USA TODAY

Allen Neuharth, then chief executive of Gannett, had earlier run the sports newspaper SoDak Sports and in 1966 founded Florida Today for Gannett, many of whose design features were later used in USA TODAY. In early 1980, using $1 million in company research money, he secretly set up a task force code-named “Project NN” (for “new newspaper”) to study the technical, financial, and editorial questions of launching a national daily; that autumn, the board allocated $3.5 million for prototype production.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

Neuharth wanted the paper to compete with both other newspapers and television and to appeal to a mobile public that considered the whole nation its home; pages were transmitted by satellite and facsimile to Gannett’s printing plants across the country, and its vending boxes were designed to look like a television screen. In December 1981, the board gave final approval to the project, after two-week dry runs that included delivery and a poll of 4,500 influential Americans.⁠[1][1][1][1]

On September 15, 1982, USA TODAY held a launch ceremony in Washington attended by hundreds of dignitaries, including President Ronald Reagan, Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, and Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. It was positioned as a national general-circulation daily newspaper, and Neuharth’s goal was to reach a circulation of one million within a year.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Rather than leading with the assassination of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel, as most major newspapers did, the first issue’s front page featured stories such as the death of Monaco’s Princess Grace. The first day’s paper sold out in the Washington–Baltimore area, and within seven months it had reached its one-year goal of one million copies. The paper made heavy use of color, short and upbeat stories, separate sections for news, business, sports, and entertainment, and graphics, and sought to feature women and minorities on every page.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Many in the industry mocked it as “McPaper,” implying that, like fast food, it was attractive but lacked substance; Neuharth was fond of replying that the editors who called it “McPaper” had stolen its “McNuggets.” As its circulation rose, many newspapers, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, began improving their use of color and graphics and shortening their stories.⁠[1][2][1][1]

Within two years of its launch, USA TODAY began printing at other Gannett plants, and in 1986 it began printing overseas. It first turned a profit at its fifth anniversary, although losses continued and reached about $800 million; its start-up costs came to about $300 million.⁠[1][1][1]

By the early 2000s, USA TODAY had a daily circulation of more than 2.2 million, making it the most widely circulated newspaper in the United States; with international sales included, it was second only to The Times of India in circulation among English-language newspapers.⁠[1]

On April 19, 2013, Allen Neuharth died after a fall at his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida, at the age of 89. A former chairman of Gannett, he had founded USA TODAY in the face of doubts from the board. Then publisher Larry Kramer said he “reinvented news.” At the time, USA TODAY was the second-largest daily newspaper in the United States.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2]

Beginning in 2014, USA TODAY was included as a local edition in the print and e-editions of Gannett’s local newspapers, reaching 36 local newspapers by 2015. USA TODAY’s print content is produced in McLean, Virginia, and transmitted digitally to printing plants around the country.⁠[3][3][3]

In 2015, the publisher brought its local media and USA TODAY together under the USA TODAY NETWORK brand, forming a “local to national” media network spanning 92 local communities plus USA TODAY itself, with more than 3,100 journalists and an average monthly reach of more than 100 million unique visitors, and with full content sharing across all its sites.⁠[4][3]

According to December 2015 data from the U.S. circulation auditor Alliance for Audited Media, USA TODAY ranked first in the nation in combined print and digital circulation, with daily circulation of 4 million and Sunday circulation of 3.9 million (including print, e-edition, and branded editions). USA TODAY Sports Media Group used the USA TODAY brand to launch digital products such as the sports social news site “For the Win.”⁠[3][3]

On May 18, 2017, ReutersReutersReuters is an international news agency founded in London in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter and is now the news business of Thomson Reuters. It provides text, photo, video, and graphics coverage to media and institutional clients and distributes it through channels such as Reuters Connect.Open the full entry launched the content marketplace Reuters ConnectReuters ConnectReuters Connect is Reuters’ digital content platform and licensing marketplace for clients such as news organizations. Launched in May 2017, it brings Reuters’ text, pictures, video, graphics, and other multimedia content together with content from third-party media organizations on a single platform, where clients can search, subscribe to, and license it.Open the full entry, and the third-party content providers announced at launch included USA TODAY Sports.⁠[5][5]

In 2017, the publisher began a brand refresh of its print and digital products across its U.S. markets, completing it in 2018 and winning the International News Media Association’s “Best Global New Print Product” award. In the same year, the USA TODAY NETWORK won three Pulitzer Prizes, for local reporting, editorial writing, and explanatory reporting.⁠[4][4][4]

In 2018, USA TODAY’s print edition averaged more than 1.6 million readers daily, Monday through Friday, and its digital audience averaged about 81 million unique visitors a month.⁠[4]

In 2025, the USA TODAY NETWORK averaged a monthly digital audience of about 132 million unique visitors and, led by USA TODAY, reached nearly half of U.S. adults.⁠[6][6]

On November 4, 2025, the publisher Gannett announced that it would change its name to USA TODAY Co. effective November 18, adopting the name of its best-known masthead, USA TODAY, and at the same time launched the editorial initiative “USA 250” marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. USA TODAY is the foundational brand of the USA TODAY Network, which comprises more than 200 news publications, including The Des Moines Register, The Tennessean, and the Detroit Free Press.⁠[7][7][7][8][8]

On August 11, 2026, USA TODAY Sports launched USA TODAY Sports Fantasy, a subscription fantasy football platform offering tools such as league sync, rankings and projections, and lineup advice; existing subscribers to The Huddle will move to the new platform after the 2026–2027 season and can use it free of charge this season starting in October. The executive editor of sports for the USA TODAY Network said USA TODAY Sports has an audience of 38 million sports fans.⁠[9][9][9][9]

On October 7, 2026, USA TODAY Sports and the scholastic esports platform PlayVS announced the inaugural USA TODAY Sports National High School Esports Championship, with eight teams scheduled to begin play on October 12 and a champion to be decided on December 11. The event extends USA TODAY Sports’ long-running Super 25 and ALL-USA franchises, which recognize the nation’s top high school athletes and teams.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

USA TODAY: Official website: https://www.usatoday.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

USA TODAY Co.: Official website: https://www.usatodayco.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]

X: Public account: https://x.com/usatoday (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/usa-today (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/USATODAY (opens in a new window)⁠[11]