paper round. editorial. quality press / broadsheets. leading article. popular press / tabloids. book reviews. press baron / tycoon. THE PRESS. Guide to an English newspaper

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paper round

editorial

quality press / broadsheets

leading article

popular press / tabloids

book reviews

press baron / tycoon

THE PRESS

Britain’s first newspapers appeared over 300 years ago. Now, as then, newspapers receive no government subsidy, unlike in some other European countries today. Advertising has always been a vital source of income. As long ago as 1660, King Charles II advertised in a newspaper for his lost dog. Today, income from advertising is as critical as income from sales. In 1995, for example £5,465 million was spent on press advertising, making the press by far the largest advertising medium in Britain.

There are approximately 130 daily and Sunday papers, 1,400 weekly papers and over 6,500 periodical publications. More newspapers, proportionately, are sold in Britain than in almost any other country. On average, two out of three people over the age of 15 read a national morning newspaper. National newspapers have a circulation of about 13 million on weekdays and 17 million on Sundays, but the readership is twice this figure. At first glance, therefore, the British press seems to be in good health.

Newspaper publication is dominated by the national press, which is an indication of the comparative weakness of regional identity in Britain. Nearly 80% of all households buy a copy of one of the main national papers every day. There are more than eighty local and regional daily papers; but the total circulation of all of them together is much less than the combined circulation of the national ‘dailies’. The only non-national papers with significant circulations are published in the evenings, when they do not compete with the national papers, which always appear in the mornings.

Most local papers do not appear on Sundays, so on that day the dominance of the national press is absolute. The ‘Sunday papers’ are so-called because that is the only day on which they appear. Some of them are sisters of all dailies (published by the same company) but employing separate editors and journalists.

The morning paper is a British household institution; such an important one that, until the laws were relaxed in the early 1990s, newsagents` were the only shops that were allowed to open on Sundays. People could not be expected to do without their newspapers for even one day, especially a day when there was more free time to read them. The Sunday papers sell slightly more copies than the national dailies and are thicker. Some of them have six or more sections making up a total of well over 200 pages.

Another indication of the importance of ‘the papers’ is the morning ‘paper round’. Most newsagents organize these, and more than half of the country’s readers get their morning papers delivered to their door by a teenager who gets at around half-past five every day in order to earn a bit of extra pocket money.

The national newspapers, both on weekdays and Sundays, fall into two broad categories: the ‘quality press’(or ‘broadsheets’), which caters for the better educated readers, and ‘popular press’ (or ‘tabloids’), which contains far less print than the broadsheets and far more pictures. Tabloids use larger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. While the broadsheets devote much space to politics and other ‘serious’ news, the tabloids concentrate on ‘human interest’ stories, which often means sex and scandal.

However, the broadsheets do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types of paper devote equal amounts of attention to sport. The difference between them is in the treatment of the topics they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence. The reason that the quality newspapers are called broadsheets and the popular ones tabloids is because they are different shapes. The broadsheets are twice as large as the tabloids.

In spite of the apparently light content of the tabloids, they appear to have if not more political influence than the broadsheets. Although television has taken over as the main news provider, the law prevents TV from taking sides in politics. So it is left to the newspapers to support parties and give interpretation of the news. None of the daily newspapers is actually run by the political parties, however. What counts for the newspaper publishers is business. All of them are in the business first and foremost to make money. Their primary concern is to sell as many copies as possible and to attract as much advertising as possible. They normally put selling copies ahead of political integrity.

The British press is controlled by a rather small number of extremely large multinational companies. Several newspapers are owned by companies controlled by individuals: there is a tradition of rich and powerful press barons (tycoons). Viscount Rothermere dominates The Mail, Lord Hollick, The Express. Some of these pressbarons are not English but from Commonwealth countries: Conrad Black of The Daily Telegraph is Canadian; Rupert Murdoch of The Sun is Australian. Actually, Murdoch’s multinational company, News Corporation, also owns The Times, The Sunday Times and News of the World; it also controls the satellite channel BskyB.

Britain has a substantial number of regional newspapers. Of these the two Scottish ones, The Scotsman (Edinburg) and the Herald (Glasgow) are the most important, since they are also national newspapers. But others with a large circulation include the Birmingham Evening Mail, the Wolverhampton Express and Star, the Birmingham Sunday Mercury, and the Leeds Yorkshire Post.

Britain’s ethnic minority communities also produce their own papers, both in English and in their vernacular languages. The oldest of these is the Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1841. But there are Asian, Caribbean and even Arabic newspapers published in Britain.

Finally, there are over 800 free newspapers, popularly known as ‘freebies’, almost all of them are weekly and financed entirely by advertising. They achieve a weekly circulation of over 40 million.

The best-selling weeklies are those giving details of the forthcoming week’s television and radio programmes, What’s On TV, the Radio Times and TV Times, with circulation in 1996 of 1.6 million, 1.4 million and 1 million, respectively. Second to them in popularity are women’s magazines, of which easily the best-selling is Take a Break, and Woman’s Weekly, Woman’s Own, Woman, Woman’s Realm. During the early 1990s some recently established men’s magazines, Loaded, CQ and Esquire, became popular. The leading opinion journals are The Econimist, the New Statesman and Society, the Spectator and Private Eye.

With almost 1,500 staff in 91 countries, no newspaper anywhere can compete with Britain’s formidable news agency, Reuters. Across the world its name has become an assurance of objectivity, accuracy and reliability.

Usually the material in average “popular” newspaper falls roughly into 4 groups: first of all, reading matter-news and feature articles; second – photographs; third – advertisements and announcements; and last – sports news. The material is distributed over 6-8 or 8-12 pages. It may vary and usually depends upon the newspaper. The front page and two or four of the inside pages mostly carry news. So we can call them news pages, though they may also carry small feature stories. The main feature article is published on the central page. Page 6 or 7 is usually devoted to any problem that deserves the serious treatment. Next page is usually a weekly arts page that brings together the newspaper’s extensive coverage of music, theatre, arts and dance. The last but one page is very much like a mixed bag, where we find a motley assortment of news, news brief: elections, government appointments and so on. And finally, the last page deals with sports.

Now let’s take any issue of a newspaper and have a closer look at the make-up of its pages. The front page story is the major story of an issue. Like all major stories it takes most of the front page. It is printed under a banner headlines, which splashes across the pages. It may also be called ‘streamer’ or ‘streamer headline’.

The editorial, if any, or the leading article is on the second page. It is printed under the department heading “Comments”. The editorial expresses the policy of the paper. When the editorial deals with only one topic, the make-up subeditor might use stars that break up the editorial into 2 or 3 parts, thus making it easier for an eye.

Apart from the leading article on page 2 we find a number of news stories dealing with world news. These stories are carried under the department heading “World News”.

Much of the space on the feature pages is devoted to feature articles which are newspaper stories that include background information on the specific subject and the writer’s opinion. Besides feature and regular columns, the make-up of these pages is brightened by pictures, advertisements, TV and radio programmes and regular items of a more entertainment character.

You can also find the Books page which appears every week and informs readers by providing book reviews, or it may be the Women’s page devoted to women’s problems.

Most of the space of the news pages of a paper is taken up by news items, news stories and reports, covering the international and domestic scenes.

The news pages have many different headings so that when you are pressed for time you can read the paper by skimming the headlines to get the general drift of events.

The advertisement that appear on the last page advertise amusements, inform readers of social events classified by their subjects into “Situations Vacant”, “Deaths”, “Legal Notices” and so on. These ads are headed “Classified” and are known as “The smalls”. The ads other than classified are called “Display advertisements”. These ads are highly profitable source of income to all newspapers.

Ex. 2. Read the following sentences and translate them into your native language. Pay attention to the words in bold type. Make sure that you know the pronunciation and the meaning of new words.

1. The president’s visit is extensively covered by mass media.

2. It is difficult for the media to cover the growing number of crises throughout the world.

3. The media power can be used destructively or constructively.

4. The White House doesn’t let any member of the news media report on what is going to be in the speech until the president delivers it.

5. The trial attracted media attention unlike any seen before. The government has been particularly annoyed at what they are calling a hostile media campaign.

6. Another satellite network, Sky television, is owned by the media tycoon Mr. Robert Murdoch.

7. The press gave an extensive coverage to the recent election campaign.

8. The mass circulation tabloids display their usual interest in sensation.

9. Friday night television audiences and Saturday newspaper readership are, apparently, lower than mid-week’s.

10. The British national press is referred to as Fleet Street, although no national paper is now produced in this London street.

11. With rapidly falling circulation figures, journalists have demanded the editor’sdismissal.

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