Newspapers in the UK

If you still like to get some of your news the old fashioned way, walking up to a news stand and buying a paper, then London will be able to provide all your needs. Newsagent shops here have racks bulging with papers from the UK and beyond.

The biggest selling papers in the UK are the national daily’s, there are ten of these, eleven if you want to include the Daily Sport but that’s really into football and soft porn rather than news. The papers can be divided up into the quality or broadsheet papers and the tabloids.

The quality papers include -
*The Times - Rupert Murdoch owned, right of centre paper, although they endorsed Blair in the last two elections, sells around 700,000 per day

*The Daily Telegraph - has the largest circulation of the serious daily’s, traditionally a right wing conservative paper

*The Guardian - left wing paper originally the Manchester Guardian, third largest broadsheet, selling just under half of what the Telegraph does, has an award winning website

*The Independent - Liberal leaning paper that was launched in 1986 and has alawys struggled to make an impression on the circulation of its main rivals

*The Financial Times - printed in a distinct salmon pink colour, a business paper printed six days a week that takes a centre-right stand point

The main tabloids are -

*The Sun - largest selling English language daily in the world, Rupert Murdoch owned, used to back the Conservative Party but switched to Labour when Tony Blair became leader, has the best and funniest headlines, lots of sport, soap operas and sex

*The Mirror - overtaken by The Sun in the 1980’s, left leaning tabloid, very anti George Bush

*Daily Mail - second in circulation to The Sun, right wing, favourite of middle class England

*Daily Express - Conservative supporting paper that is the Mail’s main rival, has a Princess Diana fixation, always printing stories surrounding her death

*Daily Star - something to flick through while pinching a loaf

Most of the daily’s have sister Sunday papers, The Sunday Times is the best selling and probably the best value, it costs £2 but weighs about the same.

London has an excellant daily called the Evening Standard which comes out late morning and produces later editions through the afternoon. It covers world and London news and sport and has different jobs and listings sections each day, on Thursday’s it includes a free entertainment guide called Metro Life. Currently at loggerheads with the Mayor of London over political issues, worth buying.

There are many other niche papers in circulation such as the communist daily The Morning Star, the weekly Jewish Chronicle, The Stage aimed at actors and people in the entertainment industry, The Voice aimed at black people and lots others. Most parts of London will have their individual local papers and many of these are free, paid for by advertising.

If you go into most newsagents in London even out in the suburbs you’ll see racks of papers not only from the UK but all over Europe, my local has all the British ones along with titles such as El Pais, El Mundo, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Corriere della Sera and a bunch of others. If you like reading the news elsewhere than online you won’t have a problem finding another source in London.