The rest of the press

Sex and scandal

Sex and scandal sell newspapers. In September 1992, when there were plenty of such stories around involving famous people and royalty, sales of tabloids went up by 122,000. But in October, when stories of this kind had dried up, they fell by more than 200,000. Even the quality Observer got in on the act. On 11 October 1992, its magazine section featured nine pages of photos of the pop-star Madonna taken from Sex (her best-selling book). That week, its sales were 74,000 greater than usual. The next Sunday, without Madonna, they were exactly 74,000 less than they had been the week before.

If you go into any well-stocked newsagent's in Britain, you will not only find newspapers. You will also see rows and rows of magazines catering for almost every imaginable taste and specializing in almost every imaginable pastime. Among these publications there are a few weeklies dealing with news and current affairs. Partly because the national press is so predictable (and often so trivial), some of these periodicals manage to achieve a circulation of more than a hundred thousand.

The Economist is of the same type as Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel and L'Express. Its analyses, however, are generally more thorough. It is fairly obviously right-wing in its views, but the writing is of very high-quality and that is why it has the reputation of being one of the best weeklies in the world.

The New Statesman and Society is the left-wing equivalent of The Economist and is equally serious and well-written.

Private Eye is a satirical magazine which makes fun of all parties and politicians, and also makes fun of the mainstream press. It specializes in political scandal and, as a result, is forever defending itself in legal actions. It is so outrageous that some chains of newsagents sometimes refuse to sell it. Although its humour is often very 'schoolboyish', it is also well-written and it is said that no politician can resist reading it.

The country's bestselling magazine is the Radio Times, which, as well as listing all the television and radio programmes for the coming week, contains some fifty pages of articles. (None the typically British appeal to continuity in the name 'Radio Times'. The magazine was first published before television existed and has never bothered to update its title).

Дата добавления: 2013-12-13