The press must cater for the needs of the reading public. The word "reading" functions as a participial adjective, describing the literate public or those who read regularly. Participle adjectives are words in English that help describe things by adding action or a state of being. They’re formed from verbs and come in two types: present participles (ending in ‘-ing’) e.g. "The running water" and past participles (ending in ‘-ed’, ‘-en’, ‘-d’, ‘-t’, or irregular forms) e.g. "The painted house" or "The broken vase".