Newspaper Circulation Distribute

Without doubt, the newspaper is the oldest form of communication. Newspapers are almost as old as the printing press itself. Britain’s press can trace its history back more than 300 years.

A newspaper is a Publication containing news and information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. It may be general or special interest, most often published daily or weekly.

“A newspaper is one of the most remarkable products of modern society. To gather news from five continents; to print and distribute it so fast that what happens at dawn in India may be read before breakfast in England; to perform the feat afresh every twenty-four hours; and to sell the product for less than the price of a box of matches–this, were it not so familiar, would be recognised as an astonishing achievement.”- From the report of the Royal Commission on the Press ( 1947- 1949).

Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country: a national newspaper, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city or region. National papers are a mixture of national reputation, geographic reach and breadth of content.

In the United Kingdom, newspapers can be classified by distribution as local or national and by page size as tabloids and broadsheets. The principal newspapers of England are all nationals edited in London. Wales and Northern Ireland are also dominated by the London-based press; in Scotland, although the London-based press is widely available and widely read, two Scottish newspapers can claim quasi-national status: The Scotsman (based in Edinburgh) and the Glasgow Herald.

Because of the small geographical area of the UK, and the good travel infrastructure, there are many national newspapers – the main national papers are morning newspapers

UK nationals newspapers can be grouped into 10 dailies and 12 Sundays, generally grouped into three, rather historical, groups – mass market tabloids, or red-tops (eg The Sun), middle-market tabloids (eg the Daily Mail), and quality broadsheets (eg The Times). Most UK newspapers are now tabloid-sized.

The provincial press (regional and local) contains mainly local news. There are 21 provincial newspapers still published which were founded before 1776. Berrow’s Worcester Journal (around 1690) and the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury (around 1695) are the oldest. These pre-date the surviving national papers, the Times (1785) and the Observer(1791). There are about 1500 regional newspapers in the UK

By 1945 the national newspapers sold almost twice as many copies as the provincials (regional papers).

In 1947 several provincial papers rivalled that of Fleet Street in London. Fleet Street in London had been the centre of the British print industry almost since its origins in the 15th Century; and throughout the 20th Century the street and its newspapers had become dominated by charismatic proprietors and increasingly powerful unions.

Sales continued to rise among all types of newspaper until the early 1950’s, despite post-war restrictions on paper; papers could make good profits from the big demand for advertising space.

Total sales of all national daily newspapers reaches all-time peak of 17 million copies per day, in 1950.

1957 was the peak year for total national sales, before the competition from ITV (Independent Television) advertising began to have a strong effect.

Overall circulation growth, from the 1940s to the 1960s

The next 35 years saw a drop of one-third in sales. Total newspaper sales slumped between 1950 and 2000, a trend that was especially marked on Sundays. The 1951 average daily sales were 16.62 million copies for the national morning press, 30.59 million for the national Sunday press, 2.94 million for the provincial morning, and 6.84 million for the provincial evening. The corresponding figures for 1994 were 13.58 million, 15.84 million, 1.88 million, and 4.50 million (Seymore-Ure).

Seymore-Ure pointed out that the number of provincial morning papers fell between 1945 and 1995 from 29 to 18, with most closures happening in the 1960s. The number of provincial evening papers, by contrast, remained stable, with 76 titles in 1945 and 72 in 1994. (This apparent stability, however, masks the fact that there were 23 new launches during that period offset by 27 closures.)

The following tables show the circulation of national newspapers in

1961, 1966, 1975, 1980 and 1984

The economic framework of the British press changed dramatically between 1980 and 2000. As in many other developed nations, in Britain the most salient qualities of the press’s economic framework are concentrated, international, and cross-media ownership patterns and the increased intensity of economic competition that these factors entail. In addition, newspaper finances are organized on what Independent editor Simon Kelner calls an “uneconomic” basis, largely because of circulation wars. Finally, all newspapers, but particularly the broadsheets, heavily depend on advertising revenues.

In 1980, the industry appeared to be in terminal crisis, and many newspapers appeared unlikely to yield profits in the near future. As of the early 2000s, this was no longer true because newspaper economics were transformed during the 1980s. Fleet Street was traditionally the home of the British press up until the 1980s. Over the years, Fleet Street had acquired a reputation for poor labour relations and had a history of industrial disputes.

Presses were antiquated, resulting in the loss of many newspaper runs. Between 1983 and 1985, for example, there were 60 plate breaks at The Sun’s headquarters in Bouverie Street, where one press had been in use since 1936. For most of the 20th century, Fleet Street had been a microcosm of all that was worst about British industry: pusillanimous management, pig-headed unions, crazy restrictive practices, endless strikes and industrial disruption, and archaic technology.

In 1986 Rupert Murdoch secretly moved his newspaper business overnight to a fortress-like plant in Wapping, east London, sparking a bitter and doomed year-long strike by printers which revolutionised labour relations as well as the newspaper industry. the newspaper industry has been transformed in the last 50 years, most notably since the Wapping revolution in 1986. Nevertheless the phrase “Fleet Street” is still used to refer to the British national press at large. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the name Fleet Street has continued to serve as a shorthand term for the British national press.

The growths of advertising and changes in production have enabled papers to expand enormously in size and to publish in colour. Competition has forced closures but new titles have taken their places and there are roughly the same numbers of titles available now as there were in 1945. (Incidentally, there are also roughly the same numbers of owners).

Seymore-Ure pointed out that the number of provincial morning papers fell between 1945 and 1995 from 29 to 18, with most closures happening in the 1960s. The number of provincial evening papers, by contrast, remained stable, with 76 titles in 1945 and 72 in 1994. (This apparent stability, however, masks the fact that there were 23 new launches during that period offset by 27 closures.)

Trends in national and local newspaper circulation/distribution for the years 1980 to 2002 is shown in Figure 3.1. The long-term trend in the overall volume (circulation and distribution) of newspapers is downwardsTrends in national and local newspaper circulation/distribution over the last 26 years are summarized in Figure 4.1. The total circulation of national newspapers has shown a slow decline and, within the total, the circulation of Sunday newspapers has declined more rapidly than that of daily newspapers.

The newspaper industry survived competition from 20th-century technologies, especially radio and television, but 21st-century developments on the Internet are posing major threats. The survival of the nationals is remarkable in view of the greater choice of alternative media, especially television / video / DVD and the Internet. It shows how they have been able to adapt to changing trends and technology to maintain appeal, both form advertisers and the public.

Newspapers are now going online as well with their own websites and with the ever increasing pressure to reduce waste in the UK and paper and ink cost rising it will not be far off when all newspapers will become electronic only using the internet and e-paper as ways to publish. This rise in costs made one UK media group to publish the UK first online only recognized local newspaper. It was the Southport Reporter and it went online fully in 2000 as an online only publication from day one. This type of local newspaper could spell the move for all local newspapers in the UK to publish only on the internet. Also in the perceived gap left by local newspapers, many of which have closed ‘district’ offices in smaller towns, local news websites are emerging in the form of webforums and blog sites

Newspapers are big business and many national and local dailies and Sunday titles now have websites to support their paper offering the latest news and headlines online. The internet is a great place to keep up to date with your favourite newspaper whether tabloid or broadsheet and as well as reading the latest news you can also enter competitions, take part in discussions and read the classifieds online.

A relatively recent phenomenon in the newspaper industry has been the free morning papers. Free weekly papers are fairly common, supported by advertising.

The United Kingdom possesses one of the most universally respected and widely read national presses. The history of newspapers in the UK is a fascinating story and it is impossible to find comparable sizes with the newspaper press in my country, Cyprus.

The media in Cyprus functions freely and independently without intervention or control by any state authority. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Republic’s constitution. There are no media ownership restrictions in relation to the print media.

Currently there is a relatively developed press with dailies, weeklies and periodicals of varying frequency, expressing a broad spectrum of ideologies and covering a wide variety of subjects

Since the first newspaper was published in 1878, more than 400 newspapers and periodicals have been published mainly in Greek, but also in Turkish, Armenian and English, for (and by) the respective communities and minorities. The development the Cypriot media has shown great progress, with all newspapers having switched to computerisation, and adopting up-to-date printing techniques. However, the small size of the population defines some of the barriers imposed on all the aspects of organisational structure and outcomes of the press.

Since the amendment of the 1989 Press Law makes the accessibility to information on newspaper circulation non–obligatory by the distribution agencies, no official data is available on circulation. Some basic data for press in UK and Cyprus are shown in the table below.