14 December 2007

Broadsheet vs crapsheet

A number of people have asked why "quality" papers publish graphic images of crime and violence on their front pages. The answer is very simple.

The competitive information environment has led to the so-called phenomenon of consumer attention deficit. People pay less attention to marketing messages, adverts and promotional slogans. This means that it's harder, more than ever, to catch the readers'/viewers' (i.e. any consumers') attention. Falling readership means that editors and publishers must desperately take steps to get a fraction of attention from readers.

Therefore, unfortunately, national papers publish pictures and headlines which should be the realm of tabloid media. The convergence of quality papers and tabloids is evident. Take alone the format: when the group that controls The Sun, the British tabloid paper, bought The Times, a quality paper, the latter has "shrunk" from the broad format to a smaller one. But that's not the only reason I prefer The Daily Telegraph or The Financial Times.:)

The distinction of quality papers and tabloids in smaller markets such as Lithuania is even less significant...

What papers do you read, if any?


Papers. Photo by Giedrius CP.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, this sure is an interesting topic:) Do people get the information they should get? On television, newspapers, internet.
Do we even know what information we want to get or do we take whatever is presented us. How objective are e.g. Google, newspapers, television...

I'd love to hear/read more

Anonymous said...

Tobula nuotrauka ;0)

Anonymous said...

I get my world news from Yahoo via AP and BBC, or for Belgian news I check the Gazet van Antwerpen online.

My wife still likes to pick up a paper copy of the Times or Gazet van Antwerp to read on a Sunday morning.

I agree that there seems to be a dumbing down of the quality of reporting in UK newspapers overe the last few years.

Anonymous said...

I must digg your post so more people are able to see it, really useful, I had a hard time finding the results searching on the web, thanks.

- Thomas