broadsheet and online, is associated with the use of hedcuts, hand-drawn illustrations that resemble engravings?

Answer: Wall Street Journal

35. Santa Rosa, CA is home to the Charles M. Schulz Museum, named after and dedicated to the works of the cartoonist who created what popular newspaper comic strip starring Charlie Brown and Snoopy?

Answer: Peanuts

36. Having started publishing in 1851, and being the oldest U.S. newspaper until it closed in 1994, what was the name of Sacramento’s first newspaper?

Answer: Sacramento Union

37. Often covering President Frank Underwood, the Washington Herald was a fictional newspaper on what Netflix series?

Answer: House of Cards

38. Among Gannett's massive empire is what most-circulated paper in Iowa that sponsors a namesake annual bike ride across the state?

Answer: Des Moines Register

39. The first products of the newspaper's publisher were "flimsies, brief news items hand-delivered to stock traders in the early 1880s. Today, the company is headquartered on the Avenue of the Americas in New York rather than a seemingly more logical place. What is this paper?

Answer: The Wall Street Journal

40. With approximately 2 million daily readers, "Bild" is Europe's best-selling newspaper. What country is it published in?

Answer: Germany

41. The largest news agencies in the world are the Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP, an agency headquartered in what European nation?

Answer: France

42. Beatrice Morrow Cannady was a civil rights advocate born in 1889 and became a longtime editor of "The Advocate," the largest African American newspaper in Portland, Oregon. She was also the first Black woman to practice law in Oregon, and was a founding member of the city's chapter of what 1909-founded organization?

Answer: NAACP

43. The Cedar Rapids Gazette is the second-highest circulated local daily in what Midwestern state?

Answer: Iowa

44. In 1992, Raymond H. Boone founded what Richmond newspaper focused on the city's minority residents, whom he felt were underrepresented in mainstream media?

Answer: Richmond Free Press

45. 2017's "The Post" dramatized the attempts of that paper to publish the Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, a set of documents known commonly by what geometric, alliterative name?

Answer: Pentagon Papers

46. In Chic Young’s syndicated newspaper comic strip “Blondie”, Joplin, Missouri is the hometown of the titular character, her husband Dagwood Bumstead, her children Alexander and Cookie, and what family dog with a floral name?

Answer: Daisy

47. What “A” media company and newspaper conglomerate is owned by the Newhouse family and has a name that implies moving forward? The family also owns “The Plain Dealer” in Cleveland, as well as “GQ,” “Wired,” and many other national magazines.

Answer: Advance Publications

48. Founded in 1801, the New York Post is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the United States. Name its “founding father” who was also the founder of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Answer: Alexander Hamilton

49. Cartoonist Jules Feiffer is one of the three Pulitzer winners for what lower Manhattan alternative newsweekly that relaunched in 2021?

Answer: The Village Voice

50. WHAT To City: Drop Dead is a now infamous headline run by the NY Daily News on October 30, 1975. Which U.S. President's last name starts the headline?

Answer: Ford

51. The Morning Herald was founded in 1831 and is Australia's oldest continuously published newspaper. In what city is it based?

Answer: Sydney

52. Newspaper and magazine icon Thomas Nast is best remembered as the Father of the American WHAT? It’s a type of image included in newspapers all across the world.

Answer: Editorial Cartoon

53. What Pittsburgh company created controversy in 2018 with a series of commercials that many viewed as mocking customers who did not want to transition to a digital model?

Answer: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

54. You probably don’t know Patrick Soon-Shiong as the inventor of Abraxane, a lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer drug. You may, however, know him as the owner of what West Coast newspaper that he picked up from Tribune Publishing in 2018?

Answer: Los Angeles Times

55. What Gulf Coast city is home to The Daily News, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the state of Texas, first published in 1842?

Answer: Galveston

56. Close enough to catch a show at The Apollo, what Ivy League university awards the Pulitzer Prize?

Answer: Columbia University

57. What is the name of the newspaper in the Harry Potter universe for which the unsavory Rita Skeeter is a reporter?

Answer: The Daily Prophet

58. Owned by The Woodbridge Company of Toronto, what Monday-to-Saturday newspaper with two nouns in its title is the most popular in Canada?

Answer: The Globe and Mail

59. Founded in 1818 and owned by Ohio Community Media, what morning daily newspaper is considered the dominant community newspaper in Delaware, OH?

Answer: The Delaware Gazette

60. The precursor to Charles Schulz's famous Peanuts strip was a comic named Li'l Folks that appeared mainly in what Minnesota newspaper from 1947 to 1950?

Answer: St. Paul Pioneer Press

61. Started in 2017, “The Daily” is a podcast hosted by political journalist Michael Barbaro that highlights daily news reporting by what east coast newspaper with a global readership?

Answer: The New York Times

62. Founded in 1982 by Al Neuharth and operating out of Tysons, Virginia what is the most widely distributed newspaper in the United States?

Answer: USA Today

63. In newspaper parlance, what four-letter word means the introduction to a news article, which should entice the reader to check out the full story?

Answer: lede

64. Inquirer.com is the official website of what city's largest newspaper, which passed the Evening Bulletin's circulation in the 1970s?

Answer: Philadelphia

65. What conservative tabloid in New York City also owns PageSix and Decider? The last word of its name is the same as the cereal manufacturer of Raisin Brain and Fruity Pebbles.

Answer: New York Post

66. The British daily newspaper based in London, and founded in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, goes by what one word “T” name, not to be confused with a shorthand nickname of a popular newspaper based out of New York City?

Answer: The Times

67. The New York City Newsboys’ Strike of 1899 served as the inspiration for what musical film released by Disney in 1992?

Answer: Newsies

68. What “N” daily newspaper founded in 1940 serves primarily Nassau and Suffolk counties in Long Island, New York? Its compound-word name suggests that it covers noteworthy events that happened recently.

Answer: Newsday

69. A newspaper headquartered out of Columbus, Georgia, owned by McClatchy, is the WHAT-Enquirer? It’s an “L” word meaning a book of financial accounts.

Answer: Ledger-Enquirer

70. Published by WEHCO Media, a newspaper published in Little Rock and Lowell, Arkansas, is the Arkansas WHAT-Gazette. It’s a noun that would make you think that the paper should be against any Republican.

Answer: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

71. A newspaper that serves Tucson and other districts in Southern Arizona is the Arizona Daily WHAT? The “S” word is also a term for a fixed luminous point in the night sky.

Answer: Arizona Daily Star

72. What is the English translation of the name of the weekly German publication “Der Spiegel," one of Europe’s most eminent news magazines?

Answer: The Mirror

73. “Rajasthan Patrika” and “Punjab Kesari” are both broadsheet newspapers published in which country?

Answer: India

74. A daily newspaper serving the greater Rochester, New York area is the WHAT And Chronicle.” In American politics, the “D” term is often the political opposite of a Republican.

Answer: Democrat And Chronicle

75. La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, is produced in what largest city in California?

Answer: Los Angeles

76. In 1870, The Salt Lake Tribune was founded under the name The WHAT Tribune? The “M” term is an adjective meaning relating to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Answer: The Mormon Tribune

77. In journalism lingo, the day’s most important story gets placed right at the top of the first page of the newspaper—a.k.a., above the WHAT?

Answer: Fold

78. What term is used for the space on the page where the writer of a newspaper story or column is written?

Answer: Byline

79. Seattle is one of two major U.S. cities located on an isthmus, a narrow piece of land between two bodies of water. What state capital, which boasts a free weekly newspaper called the Isthmus, is the other?

Answer: Madison, Wisconsin

80. The oldest currently published newspaper in the world is the Ordinari Post Tijdender, founded in 1645 by Queen Christina of what Scandinavian country?

Answer: Sweden

81. In 2020, writers at the Seattle Times won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on what Boeing aircraft, whose flaws caused the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Air flights?

Answer: 737 MAX

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82. The daily newspaper in Cleveland has been The Plain WHAT since 1842, and today it has the 19th largest market in the U.S.?

Answer: Dealer

83. Depending on your cultural references, its name might put you in the mind of Pinocchio's cat, an opera by Mozart, or the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody. Founded in January 1826, what is the oldest national newspaper in France?

Answer: Le Figaro

84. The Tri-City Herald newspaper serves three cities: Pasco, Richland, and what city in which the paper is based?

Answer: Kennewick

85. Founded in 1881 and headquartered in Ypsilanti, what’s the name of Eastern Michigan University’s independent student newspaper (newspaper… newspaper… newspaper…)?

Answer: The Eastern Echo

86. On April 28, 1849, Sacramento's first newspaper was launched. What was it called?

Answer: The Placer Times

87. Publishing its first issue on September 19, 1868, what was Alaska's first newspaper?

Answer: The Sitka Times

88. The remote town of Nome is home to what alliterative newspaper with a name alluding to the area's gold mining history? It was founded in 1899, making it the oldest in the state.

Answer: Nome Nugget

89. What periodical began in Brookline with 5,000 copies in 2005, later becoming the Boston area's most popular Spanish-language newspaper?

Answer: El Planeta

90. The Times-Picayune has been a daily newspaper published in what southern American city since January 1837?

Answer: New Orleans

91. In the Spiderman franchise, the publisher or editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle (a fictional New York newspaper) has what letter as his first, middle, and last initial?

Answer: J

92. Founded as a weekly by Thomas Dryer in 1850 and published daily since 1861, what is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast? This paper is also one of the few to have an explicitly statewide focus.

Answer: The Oregonian

93. Before he started publishing his famous daily comic strip “JumpStart” in newspapers starting in 1989, African American cartoonist Robb Armstrong created “Hector” for what private New York-based university’s student newspaper, The Daily Orange, in 1982?

Answer: Syracuse University

94. What’s the term for the margin of two facing pages, where the fold is?

Answer: Gutter

95. What was the name of the newspaper founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1728?

Answer: Pennsylvania Gazette

96. What female journalist was known for pioneering the field of investigative journalism by going undercover in a mental institution for the New York World newspaper, and also for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days?

Answer: Nellie Bly

97. One of the most famous editorials ever written was by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon entitled, "Is there a Santa Claus?” It was published on September 21, 1897, in what New York newspaper?

Answer: Sun

98. The Sacramento Bee is the flagship newspaper of what company, the second-largest news publisher in the U.S.? It has the same name as its founder, who started the paper in 1857.

Answer: The McClatchy Company

99. "Gridgate" was a 2016 scandal in which data analysis by FiveThirtyEight showed evidence of plagiarism in what feature of the USA Today newspaper?

Answer: crossword

100. In 2016, what nation had the following newspapers with the largest domestic circulation? Hürriyet, Sabah, Posta, Sözcü, Habertürk.

Answer: Turkey

101. Hot off the press in Boston in 1690, Publick WHAT Both Forreign and Domestick (yeah, that's how it was spelled...) was the first newspaper with more than one page published in America. Hint: The missing word is a synonym for “happenings,” “events,” etc., and it was spelled correctly by today's standards.

Answer: Occurrences

102. Which then-Australian inherited the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper from his father on his 21st birthday in 1952?

Answer: Rupert Murdoch

103. What British daily newspaper began in 1821 as The Manchester WHAT before changing to its current shortened name in 1959? Owned by the Scott Trust, this paper with a blue masthead is known for its editorials and aggressive political scoops.

Answer: The Guardian

104. Which word, an epithet for a journal or newspaper, derives from the name of a Venetian coin?

Answer: Gazette

105. Algemeen Dagblad, De Telegraaf, and De Volkskrant are the three biggest newspapers by daily circulation in what European country?

Answer: The Netherlands

106. Charles H. Taylor is one of six businessmen who founded a newspaper in 1872 that still exists in present day Boston. It was purchased in 2013 by Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. owner John W. Henry for $70 million.

Answer: The Boston Globe

107. International figures such as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have both penned op-ed columns in what newspaper that launched in March 1859 as a Protestant nationalist paper?

Answer: The Irish Times

108. What African-American lawyer founded The Chicago Defender in 1905, one of the most successful black-owned newspapers in the U.S.? His last name is the same as the last name of Lou Costello’s comedy partner.

Answer: Robert Abbott

109. What name is used for an investigative report that uncovers—and makes public—a controversial, unethical, immoral, or otherwise unsavory practice or event?

Answer: Exposé

110. LA is home to the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S., which printed its first edition in 1926 by Ignacio E. Lozano Sr. What’s the paper’s name?

Answer: La Opinión

111. The first product made by Kimberly-Clark in 1872 at its Neenah, Wisconsin mill was paper for what purpose?

Answer: Newspapers

112. The first foreign language newspaper in Sacramento started printing in 1856. What language was it in?

Answer: Chinese

113. What's the name of Harvard University's daily student newspaper?

Answer: The Harvard Crimson

114. The largest circulated newspapers of New Jersey, Indiana, and Minnesota all contain what four-letter word in their names?

Answer: Star (The Star-Ledger in New Jersey, the Indianapolis Star in Indiana, and the Star Tribune in Minnesota)

115. What “G” Irish newspaper editor founded the Sinn Fein political party in the early 1920s? He also led the Irish delegation that negotiated the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.

Answer: Arthur Griffith

116. What is the name of the New York Times initiative that seeks to "reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative?"

Answer: 1619 Project

117. Roger Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer for Criticism while thumbing movies for what Windy City daily?

Answer: Chicago Sun-Times

118. Morris Communications owns the Chronicle newspaper of what “A” Georgia city located near the South Carolina border?

Answer: Augusta Chronicle

119. The Inter-Ocean was a popular newspaper from the end of the Civil War until 1914. The somewhat unusual name for the paper made more sense when one realized that which large American city was home to its headquarters?

Answer: Chicago

120. The largest common newspaper format, with pages 22.5 inches in length, has what appropriate B-word name?

Answer: Broadsheet

121. It wasn't "Daily," but 13 former enslaved people formed what newspaper at a building on Third and Broad Streets in Richmond, VA in 1882, the oldest African-American paper in the country?

Answer: Richmond Planet

122. William Randolph Hearst broke into the newspaper industry in 1887 when he bought the Examiner, a newspaper in which U.S. city?

Answer: San Francisco

123. What is the name of the 19th century abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison?

Answer: The Liberator

124. More than 20 years after starting his "Counter Intelligence" column, the LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold became the first Pulitzer winner for criticism in what field?

Answer: Food

125. What D.C.-based newspaper, founded in 1969, is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the United States?

Answer: The Washington Blade

126. What is the two-word name of the fictional newspaper based in the city of Metropolis that employed Clark Kent and Lois Lane? This fictional newspaper was the forerunner of the “Daily Planet.”

Answer: Daily Star

127. Hosted by the paper's advice columnist Meredith Goldstein, "Love Letters" is a podcast with four seasons (and counting) about love and relationships and produced by what newspaper?

Answer: The Boston Globe

128. Considered one of the innovators of creative nonfiction via New Journalism, what American author's best-known work "The Executioner's Song" won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for fiction? This "postal" author also ran in the Democratic primary for NYC's mayoral race of 1969 with a platform including the secession of New York City as the 51st US state.

Answer: Norman Mailer

129. Of the 10 U.S. newspapers with the highest daily circulation, only two are headquartered in the Midwest. One is the Chicago Tribune, located in Illinois. In which U.S. State would you find the other popular paper?

Answer: Minnesota Star Tribune

130. For those of us who are not money-minded, the British broadsheet Financial Times might be most recognizable for being printed on what color paper?

Answer: Pink

131. What New York newspaper owned by William Randolph Hearst frequently engaged in yellow journalism in its rivalry against Joseph Pulitzer's New York World?

Answer: New York Journal

132. What term, meaning "the people" is the name of an influential Chicano newspaper? It’s often used to describe the Spanish-speaking communities of the Western hemisphere.

Answer: La Raza

133. "The Treetops Tattler" was a newspaper staffed by birds in what long-running newspaper comic by Jeff MacNelly?

Answer: Shoe

134. What is the oldest newspaper in North Carolina, first published as the Carolina Observer before changing its name to reflect the city in which it is published?

Answer: Fayetteville Observer

135. What 7th-largest newspaper in the United States has a distribution network across the midwest and has won multiple Pulitzer Prizes?

Answer: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

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