above the fold/below the fold

[George Thompson]

TLS, April 15, 2011, p. 13, col. 1, writing of the news of the launching of Sputnik:
Pravda's announcement of the launch was relatively mild, below the fold, and emphasized basic technical facts.

"Below the fold" and its antonym, "above the fold", are not in OED.  They are very familiar to me, though I can't recall when I learned them.  They refer to a news story thought by the newspaper's editor to be worthy of the first page, and additionally, interesting enough to lie on the page with the headline "above the fold", so that it will be seen by people looking over the papers displayed on a news-stand (or, otherwise, placed below the fold, where it won't be seen unles the browser picks the paper up).

A quick search of a number of the Proquest Historical Newspapers doesn't turn up anything before 1941, from an English source, which doesn't bother to define it.  Indeed, I would have guessed that it was a good deal earlier -- early 20th C or late 19th.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

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