A
supplement is a publication that has a role secondary to that of another preceding or concurrent publication.
A follow-on
publicationTo publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
complements its predecessor, either by bringing it up-to-date (e.g. the
Index CatalogueThe Index Catalogue —also known as the Index Catalogue of Nebulae, the Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, IC I, or IC II— is a catalogue of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters that serves as a supplement to the New General Catalogue...
), or by otherwise enhancing the predecessor's coverage of a particular topic or subject matter, as in the
ToseftaThe Tosefta is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the period of the Mishnah.-Overview:...
. Supplements are particularly popular and useful in gaming hobbies.
A
newspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
supplement, often a weekly section of its parent, usually has a tabloid or
Sunday magazineA Sunday magazine is a publication inserted into a Sunday newspaper. It also has been known as a Sunday supplement, Sunday newspaper magazine or Sunday magazine section...
format and covers wide-ranging and less time-critical subjects, as in
The American WeeklyThe American Weekly was a United States magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966.A Sunday newspaper supplement which published many sensationalist stories, it was initially named The American Magazine but soon changed to The American Weekly. The name was...
, the 2004 version of
Life, and
ParadeParade is an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. It was founded in 1941 and is owned by Advance Publications. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., Parade has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70...
; newspaper supplements became common in France and Germany in the mid to late 19th century—they were called
feuilleton in French. In Chinese, they are called
fukan- History :From the 1950s to the early 1990s, the fukan were the main place for publishing literature in Taiwan. Fukan could occupy up to 1/3 of the space of the entire paper...
.
Advertising supplements periodically accompany corresponding newspapers and are prepared by the paper's
advertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
staff instead of its editorial staff. It is common for them to covering topics such as
real estateIn general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
and
automobileAn automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s, on behalf of the paper's frequent advertisers.
Some supplements are spin-offs from a newspaper sold separately and typically covering a specific topic, such as the
Times Literary Supplement and the
Times Educational SupplementThe Times Educational Supplement is a weekly UK publication aimed primarily at school teachers in the UK. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in The Times newspaper. Such was its popularity that in 1914, the supplement became a separate publication selling for 1 penny.The TES...
Supplements found on some DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray discs are more commonly known as special features, bonus features, or bonus material.