My daughter needs to find out the history of the newspaper USA
Today..We have been unable to find any information...Please
help...Thanks, Bob

Dear Moody, 

Your daughter has a good reason to have a great presentation - she can
celebrate the 20th birthday of USA Today (founded 15 September 1982).
Its founder was founded by Al Neuharth, and it is sposored hefty by
media conglomerat Gannett Inc (see
http://www.gannett.com/map/propmap.htm and
http://www.gannett.com/web/gan013.htm).

"USA Today was founded in 1982 as an attempt to produce a mid-market
national paper, more on the British model. "
<http://www.usembassy.org.uk/rcpubs1.html> (I think that the last
comment, on the British model, is an attemp to exercise flattery.
However, I am not sure the comparison really flatters the more
erspectable British press).

USA today was not profitable for many years, al least until 1993
(http://careers.yahoo.com/s/wetfeet/1347.html), and some claim that
until 1998(!) USA Today was *not profitable*. "When the daily USA
Today was founded in the United States, it was 16 years before it went
into profit, and it only survived for such a length of time because it
was supported by huge injections of capital"
<http://www.ce-review.org/00/29/culik29.html>

This site analyses USA today as a counter reaction to the more somber
Watergate era press (Washington Post, New York Times): "In many ways,
USA Today was founded as a reaction to the press legacy left by the
Watergate story. Neuharth’s whole idea in creating USA Today was to
put out a paper that, far from upsetting readers by confronting them
with all kinds of horrible insights about the world around us, sought
to entertain and soothe its customers with an endless succession of
short, bright features, charts, polls and color graphics. Lots of good
news, plus stand-alone photos of national monuments and kids at
petting zoos, plus advice columns, lots of sports, domestic-themed
features for housewives and celebrity profiles".
<http://exile.ru/134/134030518.html>

It is also stated that "USA Today founded its success on the
innovative use of color and graphics, now being copied by newspapers
across the country. " http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?CategoryID=97
 
Your daughter can find much assitance for more material in this page -
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/projects/globalclassroom/courses/classes/6319_4406s02/sites/print/page3.html
and here http://www.miscmedia.com/4-18-00.html on changes made on its
18 "birthday".
Yahoo Career also have interesting and useful data
http://careers.yahoo.com/s/wetfeet/1347.html

My search terms might also help : 
"USA today was founded" 
"USA today was born" 
"USA todday was established" 
"usa today first" 
"usa today started" 

Good luck for your daughter in her homework. If you need any
clrifications on the answer, just ask. I'll be pleased to help before
you rate the answer.

great answer in very quick time