Tabloid nation

Tabloid nation, what can I say a superbly written peice with a comical twist and interesting look and the birth of todays tabloids. The book fives an in depth look at the history behind popular journalism or 'tabloid' journalism as we now know it today. Wait I am writing as if I am reviewing the book when im just posting my notes, anyway I digres.

Harmsworth Started the publication 'Answers', he was one of the first to start competitions in papers that seemed unatainable for example offering £200 life insurance prize; something you see in papers like the Sun's £10 holidays. Furthermore Northcliffe was very much like William Randolph Hearst and in that he aimed his paper towards people vulnrability with competitions praying on gread, and headlines to do with crime praying on fear. This sort of thing however made people by papers which acheived their objective.

The Daily mirror started off as a neche paper aimed at the womens market, Lord Northcliffe got rid of all the women writers however as they were causing a distraction leaving a lone women editor.

The Mirror was also the first paper to use pictures to boost the sales of its paper, with sales trebled by 71,000 overnight. Hannen Swaffer played a big part in this when he was appointed art editor. These pictures included pictures of the Kind and his family, this could be seen as the equivellent to the modern day celebrity culture. The Mirror and The mail saw the advantage of pictures and battled furiously to secure the exclusive pictures of the dead King, Northcliffe wanted the picture so much that he did not care that he could be in trouble for treason as circulation meant so much to him. The Mirror at one point had a story about a Pony they were trying to rescue making the paper look very sensitive and appeal to the audience. This is something we again seen in todays tabloids such as The Sun who are often running petitions about something such as petitioning to get the latest X-factor wannabe back in, or marching against the latest Big Brother race row. Although sometimes genuine campaigns such as 'backing the heroes' for servicemen in the army.

The Mail in its early days was aimed more towards the everyday reader with a 250 word limit on articles brought in to simplify it for their target market.

Alot of what you see from Northcliffes time you see in todays tabloid media such as the celebrity culture, cheap prizes that seem impossible to win ( and normally are). Northcliffe was a character significant in shaping todays tabloids, along with Hearst he is one in now what is a long line of charasmatic newspaper owners with crazy new ideas that launched todays fantastic tabloid journalism.