News Agenda - Daily Express

The Daily Express claims to have over 1.5 Million newspaper readers and just fewer than 2 Million unique visitors online each day. The average age of their readers is 59. This makes me question why they are releasing an ipad app for their newspaper when their target audience is unlikely to use it. They have a mid-market readership in terms of both age and social class. The Daily Mail is its biggest rival, but has a more female readership. The front cover of the Daily Express presents it as a very patriotic newspaper with the logo of St George, as well as the display of a poppy each year for Remembrance Day. Along with this the paper is constantly referring to Europe and it’s desire to make the country more independent. Along with this they have gone as far as to present themselves as the only national newspaper to be going against England in Europe.

58% of their readers are ABC1, meaning a more upmarket audience available for advertisers. Morrison’s is one of their primary advertisers in the newspaper, which would appeal to working class readers in particular. The newspapers advertisements revolve around home life such as: food shops, electric and gas companies, sofas and banks. However, there are also signs of slightly upmarket readership with advertisements promoting cruise trips. The advertising online is slightly altered, and seems to be aimed at a lower class audience, possibly C2DE with adverts for shops like Lidl and Tesco Direct. However advertisements for online stores such as Amazon suggest they may be targeting a younger online audience in comparison with their newspaper copy which enables to progress as their readership age continues to gradually increase.

Other than advertisements, the online version of the Daily Express has very differences from its newspaper version. They both feature similar headlines and news stories, although the online version does seem to appeal more to younger readers with less detail on the details and more emphasis on images. They also continue to promote themselves as a ‘paper for the people’ highlighting the readers ability to create their own profile online so they can comment on news stories and speak with other readers. This is another sign that a younger audience is targeted. However, this view is contradicted with the Daily Express promoting its bingo, elderly dating website and sale of mobility scooters. It seems that they don’t know who they want to be targeting and have tried appealing to both.

The news reported by the Daily Express is very repetitive. Headlines often include new cures for illnesses, treatment for cancer, and reports on Diana which are frequently used. These stories are targeted directly at their already dedicated readership. This is shown by the views expressed throughout the newspaper and the readers writing in to congratulate the newspaper on ‘expressing their opinions’.

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