List of newspapers in Themiclesia

[number] daily newspapers circulate nationally in Themiclesia, some issuing international editions in foreign markets. The primary publishing language is Shinasthana, though foreign-language editions exist and may see independent articles and editing in some columns. Unlike other places, Themiclesian newspapers generally do not distinguish Weekday and Sunday editions, with the exception of the Times of Themiclesia, which originated for the Tyrannian merchant community and inherits that distinction from the practice in Tyran.

Most nationally-circulating Themiclesian newspapers can be categorized into one of four groups: the ordinary press, the university press, the regimental press, and the tabloids. The ordinary press are newspapers in the usual sense and give coverage to a broad range of topics. The university presses, edited by faculty and students, focus mostly on political and social issues, since universities have historically been hotbeds for social reforms. Tabloids focus mostly on entertainment, sports, and sensational articles, characterized by melodramtic or shock journalism and skewed reporting. The regimental press are a waning category of newspapers formerly edited for military organizations but also their families and interested individuals, and a small number of them have achieved national circulation following broad conscription in the Pan-Septentrion War; these appear to be a uniquely-Themiclesian category of newspapers.

The ordinary and university presses are frequently compared to Tyrannian broadsheets for their journalistic depth and integrity in news stories, though the university presses typically have more extreme opinion columns.

Ordinary presses

An important contrast amongst the ordinary presses is the language and tone used. The Chancery Gazette, being a verbatim record of important decrees and proclamations passed at court, is naturally in the courtly language. The Capital Correspondent, originally distributed with the Chancery Gazette, uses the same courtly language for its articles. While the popular press had existed for some time, politicians typically printed their opinion pieces on The Capital Correspondent, and until the 1890s such pieces were always in the courtly language. This version of Shinasthana is characterized by a number of archaic constructions that have fallen out of use in the some vernaculars, such as -s derivation and m- and n- nominalizations, which can cause confusion if the reader is unfamiliar with them. For example, padh "to defeat, a defeat (of others)" and and mpadh "be defeated, a defeat (of oneself)" are both written 敗, and only literary convention will distinguish the two usages. Much of the ordinary press started with the courtly language, but the second half of the 19th century saw circulation expand beyond the political class, and printing in the vernacular was a conscious decision to appeal to non-elites. The Capital Correspondent is the only newspaper to use the courtly language in 2019.

Like many other jurisdictions, Themiclesian newspapers often have open political affiliations. While most of the ordinary press are upheld to recognized standards of factual reporting, they may implicitly support certain political positions or parties by omission of stories unfavourable to them or favourable to their opponents. General failure to report is not generally seen as censurable bias in Themiclesian print media, but specific failure to report, such as responses or results of a previously-reported incident, is considered beneath the quality of the ordinary press, e.g. a newspaper may elect to omit a story about a Conservative minister's scandal completely, but to cover only facts favouring his acquittal/conviction is not acceptable. The historic bias of the ordinary press is towards the Conservative Party. First, most newspapers were started by the political class for the political class, and the Conservative Party was the first to achieve a national support base (the aristocracy against military spending); second, the Conservative Party has been more press-friendly after its adoption of the New Policy, in order to appeal to the non-enfranchised workers through the press. The Liberal Party, once consisting mostly of industrialists and businessmen, desperately desired to keep workers apolitical, mute, and ignorant, except in trade skills, thus distancing themselves from the presses.

Title		Frequency	Circulation	Established	Owner	Political orientation	Endorsement (2019)	Format	Price	Language
Tyrannian	Shinasthana
Chancery Gazette	氐報, ti′-pugh	Mondays		antiquity	Themiclesia	None	None	A5	10¢	Courtly
Capital Correspondent	省下報, srêng′-gra′-pugh	Daily	120,000	1757	Srum-gar Group	None	None	Broadsheet	5¢	Courtly
The Shield	盾報, m-ljunh-pugh	Daily	380,000	1788	Srum-gar Group	Left	Conservative	Broadsheet	5¢	Vernacular
The Times of Themiclesia	中時報, trjug-mlje-pugh	Daily	224,000	1842	Times Co.	Centre-left	Liberal	Compact	4¢	Vernacular
The Sunday Times	週日報, tju-njik-pugh	Sundays	185,000	1842	Times Co.	Centrist	Liberal	Compact	6¢	Vernacular
The Telegraph	電報, mlinh-pugh	Daily	282,000	1877	Telegraph Trust	Left	Conservative	Broadsheet	4¢	Vernacular
The Review	覈報, grek-pugh	Sundays	82,000	1924	Union of Journalists	None	None	Compact	10¢	Vernacular

University presses

All university presses print in broadsheet format.

Title		Frequency	Circulation	Established	Home	Political orientation	Endorsement (2019)	Focus	Price
Tyrannian	Shinasthana
Globe	球報, gwrje-pugh	Mondays	127,000	1803	University of Kien-k′ang	Anti-nationalist	"Emphatically none"	Politics	10¢
Reform	革報, krek-pugh	Daily	120,000	1889	University of Rak-lang	Left	Conservative	Politics	5¢
The Podium	台報, m-le-pugh	Daily	48,000	1917	University of Rjar-lang	Left	Conservative	Politics	5¢
The Wall	牆報, tsjang-pugh	Daily	24,000	1842	Army Academy	None	Prof. Sran	Foreign policy	4¢

Tabloids

Title		Frequency	Circulation	Established	Owner	Political orientation	Endorsement (2019)	Format	Price
Tyrannian	Shinasthana
Today	今, krjem	Daily	1,220,000	1902	Int'l News Group	None	None	Compact	4¢
Mail of Themiclesia	中書報, trjung-st′ja-pugh	Daily	720,000	1921	Int'l News Group	Right	Liberal	Broadsheet	3¢
People	民報, mrjing-pugh	Daily	491,000	1885	Srum-gar Group	Left	Conservative	Compact	3¢
The Courier	郵報, gwrje-pugh	Daily	692,000	1867	Courier Co.	Centre-right	Liberal	Compact	3¢
The Glass	鏡報, krjangh-pugh	Daily	443,000	1898	Times Co.	Centre-right	Liberal	Broadsheet	3¢
The Urban Telegraph	都電報, ta-m-linh-pugh	Daily	657,000	1870	Telegraph Trust	Right	Liberal	Compact	4¢
The National	邦報, prong-pugh	Daily	212,000	1870	Int'l News Group	Far-right	Progressive	Compact	4¢

Regimental presses

Regimental presses, as a Themiclesian tradition, began in the mid-1700s, when press machines adopted from Casaterran designs became more plentiful. Militias in the 1700s not only had a military function but a social one as well, allowing county denizens to have a regular gathering at the muster, and they were often accompanied by picnics, markets, gossip, and courtship. Only a small portion of the county's militia would be mustered at any one time, so the regimental presses sprung up to be distributed to the entire militia population. Public announcements and advertisements (not necessarily commercial) were initially placed on these small newspapers, mostly a single edition every five days or less frequently. Authorities also posted notices for militiamen. Gradually, regimental presses became more formalized, with appointed (but unpaid) editors gathering news from other localities and militiamen writing their own stories in the columns. Editors were not entirely free; they frequently received instructions to suppress stories that embarrassed the local magistrate or aristocracy. Militiamen's stories frequently revolved around domestic episodes, local gossip, and complaints about each other.

While only for militias initially, other military organizations soon adopted this approach: the Consolidated Fleet published The Marine (1801; 航, gang), and the Capital Defence Force The Citadel (1804; 城, djeng). These two are transitional publications since they largely forego the appeal of locality that canonical regimental presses served, and this may be credited to their relatively larger readership and impact in spreading literacy. The navy recruited sailors and the Capital Defence Force soldiers during this time from multiple prefectures, so a broader editorial focus replaced the parochial focus of regimental presses. The Royal Signals Corps became the first non-combat branch to publish its own newspaper, which had a highly technical focus but also a national distribution. The RCS operated the horseback courier service then the public telegraph system (since 1850) and so were able to distribute their literature to the far reaches of the country. When new support organizations sprung up in the latter half of the 19th century, each new branch acquired its own press. When the Themiclesian Air Force was founded in 1918, they too started a press as soon as the service was declared active.

Two key features of a regimental press are, according to some historians, that it must report primarily about itself, for itself, and that non-specialists must do the reporting. C. Tung says that the "endearing nature of the regimental press is not about its accuracy, neutrality, or perception, but the opposite of these things. There should be no grand schemes or impending doom, but the sort of story you might miss because your parents or wife would not allow you to go out. The whole point is to simulate the late-1700s marketplace experience every time you read the paper." After the disruptions of the Pan-Septentrion War, regimental presses were on the wane, though a new one, The Echo, was set up for veterans of the South Expedition Army and largely wrote arguing for their benefits. The Wall, while published by a military authority (the Army Academy), does not report on itself and thus is not classified as a regimental press. As rural militias waned in importance following the PSW, the regimental press was in many cases subsumed by tabloids or transitioned to ordinary local newspapers. But some regimental presses have found their way into the general market, reporting on matters such as strategy, procurement, and wars from a different angle that may interest a small segment of the public or veterans of the unit, harkening back to the social functions of the militia. Sometimes, these papers print stories that are easily misinterpreted by the public and become tools for political manipulation.

Title		Frequency	Circulation	Established	For	Political orientation	Endorsement (2019)	Format	Price
Tyrannian	Shinasthana
The Echo	鄉報, sk′jang-pugh	Daily	23,000	1943	South Expedition Army	Centre-left Veterans' welfare	Conservative	Broadsheet	3¢
The Mirage	虛報, hja-pugh	Daily	14,000	1935	East Expedition Army	Centre-left Veterans' welfare	Conservative	Broadsheet	3¢
The Citadel	城報, djeng-pugh	Daily	32,000	1804	Army troops in Kien-k'ang	Left	Conservative	Broadsheet	2¢
The Royal Courier	中郵報, trjug-gwrje-pugh	Daily	24,000	1832	Royal Signals Corps	Centre-left	Liberal	Compact	2¢
The Spectre	絢光報, hwin-kwang-pugh	Daily	21,000	1837	Marine Corps	Far-right	Progressive	Compact	2¢
The Marine	航報, gang-pugh	Daily	32,000	1801	Consolidated Fleet Merchant Marine	None	None	Broadsheet	3¢
Right Wing	翼報, lêk-pugh	Sundays	12,000	1924	Themiclesian Air Force	None	None	Compact	3¢

See also

• Themiclesia