Newspaper Macro Analysis

Daniel Gripton

Tabloids & BroadsheetsTabloid•Tabloids tend to be more sensationalist than broadsheets. Meaning that they write articles with very little evidence, or from someone wanting to sell a story about a celebrity. It verges towards being a gossip magazine.•Tabloids tend to be more picture oriented and usually have a colourful masthead, like ‘The Sun’.•However some traditional papers, like the Daily Mail, have undergone refurbishments from broadsheet to tabloid without changing their house style very much.•Tabloids also tend to have many more pictures in them, with puns and jokes written as headlines and captions underneath the pictures.

Broadsheet•A broadsheet tends to be significantly bigger than a tabloid covering topics such as science and world politics as well as entertainment.•A broadsheet tends to be more text based than image, which is due to the audience of the paper who tend to be more intellectual and educated.•A broadsheet has a lot less puns and jokes within, instead focusing on the content of the article and posing more worldly questions about the government.•Broadsheets tend to have traditional script mastheads, such as the Times, but more recently have rebranded themselves to be more modern, like the Guardian.

Express & StarThe newspaper is owned by the Midland News Association, which is an independent local media business that also has products in radio broadcasting. The Express & Star is an evening broadsheet newspaper that is published and distributed in the West Midlands from Monday to Saturday. The editor of the newspaper is currently Adrian Faber. Circulation figures under Adrian Faber have been considerably good, as during the second half of 2009 the newspaper had a circulation of 124, 480. The newspaper is seen as being moderately right wing, meaning that it moves more towards Conservative Party politics, notably having the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, for a work placement.

Target AudienceDue to the amounts of text and guardian-like look of the paper the target audience would be middle class. However the length of the paragraphs indicate that it still appeals to a working class audience as they are tabloid length. The paper widens its audience to the whole of the West Midlands, resulting in a higher circulation. It neither isolates out a high brow audience nor a working class audience. This is because the paper is based in a working class city. The paper also appeals to the local area, with articles about local events and the local football team Wolverhampton Wanderers. The age group of the readership would be around 30+ due to the lack of interest from a younger audience who are more interested in gossip.

Express & Star Ads

The advertisements show that the target audience is obviously going to be older due to the ‘hip replacement’ advertisement. The newspaper also includes local and national advertisements, both for profit and also for the audiences interest. The emphasis on price on the two other adverts indicates that the newspaper doesn’t isolate out its working class audience.

The noun phrase ‘hip replacements’ conveys age, which relates to the generically older target audience

The company is local which targets a local audience

There is an emphasis on price, which targets a working class audience.

Birmingham MailThe newspaper is owned by Trinity Mirror, which is Britain's biggest newspaper group publishing over 240 regional newspapers. The owners also publish recognised national papers like the Daily Mirror and The People. The Birmingham Mail is a tabloid newspaper that is published and distributed around the West Midlands. The editor of the newspaper is David Brookes whose influence has garnered a circulation of 47, 217 in the first half of 2011. The newspaper is neutral when it comes to politics and is populist, meaning that it moves with the general consensus of the public.

Target AudienceDue to the paper being a tabloid it appeals more to a working class audience, who are not as well educated and so are generally less skilled labourers. The paper also appeals to the local area in and around Birmingham, and the articles within reflect it. The news stories are not strictly entertainment based and they aren’t as sensationalist compared to a newspaper like the Sun, but the newspaper does pride itself on looking like a generic tabloid. Therefore the newspaper is primarily targeted at the working class. The audience would also be a bit younger than the Express & Star as it is more gossipy.

Birmingham Mail Ads

The emphasis on price indicates that the newspaper is for a working class audience.

The brand also indicates that the newspaper is aimed at people on the lower socioeconomic scale.

The advertisements are local, thus appealing to the local audience.

The styling of the advertisement, conveys youth which obviously applies to a younger audience.

The use of alcohol indicates an audience older than 18.

There is also an emphasis on price, which appeals more to the working classes.