A US newspaper has made one of the most embarrassing typographical errors in media history.

New Hampshire's Valley News spelt its own name incorrectly - in the masthead on the front page.

This Monday readers were surprised to see the paper's name spelled "Valley Newss".

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The newspaper, which covers the Upper Valley area straddling New Hampshire and Vermont, published an "Editor's Note" acknowledging the error the following day.

"Readers may have noticed that the Valley News misspelled its own name on yesterday's front page," it read.

"Given that we routinely call on other institutions to hold themselves accountable for the mistakes, let us say for the record: We sure feel silly."

The misspelling has already been touted as favorite for typo of the year by the Regret the Error blog, which monitors media mistakes.