an essay contest in 1927 in which entrants had to demonstrate "The Value of The New York Times Index and Files as a Newspaper of Record". The New York Times, and other newspapers of its type, then sought to be chroniclers of events, acting as a record of the day's announcements, schedules, directories, proceedings, transcripts and appointments. The New York Times no longer considers itself a newspaper of record in the original, literal sense. Over time, historians relied on The New York Times and similar titles as a reliable archival and historical record of significant past events, and a gauge of societal opinions at the time of printing. The term "newspaper of record" evolved from its original literal sense to its currently understood meaning. The derived term "financial (or business) newspaper of record" is attributed to the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei). Examples of fallen newspapers Over time, some established newspapers of record by reputation have lost their status due to various factors including financial collapse, take-over or merger by another entity that did not have the same standards or allowed continued independence, and/or increased government control and suppression of the paper's editorial independence. The existence of newspapers of record by reputation is an aspect of the level of press freedom and political freedom in a country, with major first-world democracies having several such newspapers (e.g. United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan); in contrast, countries that have seen a decline in their newspapers of record by reputation can represent a decline in levels of personal and political freedom (e.g. Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Cambodia). Examples include: Zimbabwe's The Herald, lost its status as an established newspaper of record when it was eventually taken over by Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. Venezuela's newspaper of record, El Nacional, was forced out of print by the state in 2018, and its headquarters given to a high-ranking official. London-based pan-Arab newspaper of record, Al-Hayat, ceased in 2020 due to financial and political pressures. In Cambodia, the Hun Sen administration forced both of Cambodia's newspapers of record out of business using contrived tax fines that resulted in the closure of The Cambodia Daily in 2017, and the sale of The Phnom Penh Post to a close ally of the Hun Sen administration in 2018. Latvian newspaper Diena saw its established status as a newspaper of