Conclusion

A century ago, newspapers continually reimagined reader engagement, with the Sunday supplement taking a lead role. The digital newspaper is still using many of the same tactics to stake out new cultural importance for news reading, at a moment when its form and format are being transfigured into new platforms. Digital forms like podcasts, video, and social media may at first seem desperate attempts to sustain an industry with a broken business model. And yet, many of these digital news supplements show remarkable consistency with the history told in The Sunday Paper. Many efforts to introduce new forms of online engagement still originate in the remnants of the Sunday magazine, despite its features appearing online, days in advance, no longer accompanied by advertising flyers. Like the giveaways and contests before them, podcasts also routinely reference listeners back to subscriptions to the newspaper. Historically, new media technologies allowed newspapers to position themselves as all-encompassing conduits for story-telling, building relationships with readers through a variety of audio-visual as well as print supplements. This process continues in the digital age, outlasting the Sunday paper as a distinct form and habit.