Getting information is one of the necessities of a human being. It is almost impossible to imagine our life without newspapers. Millions of copies of them appear every day. Many people subscribe to one or ,more newspapers, others buy them at the newsstands. The press keeps people informed of all topical issues of the day. It acts as a bridge between the individual and the cultural and political life of his country and the other countries. The first newspaper was printed in Italy in the 16-th century. The first newspaper in Russia appeared at the beginning of the 18-th century. It was Peter the Great's "Vedomosti", and the first magazine was a supplement to this newspaper. Nowadays there is a big variety of newspapers and magazines all over the world. Everywhere the press can be classified as quality and popular on the one hand and national and local on the other hand. The quality ( or serious) newspapers cover main topics of our life, they contain detailed articles on home and foreign policy, on economy, industry, agriculture and science. They comment on the latest news and reflect up-to-date infomlation. Most national papers express a political opinion, and people choose the newspaper they read according to their own political beliefs. The popular papers concentrate on personal and sensational stories, scandals, gossips and accidents, they contain brief news reports and plenty of photographs and colourful pictures. They use conversational style and slang. Very often they have catchy headlines and headings and a lot of advertisement. There also exist free newspapers, which contain advertisements and some practical advice and are delivered regularly to just every mail­box. In Great Britain there are about 130 daily and Sunday newspapers and over 2000 weekly newspapers. In the UK newspapers are almost financially independent of any political party. So they can reflect home and foreign events objectively and openly. The quality papers are serious national papers that aim at the educational reader. They contain detailed news coverage and comment, a wide range of topical features, arts and literary reviews and much professional advertising. The best-known British papers are The Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Independent. Some of these newspapers have a colour supplement with photographically-illustrated feature articles and advertisements. For example, The Times Literary Supplement is one of the most popular weekly literary magazines. It gives a very interesting coverage of the literary and publishing world. The popular papers are often called tabloids, which means that they gave small-sized pages. They are offered for less serious reading.Among these newspapers are the Daily Express, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Star and others. In teh USA daily nespapers are published in 34 different languages. The most prominent American newspapers are The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and some others. The Washington post is a serious daily newspaper, which covers the meetings of the Congress. The Wall Street is a business newspaper with largest circulation in the country. The New York Times is considered to be nation’s most prestigeous newspaper. Its reputation is so solid today that it is used as a major referance tool by American libraries, and is standart reading for diplomats, scholars and goverment officials. Most American papers are distributed locally, so sometimes it is said that there is no national paper in the USA. But in fact American quality papers are famous not only in most of the states of the USA. But in fact American quality papers are famous not only in most og the states of the USA, but also all over the world. Russia is a reading nation. Among quallity newspapers which are sold and subscribed throught the country are daily newspapers like The Izvetiya, The Trud, The Komsomolskaya Pravda, The Nezavisimaya Gazeta, weekly newspapers like The Argumenty i Fakty, The Literatura Gazeta, which express political opinions, contain serious coverage of news, articles on home and foreighn affairs, cover sports events. There are local newspapers in every city and town of Russia. The most popular local newspapers in Moscow is the Moskovski Komsomolets. It isn’t considered to be a serious newspaper, but is famous for catchy headlines, sensational stories about politicians and publik figures, brief news and coverage of sports and modern music. Many newspapers contain TV schedules and weather forecasts, which is very convenient.Also a big amount of magazines and periodicals is published in Russia for different ages, trades, occupations, sports, hobbies and interests. It gives every reader ab opportunity to choose a paper which appeals to his interests most of all.