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Right vs Left: UK Newspapers and their readerships

I've split the UK's national newspapers into 4 categories on the basis of their intellectuality and that of their readerships, starting from the top. Next to the newspaper names I have included where they sit on the political spectrum, as well as the traditional party affiliations of the papers and their readers in brackets.

A (Heavily intellectual, highly serious)

The Guardian - Centre Left (Labour, some Lib Dem)
The Independent - Centre Left (Labour and Lib Dem)
The Observer - Centre Left (Labour and Lib Dem)
The Financial Times - Centrist (Mixed)
The Times - Centrist (Mixed)
The Telegraph - Centre Right (Conservative)

B (Intellectual and serious, but cut down for the convenience of the reader without much time on his or her hands)

The i - Centre Left (Labour and Lib Dem)
The Morning Star - Left (Socialist parties, some Labour)

C (Non-intellectual, sensationalist, often derided by readers of A and B papers)

Mirror - Centre Left (Labour)
Express - Right (Conservative, UKIP)
Mail - Right (Conservative, UKIP)

D (Very non-intellectual, hugely sensationalist and barely qualify as newspapers at all)

Sun - Right (Conservative)
Star - Right (Conservative and far right parties)
News of The World - Right (Conservative)

The pattern is patently obvious for all to see. There is a clear positive correlation between left-leaning politics and intellectuality, and between right-leaning politics and stupidity. Think about it, has anyone ever heard of a right wing intellectual? It simply does not happen. Whether we're looking in the fields of science, philosophy, politics or the arts, almost all intellectuals are either left leaning or politically impartial. The closest thing the political right in Britain has to an intellectual is the demented lesser-brother of Christopher Hitchens. And away from intellectuality, it hasn't gone unnoticed by me that the papers that have traditionally been associated with racism and bigotry, and generally unpleasantness (the Mail, Express, The Sun and The Star) are all right wing papers who support the Conservative Party. The only centre-left paper in the bottom two categories, the Mirror, is - although not known for its intellectual journalism - at least a paper that has always been an opponent of the bigotry and racism we see in the likes of the Tory papers.

I think if I were a Tory supporter, I'd be embarrassed to make it known in public.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

Will Lucky

11

I would argue the Telegraph is Right and the Times Centre-Right. Other than that mostly agree.

However C and D Papers change alliance more often in line with the people most of the time (Sun in 92 being one exception) whereas A and B are far more entrenched in who they support. Although the Times being under Murdochs control can change alliance, between 97-05 both Sun and Times supported Labour.

Reply 2

Sim188

13

You missed out the Wirral Globe, Yorkshire post, Falmouth Packet, amongst dozen others...

Other than that.. Looks about right :smile:

And yes, left wingers are the best wingers, intellectually and creatively

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 3

Wednesday Bass

15

You do realise that The Observer is just The Sunday Guardian right?

Reply 4

Teveth

OP

17

Original post by Will Lucky

I would argue the Telegraph is Right and the Times Centre-Right. Other than that mostly agree.

However C and D Papers change alliance more often in line with the people most of the time (Sun in 92 being one exception) whereas A and B are far more entrenched in who they support. Although the Times being under Murdochs control can change alliance, between 97-05 both Sun and Times supported Labour.

I agree that the C and D papers do tend to change their alliance in line with popular feeling, but I feel that overall, all of them (except the Mirror) tend to toe the line of right wing politics in what they write.

As for the Telegraph being right wing rather than CR, you might be correct, but I feel it is somewhere in between. I went for CR to be on the safe side. I think it's more accurate to describe the Times as centrist. It would be strange to call a paper that supported Labour for the most part of the last 15 years a centre-right newspaper. Also, centre-right would denote a Tory readership, which simply isn't true. Its readership is very mixed.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

Teveth

OP

17

Original post by Wednesday Bass

You do realise that The Observer is just The Sunday Guardian right?

Well, it sort of is. It's a sister paper. I have decided to treat Sunday papers with a distinct brand as individual papers.

Reply 6

kerily

15

I'd say that the Times is centre-right, and that the Independent is centrist; as a left-winger myself, there are few sentiments in there that I agree with and they're very soft-centrist-liberal. They're literally left-of-centre, but not as much so as the Guardian.

I also think you should expect negs from right-wingers :emo:

Reply 7

Wednesday Bass

15

Original post by Teveth

Well, it sort of is. It's a sister paper. I have decided to treat Sunday papers with a distinct brand as individual papers.

I was going to say in the same way the News of the World is to the Sun but I see you've edited it in. TBH, the only real difference is the name and some of the columnists. Still the same paper on the whole.

Reply 8

tehFrance

17

Original post by Teveth

The Times - Centrist (Mixed)

No, The Times is Centre-right. It could also be classed more right-wing that centre-right though, depends on who is classifing it. It is not however Centrist.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 9

Will Lucky

11

Original post by Teveth

I went for CR to be on the safe side. I think it's more accurate to describe the Times as centrist. It would be strange to call a paper that supported Labour for the most part of the last 15 years a centre-right newspaper. Also, centre-right would denote a Tory readership, which simply isn't true. Its readership is very mixed.

Hmm very true, I would say it switches to Labour when business policy actually looks stronger which was no doubt the case during the Blair years.

Reply 10

lovely_me

18

Original post by Teveth

Think about it, has anyone ever heard of a right wing intellectual?

K I S S I N G E R

Reply 11

Leon Trotsky

3

You've included The Guardian's Sunday sister paper, The Observer, but not the Sunday editions of The Times or Telegraph, both of which would probably be centre-right. I'd also argue that The Times is centre-right.

Reply 12

Teveth

OP

17

Original post by Addzter

You've included The Guardian's Sunday sister paper, The Observer, but not the Sunday editions of The Times or Telegraph, both of which would probably be centre-right. I'd also argue that The Times is centre-right.

I've made a judgement to include distinct sister papers as individual newspapers (NoTW and The Observer), but not Sunday editions of other newspapers.

And I've already briefly put forward my case for The Times being a centrist paper.

Reply 13

amsie/

11

Metro

How could you forget the metro?

Reply 14

Cast.Iron

14

If I have to process one more Daily Mail through my till I think I am going to defenestrate myself.

Reply 15

Leon Trotsky

3

Original post by Teveth

I've made a judgement to include distinct sister papers as individual newspapers (NoTW and The Observer), but not Sunday editions of other newspapers.

And I've already briefly put forward my case for The Times being a centrist paper.

But The Sunday Times is just as much a sister paper to The Times as The Observer is to The Guardian. Both are laid out much differently and feature different content from the Monday-Saturday editions and have different staff, including different editors. Just because they share part of the name, doesn't mean they're not still separate sister papers.

Reply 16

The Patriot

14

Teveth, you fail. Horribly.

Constantly slagging off the right wing. Unless you have forgotten, in the 1980's Labour shifted to the left quite heavily so they could try and end the era of Tory dominance by Thatcher. Neil Kinnock was hopeful of his chances under his new left-wing manifesto and looked to be ready to win the election. Then John Major won instead.

What happened after that again? Oh yeah, the Labour party abandoned it's left-wing policy and shifted to the right to become 'New-Labour'. Guess what happened when they shifted to the right? Oh yeah, Tony Blair gained the biggest majority in the commons ever. And even when they did get in they left the country in a far worse state than when they arrived.

You can moan about the right-wing newspapers if you want to, but let's not forget that the last time your party was truly left-wing, 'it's the sun wot won it' :wink:

.

Reply 17

tehFrance

17

Original post by Teveth

And I've already briefly put forward my case for The Times being a centrist paper.

Because a readership is mixed it isn't centre-right? WTF? it is centre-right as the editors put right wing articles in the paper, not to do with who reads it.

As you have compiled the list based on readership and not editorial opinon (swinging which way the paper goes, right or left via the articles) then this is all wrong most likely.

Oh and people read both left and right wing papers to get as balanced view of the news they can.

Reply 18

milkytea

16

I would say The Independent is not centre left. It has a variety of journalists, some with left-leaning opinions (perhaps slightly in the majority) as well as right-leaning ones.

The Times is not centrist, it's decidedly Conservative, it's just more subtle about it.

Reply 19

-2D-

5

since Teveth has decided to use anecdotes as opposed to data let me tell you about my father, he has a phd from the university poitiers in applied chemistry and is fluent in three languages and is exceedingly right wing- when he found out 500k jobs were to be cut from the public sector his response was that it was too few and the government needed to make redundant in order to cut spending and therefore taxes more

there are almost certainly many other right winged intellectuals

if we were to treat sunday papers then I would like to add the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times which actually have different editorial teams to their sister paper

the times basically supported blair, mandelson and adonis' version of new labour as opposed to labour which meant supporting a party very similar to the tory party

besides the telegraph alone has a circulation of 651,184 more than the guardian (279,308)and independent's (185,035) combined circulation so if you include the times (457,250)as a centre right paper and the financial times (383,067) as a centre left paper (it has backed labour since 92) then the centre right still has a majority

besides the i and morning star have a tiny circulation with the i not really going into politics and usually only purchased because its so short

besides the Star and News of the World have practically zero politics

Right vs Left: UK Newspapers and their readerships

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