What does newsreader mean?
A newsreader is primarily a person who reads or presents the news, especially in a newspaper, radio broadcast, or television program. In modern usage, the word often suggests a formally dressed announcer or presenter delivering prepared reports. It can also be an older term for an electronic device or software program that retrieved, organized, and displayed news from remote sources. The expression combines the older sense of news, meaning information about recent events, with reader, a person or mechanism that takes in written material. Although more specific terms such as reporter, journalist, and correspondent are preferred when referring to someone who investigates and writes original stories, newsreader remains useful for identifying the person who communicates the news itself. The technological sense is now dated but preserves an important stage in the development of electronic news distribution, before websites, aggregators, and personalized digital news feeds became standard.
A person who reads or presents news, especially in a newspaper, radio broadcast, or similar medium.
"The newsreader read the main headlines from the studio."
The term is formal and can sound traditional. It does not necessarily imply that the person researches or writes the stories.
An electronic device or computer program that retrieves, organizes, and displays news.
"The company released a dedicated financial newsreader for subscribers."
This sense is chiefly historical or specialized in computing.
The standard plural of a person who reads or presents the news.
"Several newsreaders alternated throughout the broadcast."
Before personalized digital feeds, a newsreader could be either a familiar face behind the morning bulletin or a machine that delivered the headlines.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does newsreader come from?
The word was formed in English by combining news with reader. The element news comes from Old English nȳwe and ultimately from a Germanic root associated with novelty or newness. The compound therefore originally referred to someone or something that conveyed or presented what was new, although its earliest uses could also mean a newspaper or the news itself. In later usage, newsreader became established for a person who reads news and, subsequently, for electronic news-retrieval devices and programs.
How newsreader is actually used
For a person, the term is relatively formal and now sounds somewhat traditional. In computing, it is chiefly a historical term for a program or device that retrieves and displays news, usually with a particular topic or source in mind.
Easily confused with newsreader
A reader is anyone who reads material, whereas a newsreader specifically reads or presents news.
A reporter investigates and writes about events, while a newsreader may simply read or present already-prepared news.