Custom «British Newspaper Industry» Essay Paper Sample

A newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. They often have feature articles on political events, crime, business, entertainment, society and sports. Newspapers are most often published on a daily or weekly basis, and they usually focus on one particular geographic area where most of their readers live. They play a significant role in the structural shaping of the country's economical development. The newspaper industry is one of the most profitable of all manufacturing industries in the world. The British newspaper industry came into existence with the publication of the first Coranto in the English language on 2nd December 1620 in Amsterdam. The British newspaper industry has made a great rank in the world's newspaper industry. The United Kingdom has one of the world's oldest established newspaper industries. British Newspapers are the typical representatives of Western Newspapers.

In the beginning of the 17th century the right to print was strictly controlled in England. Censorship was a great problem faced by the English Press. Williams (2009) the press was imposed with the heavy restrictions including licensing. This was probably the reason why the first newspaper in English language was printed in Amsterdam by Joris Veseler around 1620. However, with the passage of time and the restoration of King Charles II licensing provisions and other restrictions were gradually ended. Due to this the English press was able to publish in an atmosphere of considerable freedom. This freedom resulted in the first daily newspaper, The Daily Courant which was the first London newspaper. There were twelve London newspapers and 24 provincial papers by the 1720s whereas by the early 19th century there were 52 London papers.

Advertising revenue has made a significant impact in the development of British Newspaper Industry. Advertisements are the biggest source of earning for any newspaper industry. The United Kingdom has created major advertising business long years ago. It was the British newspaper in which the first newspaper ad appeared in England in the 17th century. The Public Advertiser was started by Henry Wood fall in the 18th century. Google, the most powerful brand in the world, according to Millward Brown's Brandz database, Yahoo, Vodafone, YouTube are the main ways for the advertising revenues of the British newspaper industry (Fletcher 2008). Google has driven and still driving the online ad market and "search advertising" particularly. With revenues exceeding €1bn in 2006, Google earns far more UK ad revenue in the UK than BSkyB. For advertising and enhancing the customer experience on mobile phones, the newspaper presents such offers that increase their advertising revenues.

Those hard-to-reach "young people" will earn airtime in exchange for accepting ads on their handsets of Vodafone. It has been observed that the advertisers of British newspaper industry are more sophisticated in recognizing the market segmentation that new technology enables. British newspaper industry has developed a great achievement. The advertising revenues help the industry to fulfill their expenses and keep the industry on it greatest rank. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, In the first half of 2007, online advertising rose 40% in the UK (3% more than in the US) compared to the same period last year (Temple 2008). This shows that industry is moving on its right path. Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of FTSE 100 Company WPP, owner of the J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather advertising agencies, predicts that the internet will eventually account for 20% of worldwide advertising spend, at the expense of broadcast, print, radio and billboards. The UK will reach that stage within 18 months - when the internet will account for 22.6% of all ads spend - according to ZenithOptimedia. At that point, internet advertising will be worth almost as much as TV advertising (Williams 2009).

The role played by the state in the development of British newspaper industry is considerable. In 1855, the government tax on newspaper was abolished. Due to this there was a general reduction in their prices and an increase in their circulation. It led the industry to grow. The industry started growing in a very remarkable way at the end of the 19th century when the prices were further reduced. The further decrease in the price was made possible only because the state made the availability of improved printing machinery in the country easy. At the end of the 19th century the paper was also cheap. This was another reason for the development of the British newspaper industry. All this helped in growing the circulation of the newspaper. With the increasing circulation, the advertisement increases. The increased advertisement resulted in the increasing advertising revenue. The growing advertisements gave publishers an important source of revenue apart from that obtained by sales. The state has denoted number of funds for the development of the British newspaper Industry.

The politics among the various newspaper groups have played a vital role in the development of the British Newspaper Industry. In the 19th century the process of commercialization and industrialization began which have an important effect on the newspaper industry. Due to the development of these processes the newspaper costs escalated. It happened because the commercialization and industrialization led the new methods to tap new audience, to reach new readers, and to increase the sales. On one hand all these things were essential for the development of the industry but on the their hand they were the biggest hurdle in the achievement of the goals which were related to paper industry because the costs of launching and maintaining each of the aspect and publications by existing publishing groups were in excess of pound 20. Such a big amount could not be obtained without some sorts of commitment for success.

It was the time to establish the commitment to a political creed. For this purpose there was a need that either the political parties would have sufficient funds or they had the desire to use such large sum of money for purchasing newspapers. In the beginning, the political parties were not so interested in spending and purchasing the newspapers. So, it can be said that political parties were not encouraging. It was because the political parties did not saw profits in this industry. But after the World War II, the politicians took financial consideration and changed attitude to the role of the newspaper in the reconstruction of Britain (Thomas 2005). The politics among the various newspaper groups especially, the Morning Post (Conservative) and Daily Chronicle (Liberal) led the great development of British Newspaper Industry. The industry went under the controlled of newspaper groups. Among them the four biggest are: Mirror Newspaper Group, Daily Mail Newspaper Group, United Newspaper and Media Group, International Newspaper Group. Today these groups are free from government control and censorship, and seek profit by themselves from advertisements and circulations.

Britain fails to rank at head for its total newspaper circulation, but it has reached the highest level of sales per capita. Today, British newspapers are a significant force for informing people and helping to mold their opinions. Newspapers such as the Times of London and the Journal de Genève in Geneva maintained a long tradition of press freedom, dictatorships, and other efforts at intimidation of a free press.