Newspapers

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 394.

In Britain the newspaper industry is often called Fleet Street, the name of the Street in central London where many newspapers used to have their offices. Britain has two kinds of national newspaper: the quality papers and the tabloids. The qualities were also called the broadsheets because they were printed on large pages, but are now often in tabloid size which is half the size of a broadsheet. They report national and international news and are serious in tone. They have editorials which comment on important issues and reflect the political views of the paper's editor. They also contain financial and sports news, features (art­icles), obituaries (life histories of famous people who have just died), listings of television and radio pro­grammes, theatre and cinema shows, a crossword, comic strips, advertisements and the weather fore­cast.

The main quality dailies are The Times and the Daily Telegraph, which support the political right, The Guardian which is on the political left, The Independent and The Financial Times. People choose a paper that reflects their own political opinion. Sunday papers include The Sunday Times, The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. The Sunday and Saturday editions of papers have more pages than the dailies, sup­plements (extra sections) or, for example, motoring and the arts, and a colour magazine.

The tabloids report news in less depth. They concentrate on human-interest stories (stories about people), and often discuss the personal lives of famous people. People who disapprove of the tabloids call them the gutter press. The most popular are The Sun, The Mirror The Express and The Daily Mail. The News of the World, a Sunday tabloid, sells more copies than any other newspaper in Britain.

There are also local papers, many of which are week­lies (published once a week). They contain news of local events and sport, carry advertisements for local businesses, and give details of houses, cars and other items for sale. Some are paid for by the advertisements they contain and are delivered free to people's homes.