I was looking at several newspapers the other day, and I noticed that different newspapers portrayed a same story but with a different view on it. Usually one would be negative and others would just state what the story is about. It got me wondering whether the newspaper websites targeted different people and why they did this. I looked at a broad range of Britain's most read newspapers and researched them and the companies who run them, to understand why they reported in different views.
Newspaper owners:
Trinity Mirror plc. - Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People.
Northern & Shell - Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.
Daily Mail and General Trust plc. - Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Metro.
News Corporation - The Sun, News of the World, The Sunday Times and The Times.
Guardian Media Group plc. - The Guardian and The Observer.
The Telegraph Media Group - The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Spectator.
Alexander Lebedev and Evgeny Lebedev - Evening Standard, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday.
Pearson plc. - Financial Times.
The People
Established in 1881, The People is a magazine that is printed for every Sunday, and therefore is a weekly newspaper. Instead of reporting on important issues, The People tends to focus on celebrities and regularly reports on scandals with famous people. This is shown very clearly on the homepage of the website, by pictures of celebrities in the public eye (predominantly X-Factor) and short words and phrases as opposed to long sentences. The news is on the 4th tab on the heading bar at the top of the screen, with Celebs+TV and Sport ahead of it, meaning they report more of these stories as a newspaper.
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is one of only a few British broadsheet newspapers and was the highest selling British broadsheet in 2009 beating big newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian and The Independent. It is a paper that promotes Conservative policies and this is evident in the way the newspaper will either back the current government or criticise it, so I wondered if this was evident on the online website. Upon first glance of the homepage I could not see anything to support Conservative beliefs but maybe this was done because at the moment there is no big political problems with the current Conservative Government, and therefore they do not want to pick up on any negative news about the Government.
The Financial Times
www.ft.com/home/uk
As with The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper which was founded in 1888. It is the only newspaper in the UK which provides reports on world financial markets in particular, London's Stock Exchange. The Financial Times is also a Conservative newspaper, and this is more than likely because it is aimed at the upper middle class (which Conservative policies target) as opposed to the working class (which Labour policies target). The upper middle class tend to read broadsheet newspapers as opposed to tabloid newspapers which the working class tend to read. The website shows how little it focus's on the news and instead focus's on the economy and money, with stories linked to American politics and on the menu bar at the top of the screen there are pages such as Management, Personal Finance and Life & Arts.
The Sun
The Sun is Britain's most popular newspaper and this is surprising as it was only founded in 1963. It is one of four huge newspapers that is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It is not a politically aligned newspaper but instead changes it's view depending on what Government party is popular. They have therefore been responsible for being victorious at many elections, for example the Conservative victory in 1992, Labour's several victory's with Tony Blair and also the more recent victory for the Conservative party under David Cameron (although it was a coalition Government). The website uses predominantly short slogans and brief descriptions of news stories. The Sun targets the working class and therefore focus's on things such as Football, Showbiz and TV - things that are linked to the working class. The Sun has been criticised in the past for writing about articles that have not been proven to be true and have been completely made up, often it targets certain people and can persuade people because of the amount of readers.
The News of the World
Often referred to as the Sunday sister of The Sun, The News of the World is a tabloid newspaper owned by News Corporation. Although it is the sister paper of The Sun, it was founded in 1843 whereas The Sun was founded in 1964, roughly 80 years before. On average, it sells approximately the amount of newspapers a week that The Sun sells a day. The News of the World is a Conservative paper, and prior to the recent elections, featured many articles backing the Conservative party and opposing the Labour party. The website is very much the same as The Sun's website often featuring the most popular news from the week. More recently, in bid to gain more money, The News of the World are charging money for people to read their stories online. This could gain them money but could also mean they lose people, and therefore people would switch to other newspapers.
The Daily Star
The Daily Star is one of the more recent newspapers, founded in 1978. It is a daily tabloid newspaper that is aimed at the lower class people of society through it's demeaning stories and it's cheap price. Upon first glance of the website, I thought it looked very tacky. The featured storylines include: 'JORDAN: MY SEX ORDEAL' and columns such as: 'BABES' and 'DATING'. I personally feel it is a very cheap effort to gain an audience, but the paper is clearly read by people looking at the figures.
The Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a daily tabloid newspaper founded in 1896. It is the second biggest selling newspaper in the UK after The Sun. It is the only British newspaper that is read by over 50% female. It is often referred to by some as a fascist paper because many feel the use of language and the storylines featured, target individuals or groups of people. From looking at the website, I can see how certain storylines are shown in different ways and their perspective in comparison to other newspapers.
The Guardian
The Guardian is a daily national newspaper whose website is one of the most visited daily English-language news websites. It is a newspaper that has previously supported the Labour government and more recently the Liberal Democrats government. It is not a tabloid newspaper but instead a Berliner newspaper which is just a bit larger than a tabloid and smaller than a broadsheet. From looking at the online website I can see how sophisticated it looks in comparison to websites such as The Sun's. It is a subtle website, not attempting to capture the audience's attention but instead just to inform people of the news. This is shown through the colours but also through the way the language is written.
The Independent
The Independent was created by journalists who wanted to set up a newspaper because they were fed up of editorial control. It is one of the youngest newspapers in Great Britain being created in 1986. It was originally produced in Broadsheet format but has more recently been produced in a tabloid format to appeal to a wider audience. It is a Liberal Democratic follower as it believes in Liberal views but only subtlety puts across these views in it's newspaper. From looking at the website I could see how similar it was to The Guardian's website. It had the same subtlety in both content and it's views on news stories. I got the impression that the website was aimed at more intellectual people instead of a younger audience.
The Observer
The Observer was the world's first Sunday newspaper being founded in 1791. It was originally a broadsheet newspaper but as with several other broadsheet newspapers it is more recently produced in a Berliner format. It is politically alligned the same as it's 'sister paper' The Guardian and the website can be found through The Guardian's website. The website is very much the same as The Guardian's but there is less imagery and more written content. This may not happen everyday but you can see how both papers show the same storyline but in a different way, it shows the diversity but also the similaritys between the daily newspaper and the Sunday newspaper.
For more information on British newspapers see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_England
