The Sun and The Times Comparison

Two of the most popular newspapers today ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Times’ appeal to similarly diverse audiences, that range from under 15 to over 65. They target different demographics of people which is why their audiences don't clash. I'm going to review some of their similarities and differences.

The Sun

The Sun is clearly the more popular newspaper, having a circulation of nearly 1.7 million, but a total readership of over 4 million. The reason for this is that it is cheaper and the content is explained in a shorter and more understandable way. Therefore, the majority of it’s consumers are in the C1, C2, D and E demographics. Both magazines appeal more to the over 65's. 25.9% of 'The Suns' readership are in that age range, even though the stories that are covered and the way they report them aren't what would typically appeal to this older audience.

The difference between the print readership and PC readership is huge and shows that print media still dominates the online editions. Although 32% of the online readers are under 35 whereas 17% of the printed versions are read are read by the same age category which shows which way the news is going. It is also worth recognising that while the majority of readers are from a low demographic, most online readers are from the A and B demographic, maybe because they have more money to spend on technology.

The Times

The Times is a more expensive and different style of newspaper to the Sun. It focuses on more intellectual topics and gives detailed insights into each story. It's because of this that it attracts a higher social demographic of people. As you can see from the graph below, there is a much smaller readership and circulation of the Times with the latter only being 440,048. The paper also clearly appeals more to older people as the over 65's make up 35% of the readership. This is because of the different way that the topics are assessed and reported on.

The online readership is still dominated by the over 35's, however the percentage of younger readers is higher than the Sun, which is surprising as most of its readers are in that over 35 age category. The demographic of its online readers is hugely dominated by the ABC1 groups. This is probably because they have more disposable income that they can spend on a more expensive paper. The additional money to spend on technology is possibly the reason for the larger number of under 35 readers.

The Times and Sun Comparison

These magazines are both very different. They target and appeal to quite different audiences. This includes their age and demographic. The controversial topics and simplistic writing style of the sun appeals to a lower demographic, that want a newspaper that is easy to follow and understand. The news they report are also often based more around celebrity gossip, and uses images of women in little clothing to appeal to the male gaze. The more intellectual newspaper, The Times, talks about more political subjects in much more detail. This is why the paper is bigger and appeals to a more educated audience. It uses smaller adverts and focuses more on the content of its news stories. This shows the very clear difference between the broadsheet newspapers and the tabloids.

Differences in Reporting

Their different styles of writing and reporting mean that the way they cover the same story will be completely different. The Sun informal and simplistic style may not give the biggest headlines of today as much page space as they should have, and the Times might go into too much detail that will lose or bore readers.

The Sun

Here we see the Sun's contribution to reporting on the election going on in America. They clearly think it is information that their readers aren't very interested in so have included revealing images that will attract the male gaze, and given it a comical headline. Although you can't read the smaller text, you can just tell from the pages layout that this is informal. The mode of address is chatty and focuses on gossip than the actual facts. You can also see that there is very little text on the story. Most of the page in taken up with a picture of Jenifer Lopez and the two different titles. The entire story isn't even given a whole page, and has to share it's space with adverts and other, unrelated stories. The content on the page also suggests that the paper is targeted towards a younger audience (18-35) that might also be a low demographic. Some older readers might not be interested in looking at pictures like that, or want a more informative paper. People over the age of 65, which is the biggest audience for this paper are also probably not very interested in powerful WiFi.

The Times

This is the Time's version of a similar story. Here you can see that it takes up an entire 2 page spread without adverts. Clearly the editors think that this is an important story that their readers will be interested in. The image is very big and takes prominence on the page, but it surrounded by tiny writing that gives all the details of the story. This paper is very formal and gives a very detailed insight into each story, especially if it is world news such as this. The font in this paper is tiny which allows for more information and larger pictures. This will also save paper and ink, which is very important as newspapers are all about profit. This might be a problem for their biggest demographic of consumer as older people typically have worse eyes so may struggle to read. This is a benefit to using the paper online, as you can zoom in and there is no production costs.

Comparing their Layouts

These papers are so different in their styles and approaches that it is hard to talk about their similarities. Although they use similar size fonts so that more can fit onto a page, and include large images to catch the readers eye. They have different modes of address which sets the mood of the magazine and is the main reason that they appeal to different demographics. The Times, being a much bigger paper, gives each of its stories much more space on the page. You can see that it has given this American election story a lot of space and hasn't put adverts or overfilled it with pictures. The Sun however gives a much shorter version, which is accompanied by adverts and another story that isn't related to american politics. This shows that the Sun audience is more concerned by the quantity of stories instead of a quality, in-depth analysis of the debates so far.