It is increasingly becoming a common sight – the ‘tabloid wars’ between broadsheet titles that are redefining the newspaper market. It is believed in the media industry that by producing its tabloid versions The Independent had gained a significant advantage over its competitors including the Guardian. The Guardian on the other hand is accused of having fallen behind in the race, and some commentators have even suggested that the paper is heading toward bankruptcy. The rest of this essay will compare and contrast two newspapers (one a tabloid and the other a broadsheet) and highlight their relative merits and demerits. The Guardian is the chosen broadsheet and The Independent is the tabloid being chosen. (Glover, 2003)
It has to be agreed that the Independent has had outstanding success in going tabloid. Its sales have jumped by 11 percent over the last year. Simon Kelner, one of its editors, certainly deserves the praise he draws from analysts. But of late, the newspaper’s circulation numbers have come down. In the near future the burden of producing two editions is going to strain the financial resources of the paper, which is already showing negative balances. This may force the Independent to keep the tabloid edition and let go of the broadsheet form. Nevertheless, there are other factors as well that determine its ultimate success. The tabloid version of the Independent is an unsatisfactory newspaper in some regards. For example, it looks a little cramped and is typographically unremarkable. Some of its shorter stories and other important pieces make it appear less sophisticated that a traditional newspaper format.
“What of the Guardian then? Under the leadership of Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s editor, the paper has lost just over 6 per cent of its circulation over the past 12 months, most of which has switched to the tabloid Independent. Mr Rusbridger has been criticised both inside and outside the paper for sitting on his hands, but to be fair to him, having missed the opportunity to be the prime mover, he has been wise not to produce a ‘me too’ tabloid in the manner of the Times.” (Glover, 2005)
The stories that get selected for publication in these newspapers are quite different too. Let us take the Guardian’s case first. A recent poll taken among Guardian subscribers found that two out of every five of them do not regard that private lives of celebrities is of importance. That means, there are nearly 44 million adults in Britain would prefer a media that is devoid of sensationalism and celebrity watching. Yet, the coverage Beckham gets on a regular basis equals that of Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister. Surely the proportions are wrong here. In this aspect the Independent is not much better either.
“It is a wonderful thought, but can it really be true? In the same poll, 85 per cent of respondents said that disclosures about alleged celebrity flings should not have been published. It is difficult to square this with the reported increase in the sales of some red-top tabloid newspapers which have offered voluminous coverage of celebrities and the rest of the grisly gang. The News of the World, which has about 11 million readers–as opposed to buyers–claims an extra 100,000 sales on each of two successive Sundays when it blitzed us with a celebrity story.” (Glover, 2004)
Now the Guardian has adopted the larger Berliner shape–that of Le Monde in France. New printing facilities costing estimated 50 million pounds sterling have been purchased, since the previously used “presses can produce either a broadsheet or a tabloid form but not a Berliner”. This led Guardian to many penalties for withdrawing from its pre-existing printing contracts prematurely. Probably, the management thought that with the Independent already a tabloid, they can no longer enter the newspaper market with a new product
The Independent adopted the tabloid format out of desperation. It was a last ditch effort which has turned out better than almost anyone could have guessed. The position of the Guardian was different though. It was not in a tight corner as the Independent was. In addition to that, “bulging as it does with classified advertising dropped into its lap by HMG, it could not have adopted the tabloid form without being disagreeably chunky” (Glover, 2003).