Daily Mirror - Audience and Industries

 Audience

1) What is the Daily Mirror's audience? List the key statistics here.

The Daily Mirror is a British national tabloid newspaper with  a traditionally working-class centre .

2) Why do the Mirror stories on the CSP pages appeal to the Daily Mirror audience?

Stories on the Daily Mirror's CSP pages are tailored for a working-class, left-leaning audience by using emotional personalization and framing big political issues through human interest stories.

3) Why might a reader enjoy the Daily Mirror? Use Blumler & Katz Uses and Gratifications theory to add detail to your answer.

Readers might enjoy the Daily Mirror because it serves specific psychological and social purposes, aligning with the four categories of the Uses and Gratifications theory.

First, the paper provides surveillance. Readers use it to gather information about the world, specifically through a lens that focuses on news relevant to the working class. This helps them stay informed about politics, local events, and the economy.

4) Why are print newspapers generally read by older audiences?

Print newspapers are generally read by older audiences (typically those over 55) due to a combination of lifelong habits, trust in traditional media, and a preference for the physical, distraction-free experience of print.

5) How are the CSP pages constructed to appeal to Daily Mirror readers? Think about text and selection of images.

The Daily Mirror constructs its pages using a classic tabloid formula designed to resonate with a working-class, left-leaning audience. Textually, it employs an informal, colloquial register and short, punchy syntax to ensure the news is accessible and fast-paced, often utilizing emotive puns and bold headlines to anchor a specific moral viewpoint.

Industries

1) What company owns the Daily Mirror and why are they struggling? 

The Daily Mirror is owned by Reach plc, the largest national and regional news publisher in the UK. Formerly known as Trinity Mirror, the company also owns the Daily Express, Daily Star, OK! magazine, and numerous regional titles like the Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo

2) Who was the Daily Mirror editor between 2018 and 2024 and what was the Partygate scandal that the Daily Mirror exposed?  

Alison Phillips was the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror between 2018 and January 2024. Under her leadership, the Daily Mirror broke the "Partygate" scandal, a series of revelations about gatherings held at 10 Downing Street and other government buildings during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. 

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 currently has an average circulation of approximately 166,000 copies per day.

In the 1990s, the paper was a powerhouse with significantly higher figures:

• Early 1990s: It sold over 3.1 million copies daily.
• Late 1990s: Sales declined to roughly 2.3 million by 1998 as it battled fierce competitition from other tabloids

4) How has the Daily Mirror reacted to the decline in print sales and the growth of the internet?

To combat the freefall of print, the Daily Mirror pivoted to a digital-first strategy under its parent company, Reach PLC, prioritising its website and mobile app to reach over 20 million monthly users. This transition involved aggressive cost-cutting, including massive editorial redundancies and the merging of national and regional newsrooms into a single operation. W

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.

Galtung and Ruge’s news values are heavily visible in the Daily Mirror CSP edition, particularly through Negativity and Elite People, as seen in the "Brexit Delay Chaos" headline which focuses on the political failure of then-Prime Minister Theresa May.