2021
VALUE OF NEWSPAPER COMPANIES SHRINKING
Guardian. A large number of regional papers, many priced not long ago at higher than the combined sale price of £10m, have been bought by a new group. Reach rejected a £50m deal in 2019, deciding instead to launch online-only rivals like Belfast Live and Edinburgh Live. Johnston Press had paid £570m for the Yorkshire Post and other regional papers in 2002, plus £160m for The Scotsman group in 2005. A deal nearly as bad as Murdoch's billion dollar purchase of MySpace (sold for $1!).
2020
Guardian approaches 1 million subscribers. Dec 2020.
KEY POINTS/THEMES/ISSUES:
DIGITISATION, DISRUPTION, CONVERGENCE; CIRCULATION DECLINE + AD MIGRATION:
KEY THEORIES TO APPLY:
CONVERGENCE/DISRUPTION/WEB 2.0:
GLOBALISATION:
CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP:
TABLOIDISATION:
RESOURCES FOR INDEPENDENT READING/RESEARCH:
EDUQUAS hub for student resources; lots of great stuff including sample analyses and theory guides.
BBC revision guide.
Guardian terminology guide.
Quizlet flashcards.
AQA key terms.
A linguistics (like English) guide - advanced terms, but a short feature overall.
AGENDA-SETTING long article (you could pick a detail/quote from it) showing how despite circulation decline the press continues to set the news agenda followed by the broadcast media. This is especially true of the right-wing press.
Wilby: New Statesman on the history of the press, and its failures in the online age.
Journalism.org US-centred 2018 factsheet on the newspaper industry.
MediaKnowItAll - nice, graphically presented intro to key parts of analysing a front page.
Regional newspapers (ScotsLaw) - gives you an idea of the range of non-national papers
MagForum - its an out-of-date site, but still full of great info. If you're unsure about what's out of date you can check with me
Euromyths - how the Mail etc consistently flouted Editors' Code Clause 1 (Accuracy)
Roy Greenslade: do newspapers have a future? 2 clever uses of ads could help...
Great article, lots of useful detail:
THE DIGITAL DISRUPTORS ARE ALSO STRUGGLING TO MAKE AD-FUNDING WORK
As mentioned in the Greenslade article above, new media sites like Buzzfeed that are partly responsible for the press industry's huge loss of younger readers, are struggling to get enough revenue to survive. They also find it hard to make enough from ad revenues.
FRONT PAGES + POLITICAL BIAS ON PM MAY'S BREXIT VOTE
Nice example of the left-/right-wing bias coming through. Broadly speaking the right-wing papers support Brexit and are very hostile to the EU, but left-wing papers don't think Brexit should happen and are quite pro-EU. PM (Prime Minister) May is a Tory (Conservative), so she tends to get positive coverage in the right-wing papers, and negative in the left-wing press.
EXAMPLE OF LEFT-WING PRESS HOSTILITY TO PM MAY
This cartoon is by The Guardian's Steve Bell. He also portrays Jeremy Corbyn as a crazy old man - Corbyn is left-wing but too left-wing as far as the Guardian is concerned!
DAILY MAIL LABELLED FAKE NEWS
'Visitors to Mail Online who use Microsoft Edge can now see a statement asserting that “this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability” and “has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases”.
The message, which is produced by a third-party startup called NewsGuard, tells readers to proceed carefully given that “the site regularly publishes content that has damaged reputations, caused widespread alarm, or constituted harassment or invasion of privacy”.
It gives Mail Online, one of the world’s biggest news websites, one out of five on credibility – the same level as the Kremlin-backed RT news service.'
By the way, if you see someone described as 'red' its a right-wing way of attacking left-wing politicians (in this case a union leader). Think of the old USSR flag (it was red!).
Part of the criticism of the Mail website is that they 'farm' news - most of their online 'reporters' basically steal reportage from other sources + re-write it. There have been scandals across Europe recently about such plagiarism (copying from other sources without saying so); trust in the media is very important in a democracy.
MURDOCH ASKS GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW HIM TO INFLUENCE SUNDAY TIMES
- TIMES MADE £10m PROFIT IN 2018
- BUT NEWS UK MADE £90m LOSS!
That may seem a strange idea - he owns it, and the paper clearly reflects his personal right-wing views (it wasn't so right-wing before he bought it). But to be allowed to buy BOTH the Times AND Sunday Times he had to agree to legally guarantee he wouldn't interfere with the 'editorial independence' of the paper. Editorial has 2 meanings: news content (as opposed to columns and opinion pieces) but also, confusingly, the daily column in which a newspaper gives its views on issues (the editorial; news content is all editorial).
At the moment the Sunday Times is run as a separate paper with its own editor and staff. Murdoch argues the tough conditions in the press market means he should be allowed to make job cuts by sharing the staff on the 2 papers.
'Last week, the publisher of the Times and Sunday Times revealed a pre-tax profit of £9.6m in the year to 1 July 2018, up from a loss of £6.5m a year earlier, in its most recent publicly available filing. Turnover was up 2% year on year.
The subsidiary that publishes the Sun and Sun on Sunday revealed that its pre-tax losses more than tripled year on year to £91.2m for the same period. Turnover fell 5%.
News UK said total advertising revenue for the year increased for the first time in seven years, with continuing declines in print more than offset by growth in digital advertising.
Murdoch moved to buy the Times titles following his 1968 move into the British newspaper market, beating Robert Maxwell to buy the News of the World, the UK’s highest selling newspaper, and a year later the ailing Sun, which he reinvented.'
SAMPLE EXAM-STYLE QUESTIONS:
LESSON MATERIALS:
2020
Guardian approaches 1 million subscribers. Dec 2020.
BASIC DESCRIPTION:
KEY POINTS/THEMES/ISSUES:
DIGITISATION, DISRUPTION, CONVERGENCE; CIRCULATION DECLINE + AD MIGRATION:
KEY THEORIES TO APPLY:
CONVERGENCE/DISRUPTION/WEB 2.0:
GLOBALISATION:
CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP:
TABLOIDISATION:
RESOURCES FOR INDEPENDENT READING/RESEARCH:
EDUQUAS hub for student resources; lots of great stuff including sample analyses and theory guides.
BBC revision guide.
Guardian terminology guide.
Quizlet flashcards.
AQA key terms.
A linguistics (like English) guide - advanced terms, but a short feature overall.
AGENDA-SETTING long article (you could pick a detail/quote from it) showing how despite circulation decline the press continues to set the news agenda followed by the broadcast media. This is especially true of the right-wing press.
Wilby: New Statesman on the history of the press, and its failures in the online age.
Journalism.org US-centred 2018 factsheet on the newspaper industry.
DB NB: The trends playing out in Britain are accelerated in the US, which offers a good picture of how things will develop for the UK press industry.MediaReg - my blog specifically on media regulation, with lots of detail on IPSO and its predecessor the PCC (press regulators) and other aspects of the industry.
MediaKnowItAll - nice, graphically presented intro to key parts of analysing a front page.
Regional newspapers (ScotsLaw) - gives you an idea of the range of non-national papers
MagForum - its an out-of-date site, but still full of great info. If you're unsure about what's out of date you can check with me
Euromyths - how the Mail etc consistently flouted Editors' Code Clause 1 (Accuracy)
Roy Greenslade: do newspapers have a future? 2 clever uses of ads could help...
Great article, lots of useful detail:
- there are 3 dominant owners in the REGIONAL UK press (JPI Media: 200+ papers including the i; Newsquest 165, Reach 260). Note that Reach is 1 of these 3!! It 'is trading profitably but regularly closes or merges titles'. Like the Indie going online only, this is 1 sign of the industry's struggles.
- Newspapers produce more news than radio/TV/web combined: 'When the government’s review into the sustainability of high-quality journalism was launched last year, it was claimed that newspapers produced more original journalism than broadcasters and websites combined.'
- the digital disruptors, non-newspapers, are having the same problem as papers in making ad-funding work: 'BuzzFeed is to cut 15% of its staff, while Verizon Media is seeking 7% cutbacks at newsrooms such as Huffington Post, AOL and Yahoo.'
- 'Rowly Bourne, co-founder of a startup called Rezonence, believes he can persuade advertisers to pay a sensible amount for their ads by providing them with proof that the ads have been read and understood. ... He argues that publishers are making as little as 50p per reader per year from digital ads. ... “I believe there is a better way,” he says. “Instead of a paywall, we call it a freewall. It’s a simple cost-per-engagement mechanism in which readers are presented with a single advertisement. In order to read the full article, they are required to answer a relatively simple question below the ad. This proves to the advertiser that the readers have paid attention to their brand.” ... According to his company’s own estimates, freewall access to a site by, say, 10 million users would produce more than £10 per reader. By contrast, it is doubtful if paywalls produce 60p per reader.'
- 'Dominic Young, founder of a startup called Agate, believes he can persuade readers to pay for access to newspaper and magazine content ... ' His idea is for micro-payments. 'He has developed a method aimed at encouraging readers to make payments into an online wallet. They pre-pay an amount into the wallet, which gives them access to a range of outlets, and the price of each article is deducted by the publisher. Each site can charge as much or as little as it thinks appropriate. When the wallet is empty, the reader can top it up.'
THE DIGITAL DISRUPTORS ARE ALSO STRUGGLING TO MAKE AD-FUNDING WORK
As mentioned in the Greenslade article above, new media sites like Buzzfeed that are partly responsible for the press industry's huge loss of younger readers, are struggling to get enough revenue to survive. They also find it hard to make enough from ad revenues.
Nice example of the left-/right-wing bias coming through. Broadly speaking the right-wing papers support Brexit and are very hostile to the EU, but left-wing papers don't think Brexit should happen and are quite pro-EU. PM (Prime Minister) May is a Tory (Conservative), so she tends to get positive coverage in the right-wing papers, and negative in the left-wing press.
This cartoon is by The Guardian's Steve Bell. He also portrays Jeremy Corbyn as a crazy old man - Corbyn is left-wing but too left-wing as far as the Guardian is concerned!
'Visitors to Mail Online who use Microsoft Edge can now see a statement asserting that “this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability” and “has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases”.
The message, which is produced by a third-party startup called NewsGuard, tells readers to proceed carefully given that “the site regularly publishes content that has damaged reputations, caused widespread alarm, or constituted harassment or invasion of privacy”.
It gives Mail Online, one of the world’s biggest news websites, one out of five on credibility – the same level as the Kremlin-backed RT news service.'
Part of the criticism of the Mail website is that they 'farm' news - most of their online 'reporters' basically steal reportage from other sources + re-write it. There have been scandals across Europe recently about such plagiarism (copying from other sources without saying so); trust in the media is very important in a democracy.
MURDOCH ASKS GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW HIM TO INFLUENCE SUNDAY TIMES
- TIMES MADE £10m PROFIT IN 2018
- BUT NEWS UK MADE £90m LOSS!
That may seem a strange idea - he owns it, and the paper clearly reflects his personal right-wing views (it wasn't so right-wing before he bought it). But to be allowed to buy BOTH the Times AND Sunday Times he had to agree to legally guarantee he wouldn't interfere with the 'editorial independence' of the paper. Editorial has 2 meanings: news content (as opposed to columns and opinion pieces) but also, confusingly, the daily column in which a newspaper gives its views on issues (the editorial; news content is all editorial).At the moment the Sunday Times is run as a separate paper with its own editor and staff. Murdoch argues the tough conditions in the press market means he should be allowed to make job cuts by sharing the staff on the 2 papers.
'Last week, the publisher of the Times and Sunday Times revealed a pre-tax profit of £9.6m in the year to 1 July 2018, up from a loss of £6.5m a year earlier, in its most recent publicly available filing. Turnover was up 2% year on year.
The subsidiary that publishes the Sun and Sun on Sunday revealed that its pre-tax losses more than tripled year on year to £91.2m for the same period. Turnover fell 5%.
News UK said total advertising revenue for the year increased for the first time in seven years, with continuing declines in print more than offset by growth in digital advertising.
Murdoch moved to buy the Times titles following his 1968 move into the British newspaper market, beating Robert Maxwell to buy the News of the World, the UK’s highest selling newspaper, and a year later the ailing Sun, which he reinvented.'
SAMPLE EXAM-STYLE QUESTIONS:
LESSON MATERIALS:
