Q 01/05

In newspaper jargon, the 'op' in op-ed, a page of outside commentary, is short for which word?

A) Opening

B) Opposite

C) Optional

D) Open

Answer · why

B) Opposite

Opposite is the word, because the page traditionally ran facing the editorial page. Many readers assume it stands for opinion, which is simply what th...

Q 02/05

Which fictional Metropolis newspaper employs reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane in DC's Superman comics?

A) Daily Bugle

B) Gotham Gazette

C) Daily Prophet

D) Daily Planet

Answer · why

D) Daily Planet

The Daily Planet was called the Daily Star when Superman first appeared in 1938, with Clark Kent answering to editor George Taylor rather than Perry W...

Q 03/05

In the old newsroom saying about what makes an event news, a man makes headlines by biting which animal?

A) Horse

B) Snake

C) Dog

D) Shark

Answer · why

C) Dog

A dog biting a man happens too often to report, the saying goes, so only the reverse counts as news. It has been credited to several editors, includin...

Q 04/05

Which newsroom word was used in Civil War prison camps for a boundary beyond which prisoners were shot?

A) Deadline

B) Morgue

C) Gutter

D) Tombstone

Answer · why

A) Deadline

Deadline named that fatal boundary at camps such as Andersonville in 1864. Its time-limit sense turned up in American newspaper jargon by 1919, for th...

Q 05/05

Which future British prime minister was captured in 1899 while covering the Boer War as a newspaper correspondent?

A) Clement Attlee

B) Winston Churchill

C) David Lloyd George

D) Anthony Eden

Answer · why

B) Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was reporting for a London newspaper when Boers ambushed and derailed his armoured train. He escaped a Pretoria prisoner-of-war camp...