UK Newspapers I . Brief introduction—many national

UK Newspapers
    Last time we talked about the newspaper in the USA, and this time we shall focus on that of the UK. Because of the small geographical area of the UK, and the good travel infrastructure, there are many national newspapers—unlike the United States, where most newspapers are printed and published locally.(1)Unlike France, the main national papers are morning newspapers: indeed, there are no national evening titles.
    UK newspapers are generally grouped into three,—mass market newspaper in small size, or red-tops such as The Sun, middle-market newspaper in small size such as The Daily Mail, and quality broadsheets such as The Times. Unlike other European countries, there are no daily     First, it’s size that matters.(2)In October 2003, quality broadsheet The Independent began producing what it preferred to call a compact edition —small-sized—along with the main broadsheet sized newspaper. This had a stunning effect on circulation—sales went up by 20% year-on-year—and The Times followed suit launching its own compact edition. Both newspapers are now exclusively available in compact form.
    The Guardian, which denounced the original shift to compact before planning and then junking its own compact format, switched in September 2005 to a mid-size format between newspaper in small size and broadsheet, known as the " Berliner". This is roughly the same width as a newspaper in small size(thus easy to open using public transport), but taller, and therefore giving more flexibility in page design. Its sister paper The Observer also followed suit in January 2006.
    The Daily Telegraph is the only remaining weekday broadsheet. It apparently gained from The Times when the latter switched to newspaper in small size, and sees the broadsheet size as being a differentiator—some advertising has claimed that Telegraph readers have a "broader view".
     (3)The Sunday Telegraph and most sections of The Sunday Times are also in broadsheet size.
    The second aspect is the political leanings in some papers. The two most-popular newspapers are The Sun and The Daily Mirror. Bitter rivals, the papers traditionally hold very differing political views.(4)The Sun being Conservative since the early 1970s, while The Mirror being Labor.
    The Sun veered towards Tony Blair’s Labor Party six weeks before his victory in 1997, and has supported Labor in subsequent general elections in 2001 and 2005. However, recently the paper has been more critical of Gordon Brown, and more supportive of the leader of the opposition, David Cameron.
    Third,(5)the middle-market newspaper in small sizes, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express are concerned with a very different readership—that of affluent women. Weekend supplements and carefully-placed sponsorship ensure that these titles are a cheap alternative to a magazine, while sports supplements aimed at the husband aim to broaden their readership.
    The Daily Mail has a reliable right-wing agenda, and is mocked by some for their over alarmist headlines, particularly about political asylum seekers, house prices and " things that give you cancer" —in 2009, The Daily Mail claimed in the same month that coffee would " give you cancer" , as well as "cure you from cancer" in different stories. However, its formula, said by former owner Lord Northcliffe to give his readers a " daily hate" , has made The Daily Mail one of the most popular newspapers in the UK.
    Fourth,(6)the quality papers—the "broadsheets" , though not that size anymore, are probably the most famous to readers overseas. The Times, the UK’s oldest national newspaper, is not the most popular—that accolade falls to The Daily Telegraph, known affectionately as The Daily Torygraph because of the staunch support to the Conservative Party.
    The Independent, The Guardian and the financial newspaper The Financial Times make up the rest of the so-called quality papers.
    It’s important to notice, though, that the mass-market newspaper in small size sell up to four times as many copies as the broadsheets—and if you’re looking in vain for The London Times, such a newspaper title has never, in fact, existed—The Times has always been a national newspaper. The Guardian, once based in Manchester, was known as The Manchester Guardian until the sixties.
    Fifth,(7)a relatively recent phenomenon in the newspaper industry has been the free morning papers. Free weekly papers are fairly common, supported by advertising and carrying little in the way of editorial. But now, with the launch of Associate’s "Metro" and similar titles in many metropolitan areas, these newspapers thrive on public transport and in busy cities.
    Sixth,(8)consolidation seems one of the ways forward. The Times and The Sun’s parent company also owns Sky television, the UK’s satellite television service. The Guardian group now owns the Smooth FM and Real Radio stations, as well as probably the biggest Internet presence for a newspaper. On a local scale, the Kent Messenger group also owns the local KM fm radio stations in many areas of Kent, and aggressively cross-promotes them.
    New sizes and formats were held to arrest the decline of newspaper buying. In June 2004, newspaper sales were declining year-by-year by 4.7%—the only increases worldwide, in fact, coming in developing countries. However, reductions in size for some of the newspapers meant a temporary increase in circulation. And,(9)while newspaper sales have been slowly declining, consumption of news can be claimed to have vastly increased: whether from the Internet, or one of the many non-stop news channels available to UK viewers.
    Newspaper companies own their content. The best way of consumption of this content at present is on small sheets of dead, pulped, reformed, wood. It requires no recharging: losing a newspaper is not a major problem: and delivery and availability is easy.(10)However, all national papers now have their own websites: some are shifting classified advertising away from the printed paper. Content is a useful commodity—and the way this is presented in the future may well change. The cleverest newspapers will adapt to use their content in different ways.
    Thank you for attending the lecture. If you have interests in other topics, please tell me now and we will talk about it next time.