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

Title		Frequency	Circulation	Established	Owner	Political orientation	Endorsement (2019)	Format	Price
Tyrannian	Shinasthana
Chancery Gazette	氐報, têi-pugh	Mondays		antiquity	Themiclesia	None	None	A5	10¢
Capital Correspondent	省下報, srêng′-gra′-pugh	Daily	320,000	1757	Srum-gar Group	Non-partisan	None	Broadsheet	5¢
The Shield	盾報, dunh-pugh	Daily	380,000	1788	Srum-gar Group	Left	Conservative	Broadsheet	5¢
The Times of Themiclesia	中時報, trjug-mlje-pugh	Daily	224,000	1842	Times Co.	Centre-left	Liberal	Compact	4¢
The Sunday Times	週日報, tju-njik-pugh	Sundays	185,000	1842	Times Co.	Centrist	Liberal	Compact	6¢
The Telegraph	電報, mlinh-pugh	Daily	282,000	1877	Telegraph Trust	Left	Conservative	Broadsheet	4¢
The Review	覈報, grek-pugh	Sundays	82,000	1924	Union of Journalists	None	None	Compact	10¢

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¢

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.

In the 60s, The Spectre led a revolution of the regimental press by reporting on front-line action, where ordinary journalists were banned. Desperate for news, over 50,000 Themiclesian civilians subscribed to The Spectre, which was the regimental press of the Marine Corps, then the main Themiclesian presence in foreign conflicts. However, because of the dubious exclusion of the outside press and sub-par reporting, The Spectre was soon panned by the journalist world. Nevertheless, The Spectre was favoured by the pro-war Liberal Party, since it dramatized and glorified the action at the front and stimulated public sympathy and military recruitment. The fact that the non-professional reporting was liked by some of the public was used by the Liberal Party as evidence of an alleged "elitist revival" in the Conservative Party and its associated presses, generated an enormous indignation amongst "all the presses."

In Dec. 1970, the Court of Appeal (The Capital Correspondent v. The Secretary of State for Defence) ruled that the Marine Corps cannot profit by public sale of a product (subscriptions for war stories) increased in valuale by an artificial scarcity. The Government circumvented this by privatizing The Spectre then ordering it to contract the Marine Corps for stories. It remains the only nationally-active regimental press as of 2019, though its content has shifted to a more general appeal. Despite this, The Spectre is still often thought of as the antithesis of good journalism, and it prints stories that embellish the military in many ways and stimulate recruitment; as a result, it has attracted a fringe, far-right audience. The disgrace of The Spectre has led to the closure of many other regimental presses that have far less toxic content. In the 70s, "reader of The Specture" was recognized by the courts as an insult. The Liberal manipulation of the press in the late 60s was one of the factors that led to its loss of the 1971 general election, which saw the rise of the Lord of Srong-sngrjal as prime minister.

See also

• Themiclesia