After a long period of decline, cigar consumption in the USA began to increase in 1994.1 Between 1993 and 1997, consumption of large cigars rose 68%.2 In 1994, there were over 125 000 new cigar smokers in the USA, and there appears to be a trend toward younger consumers (ages 18–24 years).1 3

The US cigar trend was propelled by print media coverage largely favourable toward cigar use, framing cigars as a trend and failing to cover health effects.4 In the USA, daily newspapers provided considerable coverage. Although media advocacy is an increasingly important part of tobacco control efforts,5and studies have analysed tobacco coverage,6-9 we could locate no studies of journalists' perspectives on tobacco. We asked how journalists came to write articles about …