National Newspapers of the United Kingdom: Comparative and Contrastive Essay

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A large percentage of newspapers in the UK are held amongst five billionaires.

Ownership and Control

The Daily Mail is one of the top five largest circulating newspapers in England. Statistics presented by the Audit Bureau of Circulation show The Daily Mail has an average per issue print circulation of 1,136,247 (Abc.org.uk, 2019). ‘The Daily Mail is said to have 3.4 million daily readers’ (Dmgmedia.co.uk, 2019). It is published in London and set out as a tabloid newspaper. Cambridge dictionary defines a tabloid as ‘ a type of popular newspaper with small pages that has many pictures and short reports’. As a result of the type of format, this style is deemed less sophisticated in comparison to broadsheet newspapers. The Daily Mail is owned by a media company known as the DMG Media. It not only owns The Daily Mail but also The Mail on Sunday, Mail Online, Metro and Metro.co.uk. On the other hand, The Times is another daily newspaper published in London but differs from The Daily Mail in the way it is set out as it uses a broadsheet format. Broadsheet newspapers are printed out on a large sheet rather than compact ones which make it appear more sophisticated. The Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch (Albionmill.org.uk, 2019) who also owns The Sun. The problem with a media company or individuals controlling various newspapers is that the views presented would tend to be biased and favour the owner’s views or political stance. For example, The Daily Mail and The Times are known to favour conservative views which most likely means that it is reflecting the opinions of those who own and control it.

Target Audience

Every newspaper has a target audience their content is caters towards. For tabloids such as The Daily Mail, their content is most likely going to be catered towards conservatives and people who are in the working class. This form of print tends to have multiple pictures and bold eye-catching phrases which would attract the attention of their readers. The newspapers also consist of a well-rounded range of topics. Therefore, it would have celebrity news, international news as well as politics. Tabloids also use language that is easy to understand which also make them generally less formal than broadsheet newspapers. Whereas, The Times which also supports conservative views is associated with people who fall within the higher class. Therefore, their language is more formal and sophisticated in comparison to tabloids. Broadsheet newspapers also have less pictures and more information on politics and news. The older generation which are accustomed to this style of newspaper and information would tend to go for newspapers such as The Times.

Funding

Newspapers in the UK need a source of revenue in order to fund themselves. In terms of print newspapers, they generally tend to get revenue through advertising and cover prices. As newspapers have an idea of who their targeted audience are, advertisers could cater their ads to things they know the readers would enjoy. Advertisers also select certain popular newspapers that they know would be able to drive their readers to purchase those products being advertised or drive people to come to the stores being advertised. For example, a newspaper that is known to be read by mostly the older generation might have a good number of coupons which they know the readers may cut out to use in supermarkets and other places. Newspapers could also increase cover prices in order to make up for money being lost elsewhere. As the world is evolving and the internet is becoming more prominent, newspapers need to put this into consideration and evolve with the world too. Therefore, many of the newspapers today not only have printed media but also have a digital presence. This is an advantage as newspapers can generate more income this way. In Gillian Doyle’s Journal, he mentions that the MD of Commercial at NI pointed out “creating content is expensive” (Doyle, G. 2013). This is very important because newspapers must find ways through their digital platforms to make revenue to help support the expensive nature of their content. Digitally, newspapers could get their source of revenue through subscriptions, advertising, sales, events and so much more.

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