Papers and politics

None of the big national newspapers “belong” to a political party, However, each paper has an idea of what kind of reader it is appealing to and a fairly predictable political outlook. Each can therefore be seen, rather simplistically, as occupying a certain position on the right-left spectrum.

As you can see, the right seems to be heavily overrepresented in the national press. This is not because such a large majority of British people hold right-wing views. It is partly because the press tends to be owned by Conservative party supporters. In any case, a large number of readers are not very interested in the political coverage of a paper. They buy it for the sport, or the human interest stories, or for some other reason.

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The Daily Staff

The organisation of most newspaper publishing businesses has changed considerably in recent years. Many jobs that used to be done by hand are now done by machine, and there has been considerable unrest because a lot of production workers have been made redundant. But the new technology cannot gather the news or write the articles so the main responsibilities of the journalistic staff remain the same.

Most newspapers are privately owned. The proprietor is the person who owns the paper but in general the person who decides what should be printed every day is the editor, an employee. He may write the main article, the editorial, himself, but he has leader writers who specialise in writing this kind of article to help him. The most famous newspapers in the world have resident correspondents in different countries whose responsibility is to keep readers informed of what is going on there. If you see an article that has been sent from abroad, it is usually signed by the correspondent or headed “from our own correspondent”.

Sub-editorsare not the Editor’s personal assistants but people whose job is to cut and edit articles so they will fit into the space available. It is also a sub-editor’s job to write the headlines. If you read an article where the headline contradicts the text, it means that the sub-editor did not read it carefully enough.

Newspapers also employ a number of other editors who are in charge of different sections that appear regularly. The Features Editor, for example, commissions articles from experts on subjects of general interest. These are often written by freelance journalists, journalists who work for themselves and sell their stories to the highest bidder. The Sports Editor is the person who decides which sporting events interest the public most and sends reporters to report on them.

Finally, there are the people who provide the entertainment in newspapers. There are cartoonists who draw political cartoons based on the day’s news and others who draw comic strips. Gossip columnists are employed to interview film stars, pop stars and those strange people who have nothing else to do but go to parties and whose main interest seems to be to have their picture taken sitting next to someone famous. Curiously enough, the person whose work contributes most to the financial success of the newspaper is not a journalist at all. A successful newspaper relies on advertisements to pay three-quarters of its production costs. So the advertising manager becomes vitally important. Of course this is a simplification. People buy a newspaper because they like the way it presents the news and advertisers place advertisements to reach the public they are aiming at. The circulation manager is the person who must ensure that the readership figures are high so that the advertising manager will be able to attract advertisements.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1871