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Some 50 per cent ofpeople over fifteen read a national daily paper and 70per cent read a national Sunday newspaper.National newspapers have sales of 13.5 million on weekdays and 14.8 million on Sundays, buton average two people read each paper.The national press in Britain today consists of ten daily morning papers and nine Sundaypapers. It is in effect a London press, because most national newspapers have their bases andprinting facilities in the capital, although editions of some nationals are now published outsideLondon, in Europe and the USA.
Most of them used to be located in Fleet Street in centralLondon. But all have now left the street and moved to other parts of the capital. The reasons forthese moves were high property rents, fierce competition and opposition from trade unions to theintroduction of new printing technology. Newspapers and magazines have also had to face theexpense of newsprint and rising production and labour costs.
Heavy labour costs were due to theoverstaffing and restrictive practices of the trade unions. Owners were forced into new ways ofincreasing productivity while cutting costs. Regional owners outside London had in factpioneered the movement of newspapers and magazines into new print technology and Londonnewspapers had to follow in order to survive.New technology meant that journalists’ ‘copy’ could be printed directly through computers,without having to use the intermediate ‘hotmetal’ typesetting by printers. This gave ownersflexibility in their printing and distribution methods and cheaper production costs.
It allowedthem toescape from trade-union dominance and the concentration of the industry in London. Butit also resulted in job reductions, trade union opposition and bitter industrial action such aspicketing.New technology, improved distribution methods and cuts in labour and production costs haveincreased the profitability of print industries. Despite the attraction of other media, they still havea considerable presence, although sales are declining. The business is very competitive andpapers can suffer from a variety of problems.
However, the high risks involved have not stoppedthe introduction of new newspapers.The ‘quality’ national daily The Independent was published in October 1986 and survivesdespite circulation losses. Sunday nationals, such as The Independent on Sunday (1990), havealso appeared. But other dailies have been lost.National papers are usually termed ‘quality’ or ‘popular’ depending on their differences incontent and format (tabloid or broadsheet). Others are called ‘mid-market’, fall between thesetwo extremes and are tabloids.The ‘qualities’ (such as The Times) are broadsheets (large-sheet), report national andinternational news in depth and analyse current events and the arts in editorials and articles. Thepopulars (such as the Sun) are mostly tabloid (small-sheet), deal with relatively few ‘hardnews’stories, tend to be superficial in the material is sensationalized and trivialized.
It cannot besaid that the down-market populars are instructive, or concerned with raising the criticalconsciousness of readers. But owners and editors argue that their readership demands particularstyles, interests and attitudes. ‘Mid-market’ papers, such as the Mail and Express, cater forintermediate groups. ‘Qualities’ are more expensive than populars and carry up-marketadvertising that generates essential finance. Populars carry less advertising and cater for moredown-market material. However, the press takes much of the finance spent on total advertising inBritain.There is no state control or censorship of the British press, although it is subject to laws ofpublication and expression and there are forms of self-censorship, by which it regulates its ownconduct. The press is also financially independent of the political parties and receives no fundingfrom government (except for Welsh-language community papers).It is argued that most newspapers are politically right-of-centre and sympathize with theConservative Party.
But their positions are usually driven by readers’ opinions and politicalslants in fact can vary considerably over time and under the influence of events. For example, thesmall-circulation Morning Star has varied between Stalinist, Euro-Communist and DemocraticLeft views. Papers may have a political bias and support a specific party, particularly at electiontimes, although this can change. A few, such as those of the Trinity Mirror group, support theLabour Party, some such as The Times andThe Independent consider themselves to beindependent, while others, such as The Guardian, favour a left-of-centre position.
It appears thatthe British public receive a reasonable variety of political views from their newspapers.The press is dependent for its survival upon circulation figures; upon the advertising thatit can attract; and upon financial help from its owners. A paper may face difficulties and fail ifadvertisers remove their business.In fact all the media are currently experiencing a downturn in advertising revenue. Ahigh circulation does not necessarily guarantee the required advertising and consequent survival,because advertisers now tend to place their mass-appeal consumer products on television, wherethey will benefit from a larger audience.
Most popular papers are in constant competition withtheir rivals to increase their sales. They attempt to do this by gimmicks such as bingo games andcompetitions, or by calculated editorial policies which are intended to catch the mass readership.Owners may refuse to rescue those papers which make continuous losses. A number ofnewspapers in the twentieth century ceased publication because of reduced circulation, loss ofadvertising revenue, refusals of further financial aid, or a combination of all three factors.However, despite a fall in hard-copy circulation, most national newspapers now haveonline Internet publication.
This provides an additional medium for information andcommunication, as well as continuously updated news.Regional newspapersSome 1,300 regional newspapers are published in towns and cities throughout Britain.They contain a mixture of local and national news; are supported financially by regionaladvertising; and may be daily morning or evening papers, Sundays or weekly. Some nine out often adults read a regional or local paper every week and 75 per cent of local and regionalnewspapers also operate an Internet website.Excluding its national newspaper industry, London has one paper (the Evening Standard)with daily sales of 440,000. But there are also about a hundred local weeklies, dailies andevening papers which appear in the Greater London districts.‘Quality’ daily regional (and national) papers, such as The Scotsman (Edinburgh) and theGlasgow Herald, the Western Mail (Cardiff), and the Yorkshire Post (Leeds), have goodreputations and sales outside their regions.
But the best-selling papers are in Scotland, such asthe Daily Record and the Sunday Mail (Glasgow) and the Sunday Post (Dundee).There has also been a growth of ‘free newspapers’ in the regions, such as the LondonMetro (now available throughout the country with a circulation of 1.2 million), which are oftendelivered direct to homes and for which the consumer does not pay. Some 800 are publishedweekly on a local basis and are financed by local advertising, to such an extent that news isoutweighed by the advertisements. It is estimated that they have a weekly circulation of some 35million.Britain’s ethnic communities also produce their own newspapers and magazines, whichare increasing in numbers, are available nationally in the larger cities and are improving inquality.
There is a wide range of publications for Jewish, Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese andArabic readers, published on a daily or (more commonly) periodic basis.Periodicals and magazinesThere are 9,000 different periodicals and magazines in Britain,which are of a weekly, monthly or quarterly nature and are dependentuponsales and advertising to survive. They are aimed at different markets andlevels of sophistication and either cover trades, professions and business(readby 95per cent of occupational groups) or are consumer titles dealingwith sports, hobbies and interests (read by 80 per cent of adults).Although the number of periodicals has expanded, it is still difficult to break into theestablished consumer market with a new product. Some attempts, which manage to find a gap inthe market, succeed, but most usually fail.The teenage and youth magazine market is fiercely fought for, but has suffered largesales losses recently.
This is attributed to greater Internet and mobile phone usage. The men’sgeneral interest magazine market is similarly volatile. Women’s periodicals, such as Take aBreak, Woman and Woman’s Own, have large and wide circulations. But the bestsellingpublications are the weekly Radio Times and What’s on TV, which contain feature stories andscheduled programmes for BBC and independent television. Other magazines cover interestssuch as computers, rural pastimes, gardening, railways, cooking, architecture, do-it-yourselfskills and sports.Among the serious weekly journals are the New Statesman and Society (a left-wingpolitical and social affairs magazine); the Economist (dealing with economic and politicalmatters); the Spectator (a conservative journal); and New Scientist.The Times publishesinfluential weekly magazines, such as the Educational Supplement, the Higher (EducationSupplement) and the Literary Supplement.
The lighter side of the market is catered for byperiodicals such as Private Eye, which satirizes the short- comings of British society.The broadcasting mediaThe broadcasting media are divided into public and commercial (independent) sectorsand consist of radio, terrestrial television and cable/satellite television. Three authorities overseethese services: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Independent TelevisionCommission (ITC) and the Radio Authority.The BBC is based at Broadcasting House in London, but has stations throughout thecountry, which provide regional networks for radio and television. It was created by RoyalCharter and has a board of governors who are responsible for supervising its programmes andtheir suitability. They are appointed by the Crown on the advice of government ministers and aresupposed to constitute an independent element in the organization of the BBC.
Daily operationsare controlled by the Director-General, chosen by the board of governors.The BBC is financed by a grant from Parliament, which comes from the sale of televisionlicences (Ј1.6 billion per year). These are payable by anyone who owns a television set and arerelatively cheap in international terms (Ј104 annually for a colour set). The BBC also generatesconsiderable income from selling its programmes abroad and from the sale of a programmeguide (Radio Times), books, magazines and videos.The BBC in recent years has come under pressure from government to reform itself. Ithas struggled to maintain its position as a traditional public service broadcaster, funded by thelicence fee, at a time of fierce competition with commercial broadcasters.
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