Blog tasks: The Times case study - Audience and Industries

 Audience


1) What is the main readership demographic for The Times newspaper? Add as much detail as you can.

The main reader the Times target audience is older with over half the audience aged 55+. In terms of social class, they are overwhelmingly in the ABC1 social classes - 62% from social group AB. This means Times readers are likely to be professionals, managers or company owners


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?

 This suggested through the lack of picture and images shown .

3) Times readers are mostly over 55 years old. Why is this and how is this reflected or challenged by the new stories in the CSP pages we have studied?  This reflected as most  people  who read newspapers are educated and as you don't  expect young people o read grammys


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.

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. 


Industries


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


The Times is owned by News UK (a subsidiary of News Corporation). News Corporation is a conglomerate mostly owned by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian media mogul with many business interests worldwide such as the Fox network in the USA.  


2) What was the The Times's circulation in 2019? How many papers did the Times used to sell back in the 1990s? 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?

Moved towards a multi-platform landscape. This means that it publishes and synchronises across its print, desktop and mobile platforms. Some newspapers (e.g. The Times) have a paywall on their online content. The Times has had a hard paywall since 2010, but it often experiments with making content available for free. Last summer, it began free registrations and has been adding around 30,000 a week.

Created a social media strategy in collaboration with the digital team to drive growth of their Twitter and Facebook profiles. 

In 2018, Times and Sunday Times 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? 

Independent Press Standards Organisation


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