If it achieves nothing else the Leveson Inquiry will have demonstrated the massive fault line that runs through the national press and divides the posh papers from the red-top tabloids.
Look how chippy Kelvin MacKenzie was about the Guardian when he appeared before Leveson this week. It’s as if the red-tops and the “quality papers” are produced by two different tribes.
The feeling you get watching Leveson is that it’s not just the papers that are divided – it’s also the readers.
One wonders how many of those at the inquiry in the Royal Courts of Justice, from Lord Leveson and the lawyers downwards are natural readers of the red-tops.
My guess is not many.
It seems the papers that have the majority of the readers are in a minority. They are not represented by any of the journalists on the Leveson panel of experts. They may be read in their millions, but the red-tops are not the first choice of the so-called chattering classes or the legal profession.
Robert Jay QC, the lead counsel for the Leveson Inquiry, told the former News of the World journalist Neville Thurlbeck that one of his stories was “smut”.
It was not always this way.
When I was a lad my family took the Guardian and the Observer, but also the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror or the Daily Herald and its successor, the pre- Murdoch Sun. The Guardian and Observer were for the heavy political stuff and the red-tops for human interest and sport.
Since then there has been a convergence of editorial content, a process some have called “dumbing down,” with the posh papers covering more sport, lifestyle and TV.
I remember a Daily Telegraph reader being appalled just because the paper had carried a picture of Richard Branson on the front page. It means that the “quality” press now carry many stories that are meat and drink to the tabloids.
For example the Sun this week broke the story that celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson had been cautioned for shoplifting in Tescos. It made the BBC News and was followed up by the posh papers.
Arguably, The Times, Guardian and Telegraph carry so much popular culture content that you don’t need to buy a red-top as well.
Within journalism there is also a growing divide between red-top journalists and
the rest.
When I was a lad working on a regional paper you came into contact with the red-tops’ district journalists, like Frank Palmer and Martin Sharpe who covered the East Midlands for the Mirror and the Sun, who were admired as top class reporters.
There are far fewer district national journalists now.
Journalism has also become a much more graduate, middle class profession, where many of the entrants have little or no affinity with the red-top press.
As a reader of TheMediaBriefing I am assuming you are a bit of a media type.
I hope you don’t mind me asking this question: “Do you or any of your friends read a red-top tabloid newspaper every day?”
My guess is, apart from journalists who get all the papers for free at work, there are not many of you are regular red-top readers.
A bit like all those gathered at the Royal Courts of Justice for the Leveson Inquiry into the press.
Jon Slattery is a freelance media journalist who blogs about journalism
at jonslattery.blogspot.com
Picture by Ben Sutherland on Flickr, via a Creative Commons licence.
Newsletter Subscriptions
If you liked this article you can sign up to receive free weekly newsletters from the site by clicking here
TheMediaBriefing Social