above the fold/below the fold

[victor steinbok]

Note that there is now a blog version of "below the fold" that has been
discussed here fairly recently. Generally, it's a synonym of "after the
jump" for blogs, which refers to the part of the blog post that is seen only
on the individual page of that post and not on the blog front page.
Alternately, there is a script with a button you have to click to see the
remainder of the post. In any case, the distinction is between the visible
and the invisible (until you do something). And there is really no parallel
"above the fold", since that part is always there.

Also note that tabloids don't have a fold! That said, it seems that TLS is a
bit off on the interpretation. Although Soviet papers were generally all in
the same format and came folded, culturally, there really was no distinction
of above and below the fold--this is something that makes sense to an
American or perhaps to a Brit, but it would make no sense to a Russian. I
don't recall any jumps in Soviet papers before Perestroika (but that could
be just faulty memory). The entire stories were placed on a single page and
the main papers had 6 or 8 pages--minor papers had 4. No advertising of any
kind. Some weekly newspapers were thicker, especially the humor/satire ones.
But they were all meant to be presented as tabloids. A common sight would be
people gathering around the full newspaper splayed on a public display
stand, page by page, so you were meant to read the entire page all at once.
In fact, for some time, public reading was more common than private (why
waste the money on predictable pulp). This was certainly the case in 1957.
You can't make straw out of cultural hay.

VS-)

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 10:58 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

>
> 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

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