The Target Audience of Newspapers

Newspapers use various techniques to
appeal to their target audience

Target audiences are made up of consumers that the producers of media aim to sell their product to. Newspapers use various techniques to appeal to its target audience including the content and language of its stories, the political bias and by selling its advertising space to businesses and organisations that may appeal to its readership.

The target audience of a newspaper is made of a number of the following factors; representation, institution, values, audience, language, ideology, narrative and genre. These factors make up an analysing toolkit known as ‘RIVALING’.

Each newspaper will have a ‘lifestyle profile’ to be able to understand and relate to its readership in order to sell its publications to its target audience.

The Sun, a popular tabloid, currently prices its newspaper at 45p which most working class people can afford who buy the paper can afford. The content of The Sun are often stories are bad news and usually about people in conflict. This may be with other people, governments, business and organisations and even the weather. This gives the reader of The Sun, who are belittled and down-trodden, able to relate to the stories the newspaper report.

Page 3 Girls are a regular feature
in The Sun newspaper

The Sun often feature stories about celebrities. This is because we now live in a celebrity culture where people want to be famous for no particular reason. This could imply that the readers of The Sun want to have success without aiming or working towards it. The Sun readership is male orientated and this is evident by the gorgeous women that feature topless on Page 3 on a near day-to-day basis. A large sport section is always in the back of the paper which is dominated by football stories which is the nation’s most popular sport amongst working class men.

The types of business that advertise in The Sun are supermarkets such as Morrisons, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. These are affordable supermarkets for the working class and they often advertise offers and savings on the readers shopping.


The 'Big Four' supermarkets
often advertise in The Sun

The Times newspaper is referred to as a quality tabloid which covers news, business and lifestyle stories. This will to people who regard themselves as part of the ABC1 social group which is made of individuals working in higher managerial, professional supervisory or administrative jobs. As these careers are higher paying so the expenditures of the readership will be higher.

This is evident with the companies and organisations that advertise within the paper. Rolex, Tiffany & Co. and  Bvlgari, which are companies that sell high-end quality products which have high-end prices.  Although some ‘cheaper’ outlets still advertise in this paper more advertising space has been given to stores such as John Lewis.

High-end goods, such as the Rolex watch, have
high-end prices which suit the readers of The Times