How The British Are Defined By Their Newspapers

Nothing quite defines people more so than their daily newspapers.

British daily newspapers have, for decades, played a large part in British culture where they have gone on to define their readers intellect, political bias and social standing.

Britain's free press has also meant that it’s daily newspapers illicit a large part of the British people's psyche, by using it's owners political or intellectual bias as a way of influencing the thinking of their readers.

Many Britons aren’t even aware that their daily read is in fact aimed towards a certain group or genre of people, considering that their choice of newspaper is a totally personal matter of taste, which of course it is to a certain degree, but the choosing has been garnered by carefully crafted, mass manipulation rather than design.

The choice of daily newspapers have over time also garnered a type of inverted snobbery among their readers, with different newspapers being aimed at different classes of the population, such as academics, businessmen, the middle classes, the working man and the lower classes.

The readers of these different newspapers consider their choice of reading matter as a social statement to others, with the often retorted ' you wouldn’t catch me reading that ' type of attitude aimed at any newspaper that has the nerve to hold a different political or intellectual view to that of their own!

BRITISH NEWSPAPER FACTS

Britain's first official daily newspaper was the ‘London Gazette’, which was originally known as the ‘Oxford Gazette’ and published on the 7th of November 1665.

The World's first ever illustrated newspaper was the ‘Illustrated London News’, which was published in 1842 which is now classified as the forerunner of the celebrity gossip magazine culture, as it drew it's popularity from publishing illustrated articles about The Royals and well known musical, theatrical and artisitic figures of it's day.

Britiain's top selling newspaper is the mass market tabloid, ‘The Sun’.

Britain's oldest running newspaper is the ‘The Times’ which was first published on the first of January 1785 and originally known as the ‘Daily Universal Register’. 

Britain's largest newspaper group is the The Mirror Group, who publish two hundred and forty regional, five daily and three Sunday newspapers every week.

The Group was originally formed in 1903 with their publication the Daily Mirror, which actually started life as a women only publication.

British newspapers come in three sizes, the broadsheet, the Berliner and the compact.

British newspapers cover four genres, business, quality news, populist tabloid (known as red tops owing to their red, front page, mast head) and dross, which is also known as yellow journalism.

It is due to the above traits that we can define each newspaper’s education, political opinion and social standing of their readers.  

BRITAIN’S VARIOUS DAILY NEWSPAPERS   

Found below is a list of Britain's daily newspapers, along with their political leaning and readership type.   

The Daily Telegraph, first published in 1855, and it's sister paper the Sunday Telegraph, first published in 1961, are politically conservative, centre right, quality news broadsheets aimed at the upper middle classes, academics and business men.

 

The Financial Times, first published in 1888, and the only British newspaper to be printed on pink paper, is a politically centre, but economically liberal, quality news broadsheet aimed at Britain's high flying movers and shakers of the world of business, finance and economics. 

The Guardian, first published in 1821, is a politically left of centre, socially liberal, quality news, Berliner type newspaper aimed at the upper middle and middle classes, academics and businessmen.  


The Metro, first published in 1999, is a free daily tabloid aimed at commuters in and around the UK's main urban centres. This newspaper provides a mix of news and general interest articles and has no political leaning.

The Observer, first published in 1791 and it's sister paper the Sunday Observer, which by the way was the world’s very first Sunday newspaper, are politically left of centre, Labour leaning, liberally social, quality news, Berliner type newspapers aimed at the upper middle and middle classes, academics and businessmen.

The Independent, first issued in 1986 and it's sister paper the Independent On Sunday, first published in 1990, are left of centre, Liberal leaning, quality news, now compact type newspapers which were formerly broadsheets, aimed at the professional middle classes and the educationally superior. 
The Independent and Independent on Sunday became online publications in March, 2016. 

The Times, Britain's oldest newspaper still in circulation since it’s first publication in 1785, and it's sister paper the Sunday Times, which was first published in 1906, are politically centre right, Labour leaning, quality news, compact newspapers, aimed at the upper middle classes, businessmen and the educationally superior.  

The Daily Express, first published in 1900 and it's sister paper the Sunday Express which was first published in 1920, are right wing, wholly conservative leaning, quality news red top populist tabloids aimed at the well educated lower middle classes and working classes.

The Daily Mail, first published in 1896 and it's sister paper the Mail On Sunday, first published in 1982, are right wing, wholly Conservaitve leaning, quality news, red top populist, tabloids aimed at the middle working class and well educated. 

The Daily Mirror, first published in 1903 and it's sister paper the Sunday Mirror, first published in 1915, are both wholly Labour leaning, socialist, red top populist, mass market tabloids, aimed at the average to well educated general working class. 

The Sun, first published in 1964 and it’s sister paper the Sunday Sun, which was first published in 2012, are red top, mass market tabloid, compact type newspapers, aimed at the general working classes of average intellect.

The paper, which seems to have a politically centre right leaning audience but in theory actually leans which ever way the government of the time happen to be.

The Daily Star first published in 1978 is a politically centre leaning, red top populist tabloid aimed at the general working classes of average intellect. 

The Morning Star, first published in 1930, is a communist / socialist leaning, red top tabloid aimed at the middle and working classes of good education with socialist tendencies.

The Daily Sport, first published in 1991 is a sensationalist, yellow journalism, non news tabloid aimed at those that have little or no interest in world news, preferring instead to read ludicrous, but highly comical, non news sensationalism mixed with soft porn, sport and celebrity gossip.