Voracious Newspaper Readers

   The British are the most voracious newspaper readers in the world. They read newspapers at breakfast; they walk to the bus reading a newspaper; they read a newspaper on the bus, as they go to work; and on the way back home, after work, they are engrossed in an evening newspaper.

   There are many “morning papers”, both national and provincial. The most famous is The Times. Contrary to what many foreigners believe, this is not a government newspaper. The various newspapers usually have their own views on politics, but they are not organs of the political parties, with the exception of the Communist Morning Star.

Bold headlines and a variety of photographs are features of the British press. Some newspapers, such as the sober Daily Telegraph4 and The Times (which belong to the " quality press") use photographs sparingly. The more "popular" newspapers, using the small or "tabloid" format, such as the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and The Sun, use pictures extensively and also run strip-cartoons and humorous drawings, some of which present striking pictorial comment on politics.

Besides offering features common to newspapers all over the world, British newspapers     specialize in pages devoted to criticism of the arts and a woman's page. One feature found in many foreign newspapers is missing in British papers: the serial.

Nearly all papers pay special attention to the reporting of sport and athletics. The evening newspapers (the first editions of which appear in the morning!) are often bought because the purchaser wants to know the winner of a race, or to get a good tip for a race that is still to be run.

There is no censorship of the press in Britain (except in wartime), though of course all newspapers like private persons are responsible for what they publish, and be sued for libel for publishing articles that go beyond the bounds of decency, or for "contempt for court" (e. g. calling man a murderer while he is still being tried). Such lawsuits are infrequent.

The population of the United Kingdom is now over 55,000,000. About 17,500,000 newspapers are sold every day. The British people, therefore, are great readers of newspapers. There are few homes to which one newspaper is not delivered every morning.  Many households have two, or even three, newspapers every day. One newspaper may be delivered at the house, a member of the family may buy one at the station bookstall to read in the train as he goes to town, and someone else in the family may buy an evening newspaper later in the day.

If you ask an Englishman about the Press in his country, he will almost certainly begin talking about the morning daily and Sunday “national newspapers”, all of which now have their head offices in London. Later, almost as an afterthought, he may go on to talk about the provincial morning dailies, the London and provincial evening papers, and finally the weekly local papers. The leading position of the national daily papers is due to the smallness of the country, with every large town in England and Wales able to be reached by train in less than five hours from London. A paper printed in London around midnight can be at any breakfast table in England the next morning, except in remote country districts. All over the country, most people read the same newspapers and the leading position of the London papers may reflect a lack of regional identity.

The national dailies are generally classed as either “quality”（The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph）or “popular”. The “quality” papers give more comprehensive coverage of all aspects of news, while the “popular” papers aim for a more general readership, they also cost less. The number of newspapers sold, in relation to the population is higher in Britain than in any other country except Sweden.

The Times (circulation approximately 380,000) is the most famous of all British newspapers. It was the last of the papers to put news, instead of advertisements, on its front page. It made this change in the middle 1960s, when its circulation was still below 300,000, and it was losing money. In 1976 it was taken over by the Thomson group, though its editorial independence was guaranteed. Its leading articles give the opinion of its editorial staff, not those of the owners of the paper. It became much less austere than before, and increased its circulation rapidly.

Politically The Times is independent, though it is traditionally inclined to be more sympathetic to the Conservative Party. It is not an organ of the Government, though sometimes its leading articles may be written after private consultation with people in, for example, the Foreign Office. It has a reputation for extreme caution in its attitudes and this reputation is on the whole deserved.

The Guardian (circulation approximately 473,000) was called Manchester Guardian until 1959, and the change in its name indicates its success in becoming more and more a truly national paper rather than one specially connected with Manchester. Later it moves its base to London. In quality, style and reporting it is equal with The Times; in politics it is perhaps best described as “radical”. It is favorable to the Liberal Party and tends to be rather closer in sympathy to the Labour Party the to the Conservatives. It has made great progress during the past fifteen years, particularly among intelligent people who find The Times too uncritical of established interests.

Daily Telegraph (circulation approximately 1,200,000) is theoretically independent, but in practice very close to being an organ of the Conservative Party. Well produced and edited and full of real information, it deserves to be considered as belong to the same class of journalism as The Times and The Guardian. It contains much more reading matter than the popular. Its circulation is nearly 1.5 times as great as that of The Times and The Guardian together; this may be partly because its price is lower.