The Times - Audience and Industries

 Audience


1) What are the main audience demographics for The Times newspaper? Add as much detail as you can.

Class- Upper class

Age- Middle aged/older

Education- Advanced

Ethnicity- White

2) What aspects of the front page of the Times CSP edition suggest that their readers are likely to be more educated and interested in hard news rather than entertainment?

The Times uses a more organised structure of writing, using less images than the Daily Mirror to look more sophisticated than them. The Times also covers more Hard news such as politics rather than more entertainment based stories. This tells us that their audience likes this type of structure since the number of readers is increasing/ the same.

3) Times readers are mostly over 55 years old. Why is this and how is this reflected or challenged by the design and news stories in the CSP pages we have studied?  

The Times' readers are mainly 55 years old due to todays society and how we don't read newspapers now compared to older people who read it daily. However the Times' design will challenge their older audience because the newspaper uses more smaller writing, making the older audience unable to read the newspaper to a good standard, possibly decreasing the number of readers in addition to their low amount now.

4) What are the main audience pleasures offered by the Times? Use Blumler & Katz Uses and Gratifications theory.

Surveillance/Information- The main reason we read newspapers is to find out what is going on in the world around us.  News, different opinions, information about current affairs. This includes British politics and Britain's place in world politics and economics (patriotic). The Times focuses on hard news that we expect from a broadsheet newspaper - politics, economics, world news etc.

Diversion/Entertainment- One of the main reasons we read newspapers is for entertainment. The Times has evolved over recent years to contain more stories that provide entertainment or diversion. It also targets people with disposable income and an interest in culture/status and how they are perceived. 

Personal Identity - A Daily Mirror reader will probably think very differently from a Times reader. Even if a reader does not always agree with a viewpoint the newspaper puts forward, they may still be agreeing with the values being shared. The Times newspaper seems to endorse the Conservative party and show their strong affiliation with the political party by the way stories are constructed. The way businesses are represented also shows the Times values private companies over working class people. 

5) Why might a reader enjoy this CSP edition of the Times? Use Blumler & Katz Uses and Gratifications theory categories and write as detailed an analysis as you can.

The Times not only support the same political party (Conservative) buy they are a more sophisticated newspaper compared to the Daily Mirror and also provide more serious news which some people may like and are interested in.


Industries


1) Who owns the Times? Write the name of the company AND the billionaire who owns the company.

It is owned by NEWS UK and the billionaire who owns the company is Rupert Murdoch

2) What was the The Times's circulation in 2019? How many papers did the Times used to sell back in the 1990s? You can find all of these statistics in the blogpost above.

The Times circulation in 2019 was 376,000, down 12% in a year and much lower than the high point of over 800,000 in the 1990s. 

3) How has the Times reacted to the decline in print sales and the growth of the internet? Watch the two videos above for more on this.

The Times moved towards a multi-platform landscape. This means that it publishes and synchronises across its print, desktop and mobile platforms. They created a social media strategy in collaboration with the digital team to drive growth of their social media profiles. The Times and Sunday Times have hit 500,000 subscribers as digital outnumbered print for first time at an initial cost of £1 per week for a digital subscription.

4) What does IPSO stand for and what is IPSO's job?

It stands for Independent Press Standards Organisation. The IPSO's job is that it regulate 1500 print and 1100 online titles, listens to complaints about press behaviour, helps with unwanted press attention, advises publication editors, provides information to the public and a journalist whistleblowing hotline.

5) Why do some people want stronger regulation of British newspapers? Look at the information above on newspaper regulation to find out more on this.

Some people argue that the newspaper industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself using IPSO and that stronger, statutory regulation should be introduced instead. This would also implement the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry which followed the phone-hacking scandal. People want to feel more safe as having a stronger regulation prevents the invasions of privacy and also to stop publishing false news and misleading stories.

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