Newspapers: Ownership & Audience

INDUSTRY+ AUDIENCE FACTS

Tabloid (Red Top, popular press): Sensationalist, gossip and scandals, patriotic, concerned with national 'British' issues 

Broadsheet: Educated, middle to upper class, serious news, politics, more likely to have informed opinions and an open mind, international and not just national issues

Middle Market: Conservative, traditional 2.4 children, Pro-Brexit, anti-immigration, white and older age bracket, upper working to lower middle class, concerned with national 'British' issues

Key terminology

A large business corporation that is comprised of a range of different parts or smaller businesses	Conglomerate
This is when a Media Company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution.	Vertical integration
This literally means ‘to work together’ and is where one form of media product ‘cross sells’ another form of media product to their mutual advantage of increasing sales/audiences.	Convergence
This means  that there is a diversity of viewpoints available and consumed across and within the media industries and prevents any one media owner or voice having too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda.	Plurality
This is the process of how the media product gets to its audience after production	Distribution
This is when a sector of the media industry such as newspapers is dominated by one or a small number of large organisations.	Monopoly
This is where a media company tries to maximise its power and profit by combining elements of its business into a more concentrated and more effective model.	Consolidation/ synergy
This is the process of a company expanding its media production in the same area of media. For example, one newspaper company buying another newspaper company. This can happen by internal expansion, merger or takeover and can lead to a monopoly.	Horizontal integration
This is where two or more companies, usually of similar size, combine to form a larger single company.	Merger
This is where a larger company buys a smaller company	Takeover
This is the combination of different areas of the media coming together to maximise profit	Synergy

1. Trinity Mirror plc is the largest British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher after purchasing rival Local World for £220 million, in October 2015. It is Britain's biggest newspaper group, publishing 240 regional papers as well as the national Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, and the Scottish Sunday Mail and Daily Record. Since purchasing Local World, it has gained 83 print publications.
Consolidation; Takeover; horizontal integration

2. News UK is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch. It is the current publisher of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and The Sun on Sunday newspapers as well as the Times Literary Supplement and Times Educational Supplement. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc.
Conglomerate; horizontal integration; monopoly

3. Trinity Mirror, the UK’s largest local newspaper group and publisher of the Daily Mirror, is eyeing further consolidation, as the industry races to tackle the long-term decline of print publishing. “We see ourselves as a consolidator in the newspaper industry and will continue to do so subject to tight financial returns,” said chief executive Simon Fox, as the group reported like-for-like print advertising revenues fell 18 per cent in 2016. Trinity is in early stage talks with Northern & Shell, the parent company of the Express newspaper titles and OK Magazine, which could lead to it taking a stake in some of the Richard Desmond-owned assets. The move is part of a wider shake-up in the UK newspaper industry, as media owners face steep drops in print advertising combined with the existential threat from digital groups like Google and Facebook, who are taking the vast majority of new digital advertising revenues.

Convergence;

Ownership and Control

Explain how ownership shapes media products. Refer to EITHER The Daily Mirror OR The Times to support your points                                                                                                                         (12 marks)

• Key relevant facts about newspaper ownership
• The impact of technological change and vertical integration
• The impact of ownership on content and how different audiences respond
• Relevant theory to support points (Hesmondhalgh, Curran and Seaton, Hall, etc)

Ownership = news agenda
News UK (Rupert Murdoch)- The Sun, The Times, The Financial Times...
Daily Mail group, Northern& Shell...

political bias

Ownership affects media products as it directly affects the news agenda due to gatekeeping. The people in charge of media products like newspapers will decide what headlines make the front cover depending on their own perception of news values.

Digital online websites: Audience research

The Times: Times+ subscription - paywall (subscription to continue reading £1 a week for 8 weeks)

attempt to personalise content (how do you like to read the news? 3 mediums are technological advances i.e. phone, computer, tablet; which sections do you read first?) 

e.g. Digital pack- Ultimate pack £10 per week 

• An ultimate pack includes all of the digital pack (full website access and smartphone+ tablet app) and The Sunday Times, The Times mon-sat

Advertising on the background

The Mirror: "Advertisement"- "promoted stories"- "sponsored"- reason why The Mirror is more accessible as there are numerous ads that allow the newspaper to monetise its website.

Jenkins' Fandom and Shirky's End of Audience theories: The Mirror's newspaper website offer opportunities and encourage audiences to respond to it, by including sharing links to various social media, as well as encouragement to like the newspaper's pages on Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, there are comments sections so that the audience formulate their own opinions. Even though The Times doesn't contain comment sections or sharing links, they do utilize pop-up notifications to encourage audiences to subscribe to the newspaper just like The Mirror encourages viewers to subscribe to the newsletters.

Hall's Reception theory: The dominant messages differ in the two websites. Encoding allows the audience to decipher The Times' more serious tone, conveyed by the headlines and advertisements, and The Mirror's more sensationalist focus.

Negotiated and oppositional readings?