Journalism Soon (Journalism Now! Article on 'The Independent')

Launched in 1986, The Independent is a traditionally left wing newspaper aimed towards men of the ABC1 social bracket. From the statistics on the paper’s rate card, it could be suggested that the majority of readers are young professionals as the vast majority of readers fall into the ABC1C2 category and a large proportion are aged 15-34 years (source NRS July 2010-June 2011 statistics on NMA online rate card). This is reflected in the advertising seen throughout the paper, with advertisements for relatively expensive electronics (such as phones, computer games and iPod docks) and luxury cars often seen throughout, and particularly towards the front of, the paper which suggests that these sorts of items are of particular importance or great desire to the newspaper’s demographic.

Despite being one of the United Kingdom’s youngest daily newspapers, The Independent has gone through many stylistic changes, most obviously in its change from being a traditional broadsheet into a ‘compact’ version in 2003. In 2005, the layout of the paper was changed causing some of the sections to be merged and in 2008 it became full-colour. The newest changes, however, occurred on 2011; the change of font and colour of the masthead and dropping of its banner, describing the paper as “free from party political bias, free from proprietorial influence”.

Some of these changes may be due to the values seen within the paper. Although it presents itself as a newspaper that is free of political bias, the ideas it expresses often agree with the Liberal Democrats’ policies and beliefs. For this reason, they may have felt it necessary to drop the banner that they once used on the front page. Others could be explained as ways of trying to attract a greater number of readers in its target audience; the introduction of the red masthead makes the paper more noticeable as the colour stands out more and the less formal-looking font, it could be argued, makes it look like it would be easier and more interesting to read. These aspects are appealing to the younger ABC1 demographic that The Independent target and compete with The Guardian to obtain.

Although The Independent is still marketed as a newspaper free of bias, it features a large pull out section of features and opinion. However, as columnists cover a spectrum of political stances, it could be argued that it still does not have a specific political bias and, in having this variety of columnists, allows readers to find articles that fit in with their own ideas and beliefs.

Whilst The Independent is seen as an unbiased paper, the content and changes in design suggest that it may, to some extent, have a slight political agenda but could, equally, be seen as a way of attracting a greater number of readers in a world in which its medium is struggling to be profitable.