USA Today

Launch and Development

The brainchild of Gannett Corp.'s then-CEO and publisher Al Newharth, USA Today reflected the ambition, brashness, and ingenuity that led others to call its founder both a tyrant and a genius. When the initial edition of 155,000 copies came off the presses on September 15, 1982, Newharth's determination to defy convention could be seen on the very first page: The previous day, Princess Grace of Monaco had been killed in a car accident, and Newharth had insisted on leading with that story, a controversial choice since most other papers led with the killing of Lebanon's Presidentelect. That first issue, printed and distributed in the Washington-Baltimore area, sold out.

A quarter of a century later, USA Today's basic configuration remained much the same. Enduring characteristics included the four color-coded sections, titled News, Money, Sports, and Life, with only the main story on each section front long enough to “jump” to an inside page; a color weather map of the United States dominating the back page of the news section; and a daily amalgamation of paragraph-long news briefs from each of the 50 states.

In subtler ways, USA Today had changed a great deal. Initial emphasis on domestic over international news had given way to much greater attention to global affairs; and while celebrity and entertainment news and sports coverage remained staples, solid beat and enterprise reporting as well as special investigations had earned the paper editorial respect. Reporters regularly used open records laws to gain comprehensive information for features on issues of nationwide interest, from salaries of college presidents and sports coaches to transportation safety.

In its initial years, USA Today was a drain on the Gannett organization in several respects. To staff its newsroom, the paper cannibalized labor from Gannett's extensive local newspaper chain; of more than 200 reporters and editors starting out, two-thirds came from other Gannett papers while remaining on the loaner papers' payrolls. USA Today's circulation grew to more than a million in its first half-year, making the paper the third largest and fastest-growing in the country, but the operation was losing more than $10 million a month. Cumulatively, USA Today had lost an estimated $300 million after tax by the time it posted its first monthly operating profit, in May 1987; and by its tenth anniversary in 1992, with cumulative deficit of some $800 million, it had yet to show an annual profit—that turning point came in 1993, a dozen years after the project's start.

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