Professor Peter Cole on UK Newspapers

Starting the News agenda section of this course, I found myself entering a realising that I know very little in detail about each newspaper individually, and hoped that this course would begin to enlighten me. After reading the four Peter Cole articles, I am definitely enlightened. I feel that I know a lot more about the papers as a whole, but also the traditions of each type of newspaper.

Starting with the newspapers as a whole I realised that newspaper sales were at a low, however the internet and wide availability of online articles has largely influenced this. However after reading Peter Cole’s articles I feel that I am now more aware of other reasons for this decline, such as a shift in a paper’s political views, change in design of broadsheets or the views of certain newspapers which have led to a decline in newspaper sales.

Starting with the mid market newspapers, I was unsurprised to find that the daily mail was the leading paper in this section followed way behind by the Daily Express, but also the second largest selling paper in the UK.  I was however, surprised by the domination by the daily mail, selling 2.3 million copies, compared to that of the 770,000 copies of the Daily Express, who employ few journalist to keep down costs and have even switched political view from conservative, to new labour and then back to conservative which has cost them readers. Professor Cole also talks about the obsessions of the Daily Express; Diana, ridiculing political correctness, Muslim extremists and Madeline Mc Cann all included.

The Daily Mail however hires a large amount of journalists, understands it audience rather than ridiculing them, and is very for Britain and family values and the private sector while being against welfare and people dependant on the state or anything which indicates the tax payer is being taken for a ride, Professor Cole states that a typical Daily Mail story would involve a mother with 12 children. The Mail also has a largely female readership and of the AB, C1, C2 readership with 60% of readers over 45, while voting conservative. The articles of a mid market newspaper generally involve human interests and topical issues.

Tabloids however are newspapers for the masses; The Sun, Daily Mirror, News of the world, The Star and The People.  They mainly involve crime, sex, sport and celebrity articles; however mid market newspapers also tend to include celebrity stories. They are not generally read by the higher paid professions such as doctors or lawyers, but are carefully watched by politicians to see what the voters are thinking. Tabloids are dominated by The Sun. There has been a decline in tabloid sales, especially that of the Mirror which has changed dramatically; becoming a less classy paper, despite the attempt by Piers Morgan to up class the mirror; the attempt failed after an attack on the Iraq war, in which many of the readers sons were fighting in, as a result of this and the attempt to move the paper towards more serious issues, sales fell further. This is a result of the paper not knowing its readership very well.

 The star is the lowest of the tabloids mainly involving soft pornography tacky exploits and dysfunctional wannabes.

The Sun includes direct views, sharp political reporting which usually backs Labour, strong opinions, crime, punishment, Europe and asylum.

The tabloids attempt to connect with ordinary people and the masses of the C2 DE readership. The articles generally contain talking points, with strong opinions, spreads on celebrity night life and investigative journalism involving drug using celebrities or attempts to break into Buckingham palace, however investigation methods of the tabloids have been questioned. Tabloids do however have the largest circulation and are aimed mainly at young, male readers under 35, hence the use of soft porn, semi explicit pictures and gossip columns.

Broadsheets such as The Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and Times have a combined circulation smaller than that of The Daily Mail. 80% are of the ABC1 target audience and are in the professional and managerial classes. They are for educated readers who generally vote for conservative. The undertake marketing through CD’S, DVD’S posters, books, cheap meals and train and air flights.

The broadsheets are changing. They have adapted more online strategies and the papers have changed in their design, becoming smaller and similar in shape and design to that of the tabloids. The Independent started this trend and the others have soon followed, apart from that of the Telegraph. Sales originally increased after this change; however since then they have begun to fall once again, just like the rest of the papers. Broadsheet papers differ from that of tabloids as they are in the whole concerned with serious stories, concerned with human condition and wish for the world to be a better place. They look for quality and speak up for victims while believing in the power of government.  The broadsheets have tried to appeal to younger audience with papers such as G2, or Times2.

The independent writes about what it believes it audience cares about, despite it being against the stories of the day which the other papers have published. It is also concerned with law and parliamentary debates.  The Times has had its critics who have said that it is becoming more and more like the Daily Mail with more evidence of sex and fashion. The Telegraph has undergone few changes but has had to put up with new owners, editors, management and offices, while keeping the same readers. The broadsheets are mainly conservative papers aimed at middle class people. The Guardian is the dominant broadsheet.

Finally the Sunday papers explained. They sell lower than that of the daily papers and include much more advertising, CD’S, DVD’S and less articles but are more expensive. It is said that with the Sunday papers more is thrown away than is actually kept, and the reader would actually prefer a smaller paper!

The sales of the Sunday papers rank in the same order and have well written and larger articles with big news stories. They are embedded in culture and nature and include well written sports pages.