telegraph article

The Daily Telegraph has long been known as the “Torygraph” both for its political leanings and readership. I’m not so much trying to prove this point but show how the telegraph engineers its content towards the readership. This is done in many ways, for example, the language used, the content of the articles and the general layout of the paper.

The telegraph appears to have taken it upon itself to be the last bastion of what a traditional newspaper should represent. This is perhaps most clear with its layout; whereas other newspapers have decided to rejuvenate their layout with new letterheads and adopting a more interactive, modern look, the telegraph remains very traditional in appearance. The majority of the front page is text, with only one or two photos. The headlines also tend to be more informative than sensational, there’s none of the outright fear-mongering that there is in the Daily Mail or the Sun. This, along with the fact that it remains most definitely broadsheet, relates to its readership. The majority of Telegraph readers are aged sixty five or over, when this is combined with being in the ABC1 bracket it paints a picture of someone who will appreciate the traditional approach rather than a modern look.

                Since there’s a more upper/upper-middle class audience the telegraph has different content in its articles to other papers, this isn’t always clear in the actual paper but the focus is different. For example, in a recent copy of the paper there was a half-page article on Michael Sheen’s portrayal of Hamlet, as well as an in-depth review later in the paper. This same performance was commented on briefly in papers whose readers were more in the C2 D E bracket, who won’t go to the theatre as much as the telegraphs readers. The telegraph also puts less stock in what’s going on in the entertainment world. There are no big gossip articles about TV stars, the only example I could find was a small article about Adele recovering from throat surgery. Even then, they put a lot of effort into explaining who she was, this is probably because the reader base is older than in other papers, where it would be taken for granted that the reader would know who Adele is.

There was another article in the same paper that really hammered the audience gap home and it was called “Our 4x4s need bigger car park spaces, say commuters”. This clearly illustrates the different target readership of the telegraph, the fact that they believe that enough of their readers will have 4x4s to make the article relevant shows the amount of money that their readership is willing to spend on cars. The adverts that the paper includes also shows how potentially well off the audience is. More often than not the advert on the front page will either be for high end jewellery or for very expensive men’s watches.