The British Press

The British press consists of several different kinds of newspapers.

The national papers are the ones sold all over the country, with a large readership or "circulation", giving general news; they are produced in the capital city, London. In recent years, the circulation of the national newspapers has gone down. Some papers had to close because they weren't making enough money — either from the sale of the paper or from the advertising in it. Some newspapers have started up in the last thirty years, for instance, The Sun and The Daily Star.

There are two main types of national paper — the "popular" papers and the "quality" papers. The popular papers are smaller in size with lots of pictures, big headlines and short articles. They are easy to read and often contain little real information, sometimes they give more space to opinions than to news. They usually have "human interest" stories, stories about ordinary people and events, which are included because they are amusing or odd. Examples of this type of newspapers are The Daily Mail, The Sun and The Daily Mirror.

"Quality" papers appeal to the more serious reader, who wants to read about politics and foreign affairs. These papers, such as The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian are bigger in size with long articles and a wider coverage of events. They have different pages for home news, foreign affairs, feature articles, fashion, business and so on.

People in Britain buy more papers on Sunday than on weekdays. The Sunday papers have a higher circulation than the dailies.

In addition to these there are provincial or local papers to serve towns and areas outside London; some of them are quite famous, like The Birmingham Post, for example.

True or False?

1. A number of newspapers in Great Britain are of high quality.

2. Some of the newspapers no more exist because they were giving little ргоfit.

3. Popular papers pay great attention to the problems of space exploration.

4. A reader of The Times is sure to find a description of a number of events in the newspaper.

5. The task of the quality papers is to entertain the reader.

6. People in Britain buy newspapers mainly at the weekends.

7. The Sun newspaper is easy to read.

8. Popular newspapers usually have "human interest" stories, stories about ordinary people and events, which are included because they are abusing or odd.

9. The Birmingham Post is produced in the capital city, Birmingham.

10. The Daily Telegraph contains a lot of pictures, big headlines and short articles.

Exercise 6. Read the text and find answers to the following questions:

1. What is a journal?

2. What is a magazine?

3. What is the difference between periodicals and newspapers?

4. What were the first periodicals?

5. What was the first magazine?

6. When did the first modern illustrated magazine appear?

7. What are the most popular US periodicals for readers with special interests?

Periodicals

Periodicals are publications released at regular intervals, often called journals, or referred to as magazines when designating those for recreational reading. Periodicals differ from the other major form of serial publication, newspapers. Most newspapers are issued daily on pulp paper and have relatively large, unbound pages; periodicals generally appear on finer paper, with smaller bound pages, and at intervals longer than a day (weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually). As a whole, periodicals feature, often exclusively, material of special interest to particular audiences. The contents of periodicals can be unrelated to current news stories; when dealing with the news, they tend to do so in the form of summaries or commentaries.

The earliest periodicals include the German Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (Edifying Monthly Discussions, 1663-1668), the French Journal des Savants (1665), and the English Philosophical Transactions (1665) of the Royal Society of London. These were essentially collections of summaries (later essays) on developments in art, literature, philosophy, and science.

The first periodical of the modern general type, devoted to a miscellany of reading entertainment, was the English publication The Gentleman's Magazine (1731-1907) – the first instance of the use of the word magazine to denote a forum for entertaining reading. It contained reports of political debates, essays, stories, and poems and was widely influential.

The first modern illustrated magazines appeared during the middle and latter part of the 19th century. Among the most successful was the weekly Illustrated London News (1842), which was important for its coverage, over more than a century, of significant events.

By the 20th century magazine publishing was firmly established worldwide. In Japan today, several thousand titles of all varieties are issued; in Africa periodicals in the African languages as well as in English and French are published; and throughout South America numerous journals appear.

Periodicals for readers with special interests – those in a particular business or trade or in technical, scientific, or other professional fields – increased in number as well as in sales after World War II (1939-1945). This class of magazines includes house organs, journals of various professional societies, and magazines that give semitechnical information – such as The American Journal of Science (1818), the oldest periodical in the United States; Scientific American (1845); and Popular Mechanics (1902). Others with relatively broad appeal include National Geographic Magazine (1888), Art in America (1913), American Heritage (1954), and Sports Illustrated (1954), all of which are strikingly illustrated, Consumer Reports (1936), offering objective comparative evaluations of consumer products; TV Guide (1953), which provides weekly programme listings; GQ (1957), focusing on men's concerns; Rolling Stone (1967), devoted to rock music; People (1974), featuring contemporary celebrities; Wired (1993), concentrating on the computer culture.