The companies and people involved in owning and producing a newspaper
Daily Mirror
Owned by reach PLC (formerly Trinity Mirror)
Reach PLC is a large organisation that owns over 150 newspapers, including national and local papers
Reach PLC's horizontal integration allows them to share resources and journalists between their newspapers
The Times
Published by Times Newspapers, which is owned by News UK (formerly News International)
News UK is a subsidiary of the global conglomerate News Corp
News Corp is owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who has conservative political views and has donated to the Republican Party
Newspaper ownership by shareholders and stockholders
Impacts how newspapers operate, as they must protect their reputation while appealing to their target audience to make money
The News of the World newspaper was shut down by News Corp due to the phone hacking scandal, in order to protect the reputation and value of their other newspapers
Regulation
The process of controlling and monitoring the content and practices of newspapers
IPSO
The regulatory body that oversees The Times and Daily Mirror
IPSO is run by the newspaper industry itself, which some see as a potential source of bias
IPSO does not fully follow the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry, unlike the government-run regulator IMPRESS
Technological changes
Have made it very challenging to effectively regulate newspaper content, especially online user comments
The Daily Mirror's print circulation has been declining, while its online readership has grown, as its target audience shifts to digital platforms
Technology has made the moderation of newspapers and the effective regulation of newspapers very challenging
The Daily Mirror's circulation has been quite rapidly declining for a number of years
Reason for Daily Mirror's declining circulation
Its target audience is going online, its website is free to compete with other websites
The Daily Mirror's online readership is really quite large, one of the largest in the country
The Times circulation is either increasing or staying the same, which is quite unusual in comparison to most other newspapers
Reason for The Times' stable circulation
Its audience is a bit older, more middle-class to upper-class, more educated and less likely to use digital media as much
Reason for The Times' stable circulation
The Times has a paywall on their website which restricts people from being able to access all the content unless they pay
Paying for The Times website can act as an engaging factor for audiences because they are convinced that if they're paying for it, it must have higher quality content
Alternate revenue streams for newspapers
Advertising space online
Premium rate phone lines
Betting website
Dating section of website
Online editions of newspapers, their apps and social media pages are a good way of showing that audiences for newspapers are intrigued and engaged by the technology that they use
The Daily Mirror offers lots of interactive elements, competitions, phone-ins, text-ins, the ability to comment, like and share to engage its target audience
The adverts in The Daily Mirror are tailored towards a working-class, predominantly male over 35, left-wing target audience
The adverts in The Times are tailored towards a more middle-class to upper-class, educated target audience
The Daily Mirror's target audience
Predominantly working-class, mostly male over 35, left-wing in political views, in the C to E social demographic categories
The Daily Mirror features quite a lot of left-wing articles, representing the Labour or Lib Dems in a positive light and the Conservative Party, UKIP, Nigel Farage, and the Republican Party or Donald Trump in a negative fashion
Daily Mirror readers
Have a slightly lower reading age than Times readers, are engaged more by soft news (entertainment, celebrities, sports) rather than politically hard-hitting or financial news
Times readers
Slightly higher educated, have a slightly higher reading age, prefer more in-depth stories with complex language and jargon, smaller pictures
The Times offers a free trial of 2 article views per week to encourage people to sign up for a paid subscription
The Times will send regular emails to subscribers reminding them to come back to the website and suggesting articles they might like
The Times website offers competitions with prizes like tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company, wine-tasting events, and events to listen to previous Prime Ministers speak
Reasons audiences read newspapers
For information and education, for entertainment value, to identify or relate to stories, for social interaction, to escape into a fantasy world
Audiences may take a preferred, negotiated or oppositional reading of newspapers depending on their political views, age, and familiarity with digital media