Yellow journalism

Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion.

Definitions

Joseph Campbell defines yellow press newspapers as having daily multi-column front-page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts (with large illustrations and perhaps color), heavy reliance on unnamed sources, and unabashed self-promotion. The term was extensively used to describe certain major New York City newspapers around 1900 as they battled for circulation.

Frank Luther Mott defines yellow journalism in terms of five characteristics:

Yellow Media

Yellow Media (formerly Yellow Pages Income Fund) is a digital company in Canada. Yellow Media owns and operates some Canadian properties and publications including Yellow Pages directories, YellowPages.ca, Canada411.ca, and RedFlagDeals.com. Its online destinations reach approximately 9 million of unique visitors monthly and its mobile applications for finding local businesses, deals and vehicles have been downloaded over 3 million times. The company was founded following the buyout of Bell Canada's directory business and subsequently acquired SuperPages Canada, the directory publisher for Telus.

In October 2008, Yellow Pages was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine, the only directory publisher to receive this honour.

In March 2011, Yellow Pages sold Trader Corporation to funds advised by APAX Partners for $745 million.

Its headquarters is located on Nuns' Island in Montreal, Canada.

Dividend Controversy

Yellow Media is considered by some Canadian financial writers to be a prime example of why investors should be skeptical of high dividend yields. In 2011, the company maintained a high dividend yield despite close scrutiny, before finally cutting dividends and taking a stock price hit.