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.
132 Newspaper Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- Der Tagesspiegel and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung are daily newspapers published in what country?
Answer: Germany
- The Sun and the Daily Mirror are popular tabloids that are both based out of what European capital city?
Answer: London
- Referring back to a physical characteristic of printed newspapers, content in a website that a viewer would probably need to scroll down to see is called "below the" WHAT?
Answer: Fold
- The section of a newspaper which states the title, ownership, management, and other administrative information is known by what name, which is also a part of a sailboat?
Answer: Masthead
- What gigantic owner of several US 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
- 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
- Started in 1944, "Le Parisien" is one of the top-selling daily what in France?
Answer: Newspapers
- Along with Libération and Le Figaro, Le Monde is considered one of the three "newspapers of record" in which European nation?
Answer: France
- Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was born in Minneapolis in 1922 and grew up in nearby St. Paul. Name the most famous dog drawn by Schulz.
Answer: Snoopy
- 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
- 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 is currently owned by Mort Zuckerman and the Tribune Company.
Answer: New York Daily News
- 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
- Major papers in Orlando and Milwaukee share their name with a soldier whose job it is to stand watch. What S-word is it?
Answer: Sentinel
- 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
- What is 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
- Long before Earth Day, what holiday was first proposed by J. Sterling Morton, a newspaper editor in Nebraska City, resulting in the planting of one million trees in Nebraska on April 10, 1872?
Answer: Arbor Day
- Three newspapers made Nixon's Enemies List, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch. With one guess, name one of the other two.
Answer: The Washington Post
- What tear-inducing satire news site was founded by two students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1988?
Answer: The Onion
- What Arizona newspaper, the state’s largest, is published in Phoenix and has been owned by Gannett since 2000? Its name is the same as a classic book by Plato.
Answer: Arizona Republic
- 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
- Sand, wall, and news can all be followed by what 5-letter word to make 9-letter words?
Answer: Paper
- The term "iron horse" was a nickname for what type of transportation vehicle? The nicknames came from a newspaper description as follows: "the iron horse with its lungs of brass and sinews of steel, came dashing along at a furious rate, puffing volumes of smoke and flame from its nostrils."
Answer: Train
- The North Star was a 19th-century anti-slavery newspaper founded by what famous abolitionist and formerly enslaved Black American?
Answer: Frederick Douglass
- 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
- 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
- He edited newspapers, flew kites, and had a long career in politics, but which historical figure's less well known achievements include being inducted into both the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968, and the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1999?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin
- Room 214 of what Washington, DC hotel has been converted to "The Scandal Room," with decor that includes newspaper headlines about Richard Nixon's resignation?
Answer: The Watergate Hotel
- The 1948 United States presidential election ended with the winner holding a newspaper with what erroneous three-word headline? The headline implied 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
- What two-word newspaper is a British daily middle-market periodical, published in London as a tabloid, and the UK’s highest circulating paper? Founded in 1896 by the Harmsworth family, its name sounds like it should be delivered regularly by the post office.
Answer: Daily Mail
- Journalist Jamal Khashoggi made international headlines in the back half of 2018. For what U.S.-based newspaper was Khashoggi a correspondent?
Answer: Washington Post
- 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
- "Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the official slogan of what daily newspaper that Jeff Bezos snapped up in 2013?
Answer: The Washington Post
- Kit Kittredge is a Great Depression-era kid who dreams of being a journalist with the fictional Cincinnati Register newspaper, from what series of historical dolls for children?
Answer: American Girl
- 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 slaves.
Answer: The Emancipator
- Headquartered in the city of Kanpur, Dainik, Jagran has the highest daily circulation of any newspaper written in what Asian language?
Answer: Hindi
- 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
- 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 the name of this paper?
Answer: The Hartford Courant
- 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
- 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
- Often attributed to a 1980 Virginia newspaper article as the source, the common acronym NIMBY holds what meaning related to local politics and anti-development tendencies?
Answer: Not in my backyard
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Often covering President Frank Underwood, the Washington Herald was a fictional newspaper on what Netflix series?
Answer: House of Cards
- With approximately 2 million daily readers, "Bild" is Europe's best-selling newspaper and it's published in what country?
Answer: Germany
- 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
- The first products of the newspaper's publisher were "flimsies" that were 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
- What type of wooden chair was once described by a New England newspaper as "wooden narcotics?"
Answer: Rocking Chairs
- The largest news agencies in the world are the Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP, an agency headquartered in what European nation?
Answer: France
- Beatrice Morrow Cannady was a civil rights advocate born in 1889 who became a longtime editor of "The Advocate" which was the largest African American newspaper in Portland, Oregon. She was also the first Black female to practice law in Oregon, and was a founding member of the city's chapter of what 1909-founded organization?
Answer: NAACP
- 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
- 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
- The Cedar Rapids Gazette is the second-highest circulated local daily in what Midwestern state?
Answer: Iowa
- 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
- What “A” media company and newspaper conglomerate is owned by the Newhouse family, and whose name implies that they move forward? They own “The Plain Dealer” in Cleveland, as well as “GQ” and “Wired” among many national magazines.
Answer: Advance Publications
- Founded in 1801, the New York Post is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in United States. Name its “founding father” who was also the founder of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Answer: Alexander Hamilton
- Cartoonist Jules Feiffer is one of the three Pulitzer winners for what lower Manhattan alternative newsweekly that relaunched in 2021?
Answer: The Village Voice
- The Morning Herald was founded in 1831 and is Australia's oldest continuously published newspaper. In what city is it based?
Answer: Sydney
- Newspaper and magazine icon Thomas Nast is best remembered as the "Father of the American" what? It's a feature now included in newspapers all across the world.
Answer: Editorial Cartoon
- 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
- The close results of the 1948 election created the unusual scenario in which Harry Truman won the election, but the Chicago Tribune speculated that what Republican governor of New York was victorious? A celebratory Truman held up this headline while celebrating his win.
Answer: Thomas Dewey
- What Gulf Coast city is home to The Daily News, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the state of Texas, which was first published in 1842?
Answer: Galveston
- 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
- 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
- Close enough to catch a show at The Apollo, what Ivy League university awards the Pulitzer Prize?
Answer: Columbia University
- 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
- The precursors to Charles Schulz's famous Peanuts comic strip was a comic named Li'l Folks that appeared mainly in what Minnesota newspaper from 1947 to 1950?
Answer: St. Paul Pioneer Press
- Started in 2017, “The Daily” is a podcast hosted by political journalist Michael Barbaro. The podcast highlights daily news reporting by what East Coast newspaper with a global readership?
Answer: The New York Times
- 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
- 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
- Inquirer.com is the official website of what city's largest newspaper, which passed the Evening Bulletin's circulation in the 1970s?
Answer: Philadelphia
- What conservative tabloid in New York City also owns PageSix and Decider? The last word of their name is same as the cereal manufacturer of Raisin Brain and Fruity Pebbles.
Answer: New York Post
- The British daily newspaper based in London, founded in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, goes by what one word “T” name, and is not to be confused with a shorthand nickname of a popular newspaper based out of New York, USA?
Answer: The Times
- The New York City Newsboys’ Strike of 1899 served as the inspiration for what musical film released by Disney in 1992?
Answer: Newsies
- What “N” daily newspaper, founded in 1940, primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties in Long Island, New York City? Its compound-word name implies that it covers noteworthy events that happened recently.
Answer: Newsday
- What is English translation of the name of the weekly German publication “Der Spiegel”, one of Europe’s most eminent news magazines?
Answer: The Mirror
- “Rajasthan Patrika” and “Punjab Kesari” are both broadsheet newspapers published in which country?
Answer: India
- La Opinion, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, is produced in what largest city in California?
Answer: Los Angeles
- What term is used for the space on the page where the writer of a newspaper story or column is written?
Answer: Byline
- 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
- 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
- In 2020, writers at the Seattle Times won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on what Boeing aircraft, whose flaws caused the the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Air flights?
Answer: 737 MAX
- 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
- What’s the name for the small booths in busy places that can have information (like maps), sell things (like newspapers), or offer services (like those people soliciting you to try a weird new face mask in the middle of the mall)?
Answer: Kiosk
- The rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth extends all the way back to 1873, when a Dallas lawyer wrote in the newspaper that Fort Worth was so quiet, he saw which animal sleeping on Main Street without being disturbed?
Answer: Panther
- The Tri-City Herald newspaper serves three cities: Pasco, Richland, and what city in which the paper is based?
Answer: Kennewick
- 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
- Sounding like it describes a resident from the state, what daily newspaper in Nashville named Servpro as one of the state’s top workplaces in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019?
Answer: The Tennessean
- The Times-Picayune has been a daily newspaper published in what Southern American city since January 1837?
Answer: New Orleans
- 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
- 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
- Which then-Australian inherited the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper from his father on his 21st birthday in 1952?
Answer: Rupert Murdoch
- What’s the term for the margin of two facing pages (where the fold is?)
Answer: Gutter
- What was the name of the newspaper founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1728?
Answer: Pennsylvania Gazette
- 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
- 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 what New York newspaper?
Answer: Sun
- 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
- "Gridgate" was a 2016 scandal in which data analysis by FiveThirtyEight showed evidence of plagiarism in what section of the USA Today newspaper?
Answer: Crossword
- As of 2016, what nation had the following newspapers with the largest domestic circulation? Hürriyet, Sabah, Posta, Sözcü, Habertürk.
Answer: Turkey
- What cake, a recipe for which first appeared in a Dallas newspaper in 1957, was named for its primary ingredient and not for its country of origin?
Answer: German chocolate cake
- Which word, an epithet for a journal or newspaper, derives from the name of a Venetian coin?
Answer: Gazette
- Algemeen Dagblad, De Telegraaf, and De Volkskrant are the three biggest newspapers by daily circulation in what European country?
Answer: The Netherlands
- Charles H. Taylor is one of six businessmen that founded a company in 1872 which still exists in present day Boston. The company was purchased in 2013 by Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. owner John W. Henry for $70 million. What is the company?
Answer: The Boston Globe
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- The first product made by Kimberly-Clark in 1872 at its Neenah, Wisconsin mill was paper for what purpose?
Answer: Newspapers
- The first ever foreign language newspaper in Sacramento started printing in 1856. What language was it in?
Answer: Chinese
- What's the name of Harvard University's daily student newspaper?
Answer: The Harvard Crimson
- 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
- The largest circulated newspapers of New Jersey, Indiana, 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)
- 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
- 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
- Morris Communications owns the Chronicle newspaper of what “A” Georgia city, located near the South Carolina border?
Answer: Augusta Chronicle
- "Dewey Defeats Truman" was a headline that should not have been printed, as incumbent U.S. President Harry Truman defeated Governor Thomas Dewey of New York in the 1948 Presidential election. Which major-city newspaper ran this headline on November 3, 1948 and almost immediately regretted it?
Answer: Chicago Tribune
- Which zoo and aquarium was originally called the Riverview Park Zoo when it opened in 1894, but was renamed in the ‘60s when the wife of a newspaper publisher donated a lot of money in her late husband’s name and asked that the zoo be named after him?
Answer: Henry Doorly
- The Inter-Ocean was a popular newspaper from the end of the Civil War until 1914. This somewhat unusual name for the paper made more sense when one realized that which large American city was home to the paper's headquarters?
Answer: Chicago
- The largest common newspaper format, with pages 22.5 inches in length, has what appropriate B-word name?
Answer: Broadsheet
- It wasn't "Daily," but thirteen 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
- What is the name of the 19th century abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison?
Answer: The Liberator
- What D.C.-based newspaper, founded in 1969, is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the United States?
Answer: The Washington Blade
- 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
- What is the two-word name of the fictional newspaper based in the city of Metropolis that employed Clark Kent and Lois Lane? It was the forerunner of the “Daily Planet.”
Answer: Daily Star
- Hosted by advice columnist Meredith Goldstein, "Love Letters" is a podcast about love and relationships that's produced by what newspaper?
Answer: The Boston Globe
- 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
- 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
- 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
- What term meaning "the people" is often used to describe the Spanish-speaking communities of the Western hemisphere? It's also the name of an influential Chicago newspaper.
Answer: La Raza
- "The Treetops Tattler" was a newspaper staffed by birds in what long-running newspaper comic by Jeff MacNelly?
Answer: Shoe
- 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
- What 7th-largest newspaper in the United States has a distribution network across the Midwest and won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013?
Answer: Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Play Newspaper Trivia with Water Cooler Trivia
Water Cooler Trivia is well-equipped to provide you with exciting and engaging trivia quizzes.
So, how does it work?
Each week, our team will deliver original trivia quizzes straight to your inbox.
All you have to do is pick the categories.
You can leave the rest of the heavy lifting to us.
Take Water Cooler Trivia for a test run with our four-week free trial.
About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
.png){kind=logo}
.png)