UK tabloid and broadsheet newspapers

Tuesday 28/09/2021 By Kiss Bianca & Edition: 001

Ciprian Popescu
 Table of Contents
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

History of broadsheets and

01 Introduction 04 tabloids

Broadshhets and
02 What are tabloids ? 05 tabloids today

03 What are broadsheets ?

 The Daily News
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

01
Introduction
 Introduction
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

What is a tabloid? What is a broadsheet? Are they both

the same thing? The simple answer to the latter question
is that they are not the same thing.
In the world of print journalism, the two main formats
for newspapers are broadsheet and tabloid. Strictly
speaking, these terms refer to the page sizes of such
papers, but the different formats have distinct histories
and associations. 
 The Daily News
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

02
What are tabloids ?
 What are tabloids ?
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

● The term tabloid refers to a newspaper that is

about half the size of a normal newspaper.
This means that tabloid newspapers are
smaller than broadsheet newspapers. The
tabloid newspaper is typically printed on an
A3 paper and has has an average paper size of
30cm by 40 cm.
● Many city dwellers prefer tabloids because
they are easier to carry and read on the
subway or bus.
 Tabloids
● Tabloid newspapers contain more photographs than broadsheet newspapers.
● The front page of a tabloid newspaper contains a great deal of pictures. Over 50 percent of tabloid
front-pages contain interesting pictures of famous people (celebrities).
● The content of a tabloid newspaper is not mainly on serious issues. The content is full of
entertaining and fascinating stories about celebrities and other figures. They contain a lot of
scandalous stories on celebrities and public figures.
● Tabloid stories are sensational and the language that is used is so simple and colloquial that even
less educated people understand it perfectly.
● Information in the tabloids are often exaggerated in order to increase newspaper sales.
● In Britain, tabloid papers—also known as "red tops" for their front-page banners—tend to be racier
and more sensational than their American counterparts
 The Daily News
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

03
What are broadsheets ?
 What are broadsheets ?
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

● The broadsheet newspaper publishes

more serious news stories in an in-depth
manner.

● The broadsheet has a larger format than

the tabloid. It has an average paper size
of 38cm by 61cm.

● Broadsheet newspapers are generally

printed on A2 papers.
 Broadsheets
● The broadsheet has majority of its readers to be educated people and people in authority unlike the
tabloid whose readers are made up of mainly ordinary and less educated people.
● The news stories in broadsheet newspapers are concise and straight to the point.
● The language is more formal than that of a tabloid.
● Broadsheet newspapers are taken more seriously by the general public than tabloids.
● Broadsheets are more likely to tell the truth in comparison to tabloids, which normally exaggerate
the truth.
● Broadsheets prefer to carry political news on their front pages.
 The Daily News
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

04
History of broadsheets and tabloids
 History of broadsheets and tabloids
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

• Broadsheet newspapers first appeared in 18th-century

Britain after the government began to tax newspapers based
on their number of pages. That made large-format papers
with fewer pages cheaper to print than smaller ones with
more pages

• Tabloid newspapers, perhaps due to their smaller size, are

often associated with shorter, crisper stories. 

• Tabloids date to the early 1900s when they were referred to

as "small newspapers" containing condensed stories easily
consumed by everyday readers.

• Tabloid readers traditionally came from the lower working

classes, but that has changed somewhat in the past few
decades.
 The Daily News
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

05
Broadsheets and tabloids today
 Broadsheets and tabloids today
Tuesday 28/09/2021 Newsletter Edition: 001

• Newspapers, whether broadsheets or tabloids,

are experiencing difficult times these days.
Readership has slipped for all newspapers as As readers gravitate toward briefer stories
and instant access to news via the Internet,
many readers have turned to the Internet for up-
more broadsheets may begin to adopt
to-the-minute news from a variety of online
tabloid formats online. The push seems to
sources, often for free.
be to capture readers' attention with tabloid
techniques instead of relying on a more in-
• The online versions of broadsheets, are more depth, broadsheet-like, serious tone.
tabloid-like in format; they have flashier
headlines, attention-grabbing color, and more
graphics than the print editions.