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==History==
''USA Today'' was first conceived on February 29, 1980, when a company task force known as "Project NN" met with the then-chairman of [[Gannett]], [[Al Neuharth]], in [[Cocoa Beach, Florida]]. Early regional prototypes of ''USA Today'' included ''East Bay Today'', an [[Oakland, California]]-based publication published in the late 1970s to serve as the morning edition of the ''[[Oakland Tribune]]'', an afternoon newspaper that Gannett owned at the time.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-09-29-9103140104-story.html | title=Paper Pursues Life After Debt | first=James | last=Warren | work=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=September 29, 1991| url-access=subscription}}</ref> On June 11, 1981, Gannett printed the first prototypes of the proposed publication. The two proposed design layouts were mailed to newsmakers and prominent leaders in journalism for review and feedback.<ref name="garcia-usatoday1"/><ref name=timeline>{{cite news | title=USA Today Media Kit :: Press Room :: Press Kit :: Timeline | url=https://static.usatoday.com/about/timeline/ | newspaper=USA Today | publisher=Gannett}}</ref> Gannett's board of directors approved the launch of the national newspaper, titled ''USA Today'', on December 5, 1981. At launch, Neuharth was appointed president and publisher of the newspaper, adding those responsibilities to his existing position as Gannett's [[chief executive officer]].<ref name=timeline/><ref name="marking30">{{cite web|title=USA Today Is Turning 30, in Danger of 'Marking 30'|url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/columns/usa-today-is-turning-30-in-danger-of-marking-30/|author=John K. Hartman|website=[[Editor and Publisher]]|date=September 12, 2012|access-date=October 24, 2016|archive-date=October 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025050132/http://www.editorandpublisher.com/columns/usa-today-is-turning-30-in-danger-of-marking-30/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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[[File:USA Today Logo.svg|upright=0.8|thumb|left|Original logo, used from 1982 to 2012]]
The design uniquely incorporated color graphics and photographs. Initially, only its front news section pages were rendered in four-color, while the remaining pages were printed in a [[spot color]] format. The paper's overall style and elevated use of graphics—developed by Neuharth, in collaboration with staff graphics designers George Rorick, Sam Ward, Suzy Parker, John Sherlock and Web Brya—were derided by critics, who referred to it as a "[[McWord|McPaper]]" or "television you can wrap fish in", because it opted to incorporate concise nuggets of information more akin to the style of [[television news]], rather than in-depth stories like traditional newspapers, which many in the newspaper industry considered to be a [[dumbing down]] of content.<ref name=timeline/><ref name="marking30"/><ref name="garcia-usatoday2">{{cite web|title=USA Today turns 30-Part 2 – A newspaper that influenced all of us|url=http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/usa_today_turns_30-part_2---a_newspaper_that_influenced_all_of_us|author=Mario R. García|website=García Media|date=September 10, 2012}}</ref> Although ''USA Today'' had been profitable for just ten years as of 1997, it changed the appearance and feel of newspapers around the world.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Psvlik|first1=John|last2=Mclntosh|first2=Shawn|title=Converging Media|year=2016|publisher=Oxford|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-027151-0|edition=fifth}}</ref>
Gannett invested in an expensive network of printing factories and distribution during the rollout of ''USA Today'', meaning that the paper could be printed and distributed quickly. One of the results of this was ''USA Today'' having the luxury of a later time cutoff for journalists to submit stories, such that the paper was able to include sports scores from games that finished late in the next morning's paper. The sports section of ''USA Today'', with its complete set of results, was well-regarded and generally seen as one of the main selling points of the paper.<ref name="farhi2024">{{cite newspaper |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/07/09/usa-today-history-terence-samuel/ |title=USA Today transformed the media world for good. What's its legacy now?
|first= Paul |last=Farhi |date=July 9, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=July 9, 2024}} </ref>
On July 2, 1984, the newspaper switched from predominantly black-and-white to full-color photography and graphics in all four sections. The following week, on July 10, ''USA Today'' launched an international edition intended for U.S. readers abroad, followed four months later on October 8 with the rollout of the first transmission via satellite of its international version to [[Singapore]]. On April 8, 1985, the paper published its first special bonus section, a 12-page section called "Baseball '85", which previewed the [[1985 Major League Baseball season]].<ref name=timeline/>
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On December 3, 2015, Gannett formally launched the USA Today Network, a national digital newsgathering service providing shared content between ''USA Today'' and the company's 92 local newspapers throughout the United States as well as pooling advertising services on both a hyperlocal and national scale. The ''[[Courier Journal]]'' had earlier soft-launched the service as part of a pilot program started on November 17, coinciding with an imaging rebrand for the [[Louisville, Kentucky]]-based newspaper; Gannett's other local newspaper properties, as well as those it acquired through its merger with the [[Journal Media Group]], gradually began identifying themselves as part of the USA Today Network (foregoing use of the Gannett name outside of requisite ownership references) through early January 2016.<ref>{{cite press release | title=Gannett Unites Largest Local to National Media Network under 'USA Today Network' | url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151203005219/en/Gannett-Unites-Largest-Local-National-Media-Network | publisher=[[Business Wire]] | date=December 3, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Gannett introduces USA Today Network, uniting local, national properties | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/12/03/gannett-introduces-usa-today-network-uniting-local-national-properties/76716562/| first=Roger | last=Yu | newspaper=USA Today | publisher=[[Gannett]] | date=December 4, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Gannett rebrands its local papers as USA Today Network | url=https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2015/gannett-rebrands-its-local-papers-as-usa-today-network/ | first=Rick | last=Edmonds | work=[[Poynter Institute]] | date=December 3, 2015}}</ref>
In the late 2010s, as the print run declined, Gannett pulled back from the extensive and expensive distribution network, opting to have shorter deadlines, and printing the remaining copies from fewer facilities while potentially trucking them longer distances to still be available in the morning.<ref name="farhi2024" />
In May 2021, ''USA Today'' introduced a [[paywall]] for some of its online stories.<ref>{{cite web|date=April 27, 2021|title=No longer a holdout for free, USA Today launches a paywall and digital-only subscription plan|url=https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2021/no-longer-a-holdout-for-free-usa-today-launches-a-paywall-and-digital-only-subscription-plan/|access-date=May 27, 2021|website=Poynter|language=en-US}}</ref>
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