Newspapers Industry&Audience

• Ownership


  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