The masthead of a newspaper or magazine is a list of information about the publication that is usually printed near the editorial page or inside cover. Every issue includes this information, making it simple for readers to see who is involved with the publication and where it is published. The term “masthead” is also sometimes used to refer to a newspaper’s title or banner; however, this is incorrect, as the banner of a newspaper is better known as a nameplate. In online publishing, the term “masthead” is also used to describe the pages that provide information about the site’s owners.
This term has a nautical origin, as you might expect. It refers to the practice of attaching a brass plate to a ship’s mainmast with information about the owner. The ship’s home port and the year it was built may also be included on nautical mastheads.
The content of a masthead is required law in some jurisdictions to ensure that readers can easily contact the publication’s staff and owners. You can always find the owner’s name and contact information, as well as the editor’s name, on the front page of the paper. A list of regular newspaper staff and their positions, as well as information about the paper’s location and general contact information, may be included on the masthead. Some newspaper policies, such as those regarding letters to the editor and unsolicited submissions, may also be listed on the masthead.
A masthead also includes information about circulation, such as how many papers or newspapers were printed and, in some cases, the number of subscribers. To make it easy for potential advertisers or subscribers to contact the paper, the masthead also includes information about subscription and advertising rates, as well as contact information for these departments. The slogan of a newspaper may also be printed on the masthead and on the nameplate.
You might skip over the masthead when you see it, but it actually contains some interesting information, including clues to the publication’s history as well as information about the light in which information is presented. For example, you should not expect liberal journalism from a newspaper owned a prominent conservative company, and a local paper owned an out-of-town conglomerate may not have as much interesting local information as a local alternative paper.