Is it true that newspapers never use the words “today” or “tomorrow”?
A columnist in my paper today said that, explaining that any news item might get shifted into the next edition to make way for a hot story. So they use “Saturday” and “Monday” instead.
But I can’t believe that All papers do anything the same way.
I think most stories are telling of an event that happened yesterday. Therefore, the word yesterday occurs frequently.
But, to prove your columnist wrong, I quote from the local section, lead story of my Akron Beacon Journal: “A Barberton man who allegedly held police at bay with a shotgun for nearly four hours yesterday will appear in court tomorrow.”
How could this be worded wrongly? The incident occurred “yesterday” and will have a continuance “tomorrow”, Monday. “Feh!” on your columnist. Typical UL stuff.
Right at the top of my daily paper, every single day, is a little box saying: ‘Today’s Weather’.
I did a search on The Washington Post for the word “Today” and got 764 matches between July 2 and July 15. Five instances of the word “today” appear in the first page of results.
At the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News, they use yesterday, today and tomorrow.
You’d better believe all newspapers do things the same way! Or at least, most do. Many do. They follow the Associated Press Stylebook. Here’s an abbreviated version. The AP is fairly protective of their actual stylebook; it’s got a password protection at the AP website. Prob’ly over-sensitive because just about everything else they produce is given away nigh free.
Any journalist worth his/her salt will look up the Do’s and Don’t’s in a stylebook, most likely AP. Some papers have their own quirks, like the New York Times’ insistence on “Mr.” or “Mrs.”, which I find too formal.
Me? I write broadcast copy, which is a little different from newspaper writing, and usually more casual. As for today/tomorrow, I have no aversion to “today.” I’ll say “at this hour” if it makes my news sound more timely and up-to-date. However, we do prefer to avoid the use of “yesterday,” which makes a story sound dated. Rather, say “Tuesday” if the story is written on a Wednesday. And I try to de-emphasize that dated reference in my lede (first sentence), to avoid sounding dated. I try to answer that “when” question in the next sentence.
Then again, I don’t consult the AP stylebook nearly as often as I should. I’ll do it tomorrow. Er, Monday. 
Ahem.
As a copy editor who does use his AP Stylebook and Libel Manual on a daily basis I can tell you that — at least at this newspaper — we do use “today” in many stories. However, we don’t use “tomorrow” or “yesterday.” In fact, remembering to change tomorrow’s day of the week to “today” in news copy takes a little getting used to, particularly for those who live in the present.
While we’re on the subject of style guides, my favorite was always UPI’s, at least one particular entry:
“Burro, burrow: A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. As a journalist you are expected to know the difference between the two.”
At our newspaper office, the running joke is that you can tell someone who works at a daily because they never know what day today is.
This stems from the fact that we will be working on aspects of several papers at once. We’re an afternoon paper, and the last page is sent electronically to the press by about 11:15 a.m.
First thing in the morning the sales manager will gather sales slips for the next day and “dummy” or lay out (on paper) the number of pages, placement of ads and specially defined pages (such as the classifieds) for the following day. The composition department will then start to put the digital ads on the digital pages for tomorrow while simultaneously receiving today’s pages from the news department and transmitting them to the press in a nearby town. Other composition members will be building ads that might run the next day or a week from today, or downloading comics or columns from syndicated websites.
Actual salesroom dialoge:
Salesperson: Oops! I need to add a 3x5 for today.
Ad Manager: Do you meen today today?
Salesperson: No, I mean for tomorrow today.
Ad Manager: Check with editorial and see where they want it.
As far as news copy goes, we do use “today” when we must but prefer to avoid it if possible. Sometimes the scedule requires that we write in anticipation of an event that will have occurred by the time the reader gets the paper in hand, and then we use phrases such as “his arraignment was scheduled for 4 p.m. today.”
My paper’s style is to use “yesterday,” “today” and “tomorrow.” Every story that comes across the AP wire uses the actual days of the week, so it’s kind of a chore to comb the story and make all those changes. But I like our style.
Here’s a funny thing that happened because I wasn’t paying attention. I was printing a story in the Friday edition. It included the word Saturday, so I changed it to “tomorrow” as is the automatic custom. Here’s how that sentence read:
“Stanford defeated USC 85-79 tomorrow.”
That’s right, the Saturday in question was the previous Saturday. An eagle-eyed reader mailed in my error with a big red circle around it.
At least you just get letters. I get phone calls from subliterates who presume to tell me how words are pronounced.
The current ongoing debate regards “coyote”. Argh!
There’s a newspaper in New Zealand that supposedly received notification of the Kennedy assassination before it happened. I believe the Christchurch Star was featured in a minor way in the film JFK. While conspiracy theorists like to make a big deal out of it others see it as a result of the kind of copy editing described here. I’ve forgotten the details now but I’d be interested in being reminded by anyone with a better memory.