news

• 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 produces over 150 newspapers, including national and local papers
  • Reach PLC has bought out other newspaper companies like the Daily Express, allowing them to maintain a leading position in the industry
  • Reach PLC can share resources and journalists between their different 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 a large, powerful company with significant resources and influence
  • News Corp has been involved in controversies like the phone hacking scandal, but has avoided major sanctions
• Rupert Murdoch


  • The owner of News Corp, the global conglomerate that owns The Times
  • Murdoch is a conservative billionaire who has donated to the Republican Party in the US
• Newspaper ownership by shareholders and stockholders impacts how they operate, as they need to protect their reputation while appealing to their target audience to make money
• Regulation


  • Newspapers in the UK are regulated by IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation), which is run by the newspaper industry itself
  • IPSO does not fully follow the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry, unlike the government-run regulator IMPRESS
  • Regulating newspapers is challenging due to online content and user-generated comments, which are difficult to moderate effectively
• Declining print circulation


  Newspapers like the Daily Mirror are seeing declining print readership as their target audience moves online, but their online readership is large
• 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
• The Times has a paywall on their website which restricts people from being able to access all the content unless they pay
• Reason for The Times' paywall

  Their audiences are richer and more likely to pay for content online, paying for something makes it feel higher quality
• Alternative revenue streams for newspapers

  • Advertising space online
  • Premium rate phone lines
  • Betting websites
  • Dating sections
• Offering lots of interactive elements, competitions, phone-ins, text-ins, the ability to comment, like and share is a really important part of the newspaper industry and keeping it relevant and current for audiences
• Target audience for The Daily Mirror


  Predominantly working-class, mostly male over the age of 35, left-wing in political views, C to E social demographic categories
• Characteristics of The Daily Mirror's content


  Features quite a lot of left-wing articles, representing Labour, Lib Dems positively and Conservatives, UKIP, Republicans, Trump negatively
• Characteristics of The Daily Mirror's readers

  Slightly lower reading age, engaged more by soft news (entertainment, celebrities, sports) rather than politically hard-hitting or financial news
• Characteristics of The Times' content

  More in-depth stories with a lot more writing, much more complex language and jargon, smaller pictures
• Target audience for The Times

  Slightly more conservative than The Daily Mirror's audience
• How The Times engages its audience

  Offers free 2 article views per week as a taster, sends weekly emails reminding subscribers to return, allows online crossword completion for subscribers
• Competitions and prizes offered by The Times

  • Tickets to Royal Shakespeare Company, wine-tasting events, events to listen to previous Prime Ministers
• Reasons why audiences read newspapers

  For information and education, for entertainment value, to identify or relate to stories, for social interaction, to escape into a better life or fantasy world
• Audiences may take preferred, negotiated or oppositional readings of newspapers depending on their own political views, age, and media habits