Newspapers – The I
Context
Owned by Johnston Press
Aimed at readers and lapsed readers of all ages and commuters with limited time
Launched in October 2010, costing 20p
Challenges existing ‘quality’ newspapers with low cover price and tabloid format in the context of
declining newspaper sales
Target audience + Circulation
TA – ABC1 (19-45) aspirers/reformers
Low circulation – under 300k
I Website – 2M monthly unique users
Nick Clegg often writes a column
Created with 5 key principles
- Affordable price
- Balanced comments
- High quality content
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Manageable pagination
The i: ownership
Launched by Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire who owns the Independent and Evening
Standard
In 2016 it was bought by regional publisher Johnston Press for £24 million
Johnston Press publishes titles such as the Yorkshire Post and the Scotsman alongside around 200
other UK regional titles
As of October 2018, Johnston Press reported significant
financial difficulties and put itself up for sale – likely to lead
to the break-up of the company and a new owner for the I
, Art and Culture
Theatre reviews (pg. 36)
- High art = Opera, Theatre, Ballet
- Low art = Reality TV, Sports, Lion King
= The I is interested in things that can be criticized instead of commercially successful
Soft vs Hard news
“Bombs addressed to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton intercepted” (H)
“Why fracking might have caused an earthquake” (H)
“Daily Telegraph injunction - what are they & when do they get used” (H)
“Julia Davis on 'simulations violent lesbian sex' in her new Sky series” (S)
Homepage
The information is arranged in smaller, more bite size chunks of text
- This fits with the idea that the website will be consumed by those who are familiar with
reading/consuming information from the internet
This is similar to the print version as the print seems to adopt a similar layout
- i.e. the Opinion Matrix where all of the articles are summarised into more condensed versions
The colour schemes have stayed the same throughout; red, white and grey which is key as they
need this consistency for their brand
They also have the I logo, but it is not as large as the one on the paper, but this is because they
would need their print article to stand out from the others
Clickbait
The soft news stories act as clickbait - they soften the serious tone created by the typical hard news
on the homepage
e.g. "I thought polyamory would be fun, now I'm in three relationships."
Context
Owned by Johnston Press
Aimed at readers and lapsed readers of all ages and commuters with limited time
Launched in October 2010, costing 20p
Challenges existing ‘quality’ newspapers with low cover price and tabloid format in the context of
declining newspaper sales
Target audience + Circulation
TA – ABC1 (19-45) aspirers/reformers
Low circulation – under 300k
I Website – 2M monthly unique users
Nick Clegg often writes a column
Created with 5 key principles
- Affordable price
- Balanced comments
- High quality content
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Manageable pagination
The i: ownership
Launched by Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire who owns the Independent and Evening
Standard
In 2016 it was bought by regional publisher Johnston Press for £24 million
Johnston Press publishes titles such as the Yorkshire Post and the Scotsman alongside around 200
other UK regional titles
As of October 2018, Johnston Press reported significant
financial difficulties and put itself up for sale – likely to lead
to the break-up of the company and a new owner for the I
, Art and Culture
Theatre reviews (pg. 36)
- High art = Opera, Theatre, Ballet
- Low art = Reality TV, Sports, Lion King
= The I is interested in things that can be criticized instead of commercially successful
Soft vs Hard news
“Bombs addressed to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton intercepted” (H)
“Why fracking might have caused an earthquake” (H)
“Daily Telegraph injunction - what are they & when do they get used” (H)
“Julia Davis on 'simulations violent lesbian sex' in her new Sky series” (S)
Homepage
The information is arranged in smaller, more bite size chunks of text
- This fits with the idea that the website will be consumed by those who are familiar with
reading/consuming information from the internet
This is similar to the print version as the print seems to adopt a similar layout
- i.e. the Opinion Matrix where all of the articles are summarised into more condensed versions
The colour schemes have stayed the same throughout; red, white and grey which is key as they
need this consistency for their brand
They also have the I logo, but it is not as large as the one on the paper, but this is because they
would need their print article to stand out from the others
Clickbait
The soft news stories act as clickbait - they soften the serious tone created by the typical hard news
on the homepage
e.g. "I thought polyamory would be fun, now I'm in three relationships."
