BOOKLET

Print newspapers in the 1960s and 2010s

• Newspaper circulations were very high by today’s standards
• The peak in newspapers’ circulation was in the early 1950s, with decline ever since. By 1965, circulation of Sunday newspapers had fallen to 25 million, which represented 1.4 newspapers per household
•  segmentation of the newspaper market (reflected the clear class and political differences in society)
• 2010- less sense of loyalty to political parties or identity based on class 
• Newspapers started to be defined by size(upmarket newspapers such as The Observer were printed in the broadsheet format, whereas downmarket newspapers such as the Sun launched tabloid formats)
• Broadsheet newspapers were dominated by a news agenda
• The increasing role of marketing in newspapers was, however, evident in the launching of colour supplements in the early 1960s (designed to offer advertisers the opportunity to use high quality colour images.) 
•  Printing in the main newspapers was monochrome and of poor quality compared to contemporary standards. 
• The terms ‘broadsheet’ and ‘tabloid’ are still in common use to describe the style of a newspaper, although few newspapers are still printed in the broadsheet format 

Funding 

Tabloid newspapers had larger circulations(working class audiences attracted, relied more on cover price)

Broadsheet newspapers had smaller circulations but attractive upmarket audiences – and relied more on advertising.

Funding sources 2010:

1. Paywalls – paying to access online content
2. Membership 
3. Print and online advertising – print is traditionally much more lucrative than online advertising but has drastically reduced in recent years, though concerns over advertising being placed next to inappropriate content by Google and Facebook.
4. Sponsored content – brands supplying content and/ or paying to be connected to content – this blurs the boundaries between advertising and editorial that journalists prize but advertisers wish to blur
5.  Events – The Guardian/Observer frequently run courses (e.g. on journalism or literature), meetings and conferences.
6.  Sales – The Guardian/Observer sell holidays and books

• All print newspapers are facing declining circulations at the same time as much advertising is moving online, and this online advertising is both worth less than print advertising with revenues mostly going to Facebook and Google rather than online versions of the newspapers.
• Once circulation dips below a certain level – 100,000 copies for example – it becomes too expensive to physically print newspapers.
• Television news programmes now cover online as well as print newspapers in their reviews, for example, but a print version is still seen as an essential promotional tool for online versions of newspapers as the print version carries the authority of the traditional news source.

Newspaper industries – ownership and control

• Newspapers are not usually profitable(seen as a means of gaining political and social influence, so are often owned by rich individuals rather than conglomerates)
• The Observer is considered a venerable institution – it is the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, dating back to 1791 – and this was an attack on its journalistic ethics and integrity

Press freedom and regulation

• Newspapers were the main form of mass communication at the time when Britain was becoming a full democracy, where all adults had the vote. A free press was seen as crucial to democracy –censorship was abolished and press freedom came to be seen as a precious ideal to be defended at all costs.
• Idea of press freedom means that the press are the most opinionated of all the ‘old’ media. Newspapers can campaign on political issues and journalists are expected to be highly critical of those in power
• Online news is not regulated at all, unless online newspapers chose to sign up to a regulator. The issue of ‘fake news’ came to special prominence during and after the 2016 US Presidential election. 

Convergence

• When newspapers operate online there is technological and cultural convergence. Online newspapers will use the traditional media language of newspapers – headlines, copy, photography, and so on – but also that of television through embedded video, and that of social media through readers’ comments on blogs, or each other’s comments.

Audience

• The Observer’s audiences are much larger than its circulation suggest, because more than one person will read each newspaper and because many more access The Observer online
• Print Observer readers are very equally spread between male and female, about 50-50. They are upmarket readers, 68% class AB, 78% class ABC1. They live mostly in London and the south (53%). 
• Monthly UK online Observer readers are slightly more male (55%) than female (45%) – this male bias is very common in online news content. One third of the audience are 15-34, two thirds are 35 plus. This is a younger audience than the print readership, among whom only 17% are 15-34. 75% of the online audience are social class ABC1
• The Observer has sections which are designed to appeal to different types of readers. The main section of the print version consists of news and opinion – a mix of the traditional ‘hard’ news traditionally offered by newspapers and opinion pieces that were once the preserve of current affairs magazines. This appeals to the news-hungry reader

Uses and gratification

Personal identity: The term ‘Guardian reader’ connotes a certain type of social attitude and The Observer similarly reinforces a set of social and political attitudes, and thus identity, in its representations (E.G Observer readers like to think of themselves as open-minded and this is reflected in the Observer’s practice of allowing both sides of an argument equally to be put when the newspaper is clearly on one side of this argument)

Social interaction and integration: Newspapers offer stories and opinions to readers that may form the basis of conversations with others (offered the opportunity for privacy in crowded social situations with strangers, such as on a train. Reading news and opinion about society, politics, sport and culture may help audiences feel more strongly that they are members of a common culture.)

Entertainment:punning headlines, in cartoons, or in comedic opinion pieces

Surveillance: Newspapers offer a range of information: hard news stories, interpretive articles, opinion pieces that can demonstrate a range of opinions in play about current affairs, celebrity and entertainment news and gossip, sports news and opinion, cultural reviews, and lifestyle advice and information. 

Active/passive audiences:Traditionally, the audience for a newspaper was primarily passive – they could choose which newspapers to buy and could write to the editor but would otherwise have to accept what they were given. Online newspapers cultivate a far more active audience, but still retain the editorial supremacy of the newspaper itself (E.G e Observer website has no user generated content; the audience are limited to responding to the journalists’ output.)