The contextual information in this post was correct circa 2025. It is worth remembering that the newspaper industry is in a constant state of flux, and we strongly recommend doing your own research!
For component one section b, if newspapers come up, do NOT refer to the set text editions! The set edition should only be used if you are specifically asked to use it! And you only ever could be asked to use it in the representation comparison question!
(c) Explain the impact of economic contexts on the newspaper industry. Refer to the Times to support your points. [10] - The newspaper industry has declined significantly due to competition from online and digitally convergent media
(b) How do media producers target specialised audiences? Refer to a print edition of The Daily Mirror to support your points. [12] - Newspapers target their specialised target audiences in a range of straightforward and established ways, to ensure maximum engagement and audience alignment
- Use Wikipedia to find key facts about the finances and production contexts of these newspapers
- Pick out specific examples from the Donald Trump print edition (2024) to find specific examples to support your points - https://lr-media.blogspot.com/2024/11/example-newspaper-for-2024-2026-cohort.html
- List relevant and useful theories that you can drop in the audience question in particular
Fact file
The Times
- 2020 circulation: 365,000
- 2014 circulation: 390,000
- 2000 circulation: ALLEDGEDLY 726,000 a steady decline
- Owned by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp, a billionaire owned multinational conglomerate. News UK also publishes The Sun. But News International, own Fox in part, although Disney bought out much of the company to eliminate competition Conglomeration reduces risk
- Middle class, middle aged, white collar, managerial, corporate
- Competition from The Guardian (left wing), The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph
- Right wing (centre right), supports the conservative. Middle class people in the UK tend to skew right wing
- Price of the times has almost tripled in a decade to £2.80. However, the middle class, affluent target audience are clearly willing to pay this… case in point, The Times Website is subscription based and charges £26 a month, a selling point to the middle class audience?
The Daily Mirror
- 2024 circulation - 196,000
- 2000 circulation - 2.4 million - a collapse of readership
- Reach PLC, a horizontally integrated UK conglomerate that specialises in acquiring local newspapers. Facing challenges from competition from digitally convent media, Reach PLC have focused on digitally convergent such as newspaper websites and online gambling
- Working class, middle aged, blue collar workers and manual laborers
- Competition from the right wing The Sun and The Daily Mail
- Left wing ideological perspective: support the labour party. Working class people in the UK tend to skew right wing
- Prince of Daily Mirror has shot up from 35p in 2004 to £1.80 in 2024, partly due to inflation and the financial situation of the company. The Sun currently costs £1.10…
- The mirror website has low production values, and predominantly makes money through clickbait advertisements
PRINT EDITION EXAMPLES November 7th 2024 - how do these newspapers minimise risk and maximise profit in a digitally convergent world? And how do they target their very specific and specialised target audiences?
The Times
- While the front page headline leans towards supporting Trump, it is not overtly biased, which is typical of broadsheet newspapers. The lexis of the headline, “golden age” is optimistic and reasonably sophisticated, and suggests a positive representation of Trump
- The main image is both patriarchal and patriotic in it’s mode of address. Throughout the newspaper, the selection of images of trump are broadly respectful
- The Times focuses on hard, serious news. “Berry Bros fear inheritance tax is a body blow” this financial story, anchored with the highly middle class image of a Cambridge student conducting wine tasting.
The Daily Mirror
- What have the done… Again?”. Lexis is negative and pessimistic, yet also informal
- While the mirror selects the same image for the front page story, many images of trump in the mirror are unflattering, reinforcing the ideology that he is unfit to rule
- An emphasis on soft news stories, including celebrity gossip and speculation over the new James Bond movie. This focus on gossip will stereotypically appeal to a working class specialised audience of those in manual labour