HWK Newspapers Research

Activity 1 – researching the decline in print newspaper circulations

Average Daily Print Circulation for National Newspapers for January 2000, in millions
The Sun	3.6
Daily Mail	2.4
Daily Mirror	2.3
The Daily Telegraph	1.0
Daily Star	0.5
Daily Express	1.1
The Times	0.7
Financial Times	0.4
The Guardian	0.4
The Independent	0.2

The sun now currently has a daily print circulation of 1.3 million, Daily mail 1.2 million, Daily mirror has 0.5 million, Daily telegraph 0.3 million, Daily star 0.3 million, Daily express 0.3 million, The Times 0.4 million, Financial times 0.2 million, The Guardian 0.1 million, the Independent no longer prints.

1.      Which newspaper(s) no longer has print editions?

In March 2016 The Independent stopped print editions of their newspapers. Instead they are fully online newspaper.

2.      Which new national newspapers have been founded?

The I was founded in 2010 was a sister newspaper to the Independent but it was acquired by Johnston Press in 2016. It is a broadsheet. The sun on Sundays was first founded in 2012. It is a Tabloid.

3.      What is the general trend in newspaper circulation?

Newspapers has been in decline there has been a weekday circulation drop off 7% and Sunday circulation has dropped by 4%. 

4.      Which genre of newspaper has had the steepest decline – the red-top tabloids, the middle-market newspapers, or the broadsheets?

Broadsheets have had the steepest circulation decline as tabloids sell more print. However, Broadsheets get more hits on their websites than tabloid newspapers do.

Activity 3 – Concentration of ownership

Newspaper Groups	National Daily Titles Owned	Daily Circulation in millions (percentage of total)
News International	Sun, The Times	2.0 (36%)
Daily Mail and General Trust	Daily Mail	1.3 (23%)
Reach plc	Daily Express, Daily Star, Daily Mirror	1.3 (23%)
Telegraph Group	Daily Telegraph	0.4  (7%)
Johnston Press	i	0.3  (5%)
Nikkei/ Financial Times Ltd	Financial Times	0.2  (4%)
Guardian Media Group	The Guardian	0.1  (2%)

What percentage of daily circulation is owned by the top three owners?

The top three owners News International, Daily Mail and Reach plc sell 82% of the total newspapers sold. This amounts to 4.6 million newspapers daily.

Name the two writers who argue that concentration of ownership decreases quality and choice in newspapers. 

Doyle says that too much concentration of media ownership is dangerous as the media has too much power. Marxists that the big cooperation’s dominant which limits choice. 

This was printed by the sun on Tuesday 16th of October 2016 it is published by the News group Newspapers. This is a tabloid and the intended audience of the sun is both male and female from a C1-E demographic. They appeal to this demographic by having the picture from Team America World Police a film they would recognize. It also has little writing and more pictures on the front to appeal. The title of the article is "how do you solve a problem like Korea", this sets a serious tone as it shows how dangerous Korea is. This danger is emphasized by the sun pointing out the "fury at nuke tests". The picture is of Kim Jung Il from Team America World Police. This portrays the North Koreans as being stupid and a joke. It also portrays them in negative light. This front cover overall portrays the North Koreans in a negative light and nuclear weapons in a negative light.