Wandering Yellow
Well-known member
- Joined
- 10 Aug 2019
- Messages
- 5,594
Would you agree the influence of print-media is diminishing though? I can't imagine as we get older my generation are suddenly going to become interested in these publications. The way people consume news is changing even if it's a slower process than I initially thought.Journalist, author and former commercial magazine publisher going back some 16 years here. Started at EMAP publishing before the buyout by Bauer Media, and also spent a couple of years with Future as well as a year writing about football for several broadsheets as well as the PA.
Print newspapers are still the bread and butter of many people over 40, and especially those over 50 and 60, and the older you get the more likely you are to vote. This is the same for magazines - the ones that still exist and sell lots of copies do so because their audience is 40+. Overall, people aged 50+ tend to believe what is written in print and don’t spend much time online or on social media being exposed to other opinions and points of view, and therefore there are limited opportunities to debunk anything thrown at them. Their social networks (primarily Facebook) are built around people they know and groups focusing on their local area / neighbourhood. The only thing they see outside of posts relating to these people or groups are adverts that are paid for and targeted to their timelines. Which is a road we’ve all been down before.
Every PM (and wannabe PM’s in some cases) meets the editors and key journalists of these papers on a regular basis. They do not do this because there is no reason to. Even dear Boris took a private jet from Glasgow to London last month (during COP, hilariously) to have a meeting with journalists from the papers. This is a matter of fact and not speculation. Why did he do that if nobody reads them and they have no power or influence? These people control whether or not the Prime Minister keeps their job. One co-ordinated blast of negativity and ‘scandal’ and they can be toppled. The Sun has backed the winning horse in every election going back to the 80s. That’s a heck of a record if they’re just guessing.
Of the commercial UK daily newspapers, the top titles in terms of distribution and reach are currently:
1. Metro
2. The Sun
3. Daily Mail
4. Evening Standard
5. The Mirror
6. The Times
7. The Telegraph
8. Daily Express
Of these, only The Mirror at 5 is an openly ‘left wing’ paper. Metro is owned by the Daily Mail and general trust. The Sun is an openly Tory / Brexit supporting paper owned by the Murdoch group. The Daily Mail is openly Conservative / right wing. Ditto the Evening Standard (25% owned by the Daily Mail and 63% owned by Evgeny ‘Lord’ Lebedev who was made a Tory peer last year). Ditto The Times. Ditto The Telegraph. Ditto the Daily Express. They openly and freely describe themselves as Conservative, right wing papers. There is no guessing or conspiracy involved in that assumption. So that’s 7 of the top 8 papers that are all Tory linked, with only number 5 sitting on the ‘other side’. These 8 titles make up a good 95% of all newspapers.
Much like the discussion on radio versus streaming, there are two entirely different worlds at play here. You’re wrong to dismiss print media in the way that you do. I would know - it paid for my house and the houses of many people I know. It didn’t do that because it’s irrelevant.
I am pretty amazed that the Guardian isn't even in the top 8 most distributed newspapers, but given the drivel written in there maybe I shouldn't be.