Everyone agrees that newspapers play a crucial role in British democracy, even if they disagree what that role is. The Press Gazette has published the results of the National Readership Survey. I have used these results - for both print and online - to draw up tables with readerships and information about owners and political orientation. Almost 78% of our press is owned by a handful of mostly foreign-based billionaires.
Too often,
far from protecting our democracy, our papers subvert it. In his Inquiry, Lord Leveson quoted some lines from Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day. Milne:- “ No matter
how imperfect things are, if you’ve got a free press everything is correctable,
and without it everything is concealable”.
Ruth: - “I’m with you on the free
press. It’s the newspapers I can’t stand.” In a free press, the nature of the newspapers
matter very much.
The nature of
a paper is set by its owner. Press barons wield far more power and influence
than all but a very few MPs and have, unsurprisingly, used it to further their own
interests.
Since 2010, the barons have pushed the highly contentious argument that there is no alternative to austerity (for other people, not for them or those close to them) and have largely ignored the stories which historians will doubtless note – the widening social divisions and the swelling numbers at food banks, the 21st century's soup kitchens.
And now these unelected barons are intent on taking the UK out of the EU and freedom from all those pesky regulations giving workers' rights.
Newspapers exercise power and influence in a number of ways. It is not just that they have
a megaphone which lets them dominate the public debate. They also have
privileged access to politicians. And one of their most powerful forms of
influence is the ability to effectively set the political agenda for the other media and
more widely, in parliament, the workplace, the kitchen and the pub. In the terms of political theory, the press barons impose the elite's cultural hegemony.
As Martin Kettle has argued, the answer to the old 1970's question – “Who governs
Britain?” – is now, in important respects, the press barons. The most recent
example of their power – and arrogance - is how they are still trying to
ignore the Leveson Inquiry findings and the subsequent decisions of the elected House
of Commons.
Newspapers put
great store by the concept of editorial independence. Sometimes, it is a
reality. The Lebedevs, for example, own papers – the Independent and the
Evening Standard – which take markedly different political stances.
Too often,
however, editorial independence is a sham. Proprietors choose editors who they
know share their views. Editors know well what is expected of them without the
need for a proprietor to actively interfere. Rupert Murdoch’s candour at the
Leveson Inquiry was revealing. He said that if someone wanted to know his
opinion on a subject they should just read the leader in the Sun.
UK
press weekly print and on-line readership (for papers over 1 million) in March
2013
Newspaper(s)
|
Combined print and online readership
(In
brackets print alone)
|
Effective owner/s
|
Information about effective owner/s
|
Political orientation of newspaper/s
|
% of
combined print and online (Print
alone)
|
The
Sun/The Sun on Sunday
|
13,674,000
(12,765,000)
|
Rupert
Murdoch
|
Billionaire.
Lives in US.
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
18.6%
(20.7%)
|
The
Mail/ Mail on Sunday
|
12,188,000
(9,534,000)
|
Lord
Rothermere
|
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
16.5%
(15.5%)
|
Metro
|
7,986,000
(7,597,000)
|
Lord
Rothermere
|
Billionaire.
Lives in France.
Non-domiciled for UK tax |
Supported Tories in 2010
|
10.8%
(12.3%)
|
Mirror/Sunday
Mirror/ People
|
7,874,000
(7,063,000)
|
Trinity
Mirror plc
|
Public
Limited Company
|
Supported Labour in 2010
|
10.7%
(11.4%)
|
The
Guardian/The Observer
|
5,342,000
(2,898,000)
|
Scott
Trust Ltd
|
Supported Lib Dems in 2010
|
7.3%
(4.7%)
|
|
Telegraph/
Sunday Telegraph
|
4,998,000
(3,128,000)
|
David
and Frederick Barclay
|
Billionaires.
Live on private island near Sark.
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
6.8%
(5.1%)
|
The
Times/ Sunday Times
|
4,608,000
(4,418,000)
|
Rupert
Murdoch
|
Billionaire.
Lives in US.
Alleged
tax avoider.
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
6.3%
(7.2%)
|
The
Independent/ i/Independent on Sunday
|
4,002,000
(2,770,000)
|
Alexander
(father)and Evgeny (son) Lebedev
|
Alexander
is a billionaire, ex-KGB and lives in Russia. Evgeny lives in the UK
|
Supported anti-Tory tactical voting in 2010
|
5.4%
(4.5%)
|
London
Evening Standard
|
3,850,000
(3,443,000)
|
Alexander
and Evgeny Lebedev
|
Alexander is billionaire,
ex-KGB and lives in Russia. Evgeny lives in UK
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
5.2%
(5.6%)
|
Daily
Express/Sunday Express
|
3,118,000
(2,756,000)
|
Richard
Desmond
|
Billionaire
pornographer.
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
4.2%
(4.5%)
|
Daily
Star/Daily Star Sunday
|
2,972,000
(2,873,000)
|
Richard
Desmond
|
Billionaire
pornographer.
Alleged tax avoider.
|
Supported Tories in 2010
|
4.0%
(4.7%)
|
Daily
Record/ Sunday Mail
|
1,719,000
(1,527,000)
|
Trinity
Mirror plc
|
Public
limited company
|
Supported Labour in 2010
|
2.3%
(2.5%)
|
Financial
Times
|
1,339,000
(928,000)
|
Pearson
plc
|
Public
limited company
|
Supported
Tories in 2010
|
1.8%
(1.5%)
|
TOTALS
|
73,670,000
(61,700,000)
|
Readership of UK press (for papers over 1 million) in March 2013 by effective owners
Effective
owner(s)
|
% of combined print and online (print alone)
|
Lord
Rothermere
|
27.3
(27.8)
|
Rupert
Murdoch
|
24.9
(27.9)
|
Trinity
Mirror plc
|
13.0
(13.9)
|
Alexander and
Evgeny Lebedev
|
10.6
(10.1)
|
Richard
Desmond
|
8.2 (9.2)
|
Scott Trust
|
7.3 (4.7)
|
David and
Frederick Barclay
|
6.8 (5.1)
|
Pearson plc
|
1.8 (1.5)
|
27.3% of the
press is owned by Lord Rothermere and
24.9% by Rupert Murdoch so that these two men have over 50% between them.
77.8% of the
press is owned by a handful of billionaires. There are only 88 billionaires
among the 63 million people in the UK and most of the barons do not even live
in the UK.
All students of British politics need to know who
owns our press.