The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail was first published in 1986 and since then has been a huge success in the UK. It was the first paper to sell over a million copies a day and has become the second largest selling daily paper in the UK and has a daily readership of 4,678,000 according to the NRS, National Readership Survey. The Mail is the only newspaper to be targeted at women more than men and takes many of its attributes and much of its news agenda from magazines but stays away from tabloid journalism. This gives it an individual place in the market and gives readers a newspaper between a tabloid and a broadsheet.

The majority of The Daily Mail’s audience is between the ages of 45 and 65+, according to NRS statistics. In fact 75% of The Daily Mail’s audience falls between these age ranges. This much older audience can be attributed to the news agenda of the Mail and the fact it has never changed ownership. Peter Cole gives a very simplified version of what he believes to be The Daily Mail’s news agenda: “For Britain and against Europe; against welfare (and what it describes as welfare scroungers) and for standing on your own feet; more concerned with punishment than the causes of crime; against public ownership and for the private sector; against liberal values and for traditional values, particularly marriage and family life. It puts achievement above equality of opportunity and self-reliance above dependence.”

This gives a good analysis of the basic structure of the Mail’s agenda which is reflected daily in its choice of stories. It knows the values of its audience and their political stance, centre-right, and so fits its stories to suit their opinions. This agenda favours the opinions of older readers compared to younger readers because of its stances on many issues like immigration, benefits and recently tuition fee changes; the Mail’s stance on these stories reflects the values of an older audience especially on marriage and family life. The fact that the Mail has never changed ownership or political stance so its audience knows what to expect when they read it which helps explain the older audience because people are likely to continue reading it throughout their life.  

The Daily Mail is the only British paper to be targeted towards women rather than men, and subsequently is the only paper which has a higher percentage of female readers than male. The Daily Mail has a large features section, which is mainly targeted towards women, called femail which has celebrity news, fashion and healthcare advice. This coupled with the focus on celebrity news within the main paper and the family values displayed within the paper make it more targeted towards women than men. 

The audience demographic of The Daily Mail is mainly ABC1C2 which is reflected in the advertising and news agenda. The main advertisers in the Mail are: Asda, Morrisons, Tescos, DFS Marks and Spenser, BT and Sky television. This reflects the ABC1C2 demographic who would be working and fairly well paid so would be able to afford to visit more expensive supermarkets and buy new sofas. If you compared this to The Sun you see some of the same advertisers, Tesco and Morrisons and Asda, but the products advertised are different; with the Mail advertising their top range products while The Sun contains lower priced and bulk buy items. 

The Mail Online is the most visited newspaper website in the UK and has the same values and agenda as its sister paper but is focused more on celebrity news and popular culture than The Daily Mail. I attribute this to the difference in the audiences, especially in age. I think that the Mail Online will have a younger audience, mainly between 46 and 55 because of the more celebrity focused news and because it is a new media source and therefore is less likely to get used by older audiences. Also because of the online format it suits celebrity gossip because it can be quickly updated and changed. The other reason why I think that the Mail Online is so popular is because of the interactivity of the site; it allows readers to give their opinions on stories and turns each story into a forum discussion allowing all to voice their opinion.  

Sources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/20/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing
http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/factsAndFigures?newspaperID=10