Newspapers: Daily Mirror - Audience and Industries

 

Daily Mirror Notes

Audience

The Daily Mirror audience is older with almost half the audience aged 65+. In terms of social class, most are in the C1, C2 DE social classes. They are likely to be in the Struggler, Resigned or Mainstream psychographic groups. 

Active or Passive?

Traditionally, newspapers were seen as more passive. Audiences had to write to the editors to communicate their opinions and views on news content.

With the increase in technology, the Daily Mirror now offers its audience opportunities to engage with the stories on a much more personal level as well as watching video content. The newspaper is speaking directly to the reader and allows them to comment or share their views on social media.  

Blumler & Katz: Uses and Gratifications theory

Surveillance – The main reason we read newspapers is to find out what is going on in the world around us.  We find out news, different opinions and catch up with the latest gossip and scandal. 

Diversion/Entertainment – One of the main reasons we read newspapers is for entertainment.  Whether it’s enjoying reading the opinions of others, reading the cartoons or completing crosswords.  We want to be entertained. 

Personal Identity – The newspaper you read reflects what type of person are.  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 and thus reinforcing their own values.

Becoming an active participant – Increasingly newspapers, especially online editions, encourage audiences to get involved through comments and social media. This contributes to a sense of personal identity for audiences.

Daily Mirror Advertising Campaign

What do these adverts tell us about the target audience and audience pleasures for the Daily Mirror?




Industries

The Daily Mirror is owned by Reach, which used to be called Trinity Mirror. Reach publishes over 240 regional titles in addition to the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror - including our local newspaper website getwestlondon.

The Daily Mirror's circulation has fallen drastically over the years from over 3 million a day in 1990 down to around 200,000 a day now. Recent falls have been due to the rise of the internet which is why the Mirror's audience is much older now.

To combat falling print revenues, the The Daily Mirror has:
  • Created the mirror.co.uk website and social media accounts on all the major sites.
  • The move towards a multi-platform landscape means that it publishes and synchronises across its print, desktop and mobile platforms. The Daily Mirror provides this online content for free. Some newspapers (e.g. The Times) have a paywall on their online content which means that they charge subscription fees to read articles. Free providers make money from advertising but this is usually a very small amount of money.
  • Create news based content that updates regularly, is shared on social media channels, includes a range of video content and encourages audience involvement.
  • Reach's social media strategy backfired when Facebook changed its algorithm to deprioritise news content from sites like the Mirror and its revenue dropped sharply.

Daily Mirror Editor

The Daily Mirror last year announced its editor Alison Phillips will be leaving the newspaper after more budget cuts at Reach. Phillips was the Mirror's first female editor since 1903 and was loved by the staff at the paper. While Phillips was editor, the Mirror ran major investigations including into special advisor Dominic Cummings and Barnard Castle (one of the biggest stories from the first Covid lockdown) and later the Partygate scandal that brought down Prime Minister Boris Johnson.




News Values

Media theorists Galtung and Ruge defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decided that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not. The following list is adapted from their work:
  • Immediacy: Has it happened recently?
  • Familiarity: Is it culturally close to us in Britain?
  • Amplitude: Is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
  • Frequency: Does the event happen fairly regularly?
  • Unambiguity: Is it clear and definite? 
  • Predictability: Did we expect it to happen?
  • Surprise: Is it a rare or unexpected event?
  • Continuity: Has this story already been defined as news?
  • Elite nations and people: Which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
  • Negativity: Is it bad news? Bad news tends to get more focus as it’s more sensational/ attention grabbing. 
  • Balance: The story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

Blog Tasks: Daily Mirror - Audience and Industries

Work through the following questions to complete your work on the Daily Mirror.

Audience

1) What is the Daily Mirror's audience? List the key statistics here.
The Daily Mirror audience is heavily weighted toward older readers, with around 619,000+ readers aged over 55. A significant portion (approx. 66%) is aged 55+. In terms of social class, most are in the C1, C2 DE social classes. They are likely to be in the Struggler, Resigned or Mainstream psychographic groups. 

2) Why do the Mirror stories on the CSP pages appeal to the Daily Mirror audience?
The large text and use of informal language compiled with the heavy usage of non-verbal codes makes the newspaper widely accessible, alluding to a lower middle to working class demographic due to the inclusion of low-brow infotainment diluted with relevant politics.

3) Why might a reader enjoy the Daily Mirror? Use Blumler & Katz Uses and Gratifications theory to add detail to your answer.
A reader might enjoy the Daily Mirror according to the Blumler & Katz theory as they're gratified through surveillance and the flow of new information sourced from the newspaper which helps them find out more about the events currently happening around them. Readers may also be gratified through personal relationships as they may discuss the media with others in order to form new social bonds and relationships.

4) Why are print newspapers generally read by older audiences?
 Print Newspapers are generally read by older audiences as it provides a source of nostalgia for a time where information wasn't as readily available prior to the advancement of the world wide web. It's also dependent on what sources are most readily available to them, some pensioners generally may not be able to afford a phone and therefore rely on newspapers or television as a source of information.

5) How are the CSP pages constructed to appeal to Daily Mirror readers? Think about text and selection of images.
The CSP's utilise a variety of paparazzi shots in order to portray their subject matters in scandalous ways, this is done to intrigue readers by introducing the idea of enigma codes to prompt them to want to 'find out' what's truly going on. There's also a lot of informal language and slang terminology used that the audience may be familiar with which will appeal to the demographic they're targeting.

Industries

1) What company owns the Daily Mirror and why are they struggling?
The Daily Mirror is owned by Reach PLC, the largest commercial national and regional news publisher in the UK.While Reach PLC remains profitable due to cost-cutting, it is considered to be struggling with long-term structural challenges that have led to significant, ongoing restructuring and job cuts 

2) Who was the Daily Mirror editor between 2018 and 2024 and what was the Partygate scandal that the Daily Mirror exposed?  
The Daily Mirror's editor between 2018-2024 was Alison Phillips who left the newspaper after more budget cuts at Reach. The Partygate scandal was a piece of journalism done by the Daily mirror which brought down Boris Johnson during covid when he was exposed partying without a mask with other notable figures after imploring everyone to retain covid measures during lockdown.

3) What is the Daily Mirror's circulation? How many papers did the Daily Mirror used to sell back in the 1990s?
The Daily Mirror's circulation has fallen drastically over the years from over 3 million a day in 1990 down to around 200,000.

4) How has the Daily Mirror reacted to the decline in print sales and the growth of the internet?
In response to the decline in print sales and the growth of the internet, the Daily Mirror has created the mirror.co.uk website and social media accounts on all major sites, it's also created new based content and regularly updates on all platforms.

5) List five of Galtung & Ruge's News Values and explain how they link to the stories in our CSP edition of the Daily Mirror.
Immediacy : The stripping of andrew's titles
Familiarity : Based on the British royal family which resonates closely with the targeted audience.
Amplitude: Partygate was a huge scandal which exposed the hypocrisy in the British government.
Surprise : It was unexpected seeing such a blatant display of ignorance by Boris Johnsson. 
Elite Nations and People: The mention of the queen, andrew and Boris Johnsson who are all key figures in britsh politics and cultural history. 

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