Hii!
This may not be all that helpful, but I'm an offer holder for english at exeter College and stayed there last summer on a residential. My experience staying there was really positive, so I applied there. Firstly, the college is so beautiful and not too large, which was important to me. It seemed really friendly, and the student ambassadors were really lovely, I had some really interesting conversations with a current english student there. Another reason I chose to apply there was the tutors. I've heard Exeter is known particularly for English due to its famous alumni (Philip Pullmen, Tolkien ect.) If you go onto their website and look at tutors, you can see their specialities and Exeter seemed to have a comparatively large number of english tutors, whose niche research interested me. In terms of newspapers, I know there's definitely University wide publications, I heard there's loads to choose from.
Hope this helps!
Good luck with your applications!