NEWSPAPERS IN THE UK
Due to the small geographical area of the UK, and the good travel infrastructure, there are
many national newspapers in the UK - unlike the United States, where most newspapers are
printed and published locally. Unlike France, the main national papers are morning
newspapers; indeed, there are no national evening titles.
Traditionally, UK newspapers could be split into the two main categories: broadsheets and
tabloids.
Broadsheets are serious-minded, large size newspapers, like The Daily Telegraph and
Financial Times. However, both The Independent and The Times have switched in recent
years to a compact format. The Guardian switched in September 2005 to what is described
as a "Berliner" format, just slightly larger than a compact.
Sunday broadsheets, including The Sunday Times, which tend to have a large amount of
supplementary sections, have kept their larger size. The national Sunday titles usually have
a different layout and style to their daily sister papers, and are produced by separate
journalistic and editorial staff.
Broadsheets format
Daily
Sunday
The Daily
Telegraph
(est. 1855)
Berliner format
Daily
Sunday
The Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian
The Observer
(est. 1961)
(est. 1821)
(est. 1791)
Switched from
broadsheet to
Berliner size on 12
September 2005.
Switched to Berliner
size on 8 January
2006.
Financial
Times
(est. 1888)
The Sunday Times
(est. 1822)
Sister paper: The Times
Compact format
Daily
Sunday
The Independent (est. 1986)
Independent on Sunday (est. 1990)
Switched from the broadsheet format in May
2004.
The Sunday sister paper of The Independent, it
switched to a compact format in October 2005.
The Times (est. 1785)
Daily compact since November 2004.
Tabloids are less serious, sensationalist newspapers which tend to focus more on celebrity
coverage and human interest stories rather than political reporting or overseas news.
The tabloids in turn have been divided into the more sensationalist mass-market tabloids,
or "red tops", such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror, and the middle-market tabloids, The
Daily Express and The Daily Mail.
“Freesheet” newspapers in urban centres
Metro (est. 1999) is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust plc and is distributed for free.
Wide availability in the major cities makes it the UK's 4th highest circulation paper. The
Metro enjoys high circulation among users of public transport, with newspapers placed on
trains and buses and distributors operating near stations.
Local newspapers in England
Most towns and cities in the UK have at least one local newspaper, such as the Evening
Post in Bristol and The Echo in Cardiff. However, they are not known nationally for their
journalism in the way that city-based newspapers in the USA are (e.g. The New York Times,
The Washington Post, The Boston Globe).
Online
All the major UK newspapers currently have websites, some of which provide free access.
The Times and The Sunday Times have a pay wall which requires payment on a per-day or
per-month basis for non-subscribers. The Financial Times business daily also has limited
access for non-subscribers.
The Production Process
Presses produce newspapers at ever-increasing speeds (86,000 copies per hour for the
largest machines). The introduction of new technology into the production process
streamlined and speeded the operation.
Most-read newspapers in the UK (No. of readers - National Readership Survey)
This shows readership, not sales, and these figures represent total adult readers of
newspapers and supplements from January to December 2010.
1. The Sun
2. The Daily Mail
3. The Daily Mirror
4. Metro
5. The Daily Tel.
6. Daily Star
7. The Times
8. Daily Express
9. The Guardian
10. The Independent
(7,772,000) – Mass-market tabloid
(4,741,000) – Middle-market tabloid
(3,087,000)* – Middle-market tabloid
(3,287,000)
(1,680,000)
(1,571,000)
(1,565,000)
(1,427,000)
(1,103,000)
(532,000)
* The Daily Mirror has a Scottish edition, the Daily Record, which has a further 884,000 readers
Sources:
http://www.mediauk.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom
http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/print-technology
Comprehension questions – UK Newspapers
Indicate whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
There are many national evening papers in the UK.
Some quality papers adopted the compact and Berliner formats because they are more popular.
Middle-market tabloids are more sensationalist than mass-market tabloids.
UK local newspapers are not popular on the national level.
All online versions of UK newspapers provide completely free access.
Answer the following questions.
1. Why are there many national newspapers in the UK?
2. What is the different between broadsheet and tabloid newspaper format?
3. How are UK Sunday titles different from their “sister” daily papers?
4. What makes Metro the 4th highest circulation paper in the UK?
5. Fill in the gaps with the correct newspaper format.
Newspapers in UK
No. of Lessons
Grade
Teachers
Objectives/
Learning Outcomes
Time
5 min
1
2nd Gimnazija
Mojca Fink and Amresh Prakash Torul
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to explain the main
characteristics of British newspapers. They will also gain a solid revision of
vocabulary about newspapers.
Teachers activities
English teacher
Foreign teacher
Introduction:
Introduce the topic and
askstudents what they
know about UK
newspapers.
15 min
Support the explanation
and provide students with
Slovene translations where
necessary.
15 min
10 min
Instructions for handout
Briefly explain to students
what they should do with
the handout. Then move
around the classroom to
help students.
Feedback
Check the answers with
students.
Write down notes on the
board.
PowerPoint
Present the content of the
PowerPoint slides
prepared for the lesson.
Move around the
classroom to help
students.
Feedback/Correction
Write down answers on the
board.
Student activities
Follow introduction and
participate in the short
discussion.
Watch the presentation and
take notes if/when necessary.
Work on handout
Correct handouts and take
additional notes.
Correct answers and take
notes.
Evaluation
Right from the start, students had the tendency to compare UK newspapers to their Slovenian
counterparts. Most of them recognised the fact that Zurnal 24 is a Slovene equivalent of Metro in the
UK. They also showed evidence of critical thinking by suggesting reasons explaining the popularity of
this type of newspaper. The PowerPoint presentation gave the students an overview of the content
covered in the handout. It was pleasing to see students taking it seriously and even pointing out some
irregularities in the statistics shown by one slide. When dealing with key words about newspapers,
they were comfortable and used the correct words most of the time. They did not have too many
difficulties in answering the questions in the handout.