Founded in 1903, and being the publishers of 240 regional papers, Trinity Mirror is Britain's largest newspaper group. Trinity Mirror's audience reach includes the UK and Scotland, as demonstrated on the diagram below.
Because this company is National, not Global, it has a smaller board overall. However, at Trinity Mirror there isn't the same hierarchy system that is apparent at News Corp. This means that there is most likely a wider range in the companies different takes on the news that they broadcast, allowing them to target/reach the majority of people in the UK, down to their huge array of local newspapers.
Trinity Mirror board
Simon Fox Chief Executive
Vijay Vaghela Group Finance Director
David Grigson Chairman
Lee Ginsberg Non-executive Director
Helen Stevenson Non-executive Director
Olivia Streatfeild Non-executive Director
Mirror Group subsidiaries
Trinity Mirror owns over 150 newspapers in the UK, however it is not a worldwide company. The company comprises of national and regional news brands across the country. Some examples include: The Daily Mirror, Western Mail, Daily Record, The People, and The New Day.
News Corp company structure
Unlike Trinity Mirror, News Corp is a global media and information services company focused on creating and distributing what they describe as authoritative and engaging content to consumers and businesses throughout the world. Their company comprises of many businesses across a range of media. News Corp's audience reach is huge, including countries such as; England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Alaska, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, and Japan, as demonstrated in the diagram below.
News Corp has a chairman for each individual subsidiary. However there is one, main chairman whom is also the founder of the company, Rupert Murdoch. By having a bigger team, not only does it mean the company can run more smoothly and efficiently, it could also mean that there is a large variety in what is being published. However, although the board is big, there only seems to be one or two people allocated to each country. This means that the content broadcasted to a nation (as opposed to global) may not be very varied and is most likely bias.
News Corp board
Rupert Murdoch Executive Chairman
Lachlan Murdock Co-chairman
Robert Thomson Chief Executive
Susan Panuccio Chief Financial Office
Keisha Smith-Jeremie Chief Human Resources Officer
Antoinette Bush Global Head of Government Affairs
Anoushka Healy Chief Strategy Officer
Jim Kennedy Chief Communications Officer
David Pitofsky General Counsel
News Corp subsidiaries
As can be seen on my map, News Corp is a huge company and is known globally. 44% of the Sky network in Australia is owned by News Corp. the company also owns 150 national and local newspapers in Australia alone. The company owns nine cable channels across Asia and has a 20% steak in India's " Tata Sky" channels. However, the company owns a larger 39% share of British Sky broadcasting. In Italy News Corp owns Sky Italia and in Germany a 45% share in Sky Deutschland. News Corp has various other news outlets in countries such as: Africa, The Middle East, Latin America, the U.S, and Canada. All of these statistics alongside my map show how large the company is. Print subsidiaries: The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, Masterchef Magazine, Vogue Australia. Digital subsidiaries: BallBall – online soccer broadcast to Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam.
What are the pros and cons of having one company delivering the news via different methods?
Pros:
The company can achieve a well known status among various audiences.
Views and opinions of the company are more heavily influential the more methods a company uses.
Having the ability to attract different audiences will in turn mean that the target audience is of a wider range, broadening the platform, therefore the company can generate more money.
Cons:
More expensive for a company to run.
Public have less variety in terms of prejudice when consuming news if all outlets are run by the same one company.
Explain the media platforms used for News Distribution
Media Formats and Platforms
In the last few years technology has completely transformed the way we as human beings live our day to day life, and has replaced many things that technology was once not responsible for- the most noticeable being media platforms and distribution. During the 20th century, the distribution of news was relatively limited in terms of platforms. This is because the only real way of distributing media was through print and sometimes radio. However even then not every person could afford a radio in their home, so our primary news outlet was newspapers and magazines. They would be published in a printing factory, sent to outlets and then delivered to people. Relatively straightforward. Some examples of print that are still running today include: The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, and The Guardian.
Because it was the primary source of news and media for a long time, newspapers are still the most favourable platform for a lot of people to consume their news today. It could be argued that print is the most famous/ well known form of distributing news because it has been around for so long and people like what they know. Another reason for this is that magazines, billboards, and newspapers often accompany their articles or advertisements with bright interesting images that are engaging at first glance, and break up the information that is put infant of the reader so that it is overall more appealing.
However, as technology has grown an developed rapidly since print first came about, there have become a lot more media platforms and ways of distributing them, that are much more convenient, appealing, and modern than print. And unfortunately it has become very statistically clear that less and less people are buying newspapers and magazines. One of the reasons behind this is that you can get just about every form of media you want for free these days, whether its online, on social media, e.t.c that people aren't willing to pay for something that they can get for free elsewhere. A prime example of this is The Daily Mail, they still print newspapers and you can buy them from just about any corner shop or supermarket for just £1.70 a paper. However, since moving online in 2003 theMailOnline publishes exactly the same content- for free.
Since the news has been distributed through mainstream media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, people can get access to the news through something they're already using and not having to pay for. Pressing a button on the screen of your phone in this day and age is ultimately a lot more convenient than going to the shop to buy something that you already have for free right in front of you.
It has become a popular statistic recently, that well over half of U.S adults receive their news from social media, therefore being enough evidence to assume that technology has taken over print in terms of media distribution and platforms, because its simply more convenient, affordable, and easy.
Many news outlets have cottoned on to the fact that people are more drawn towards technology to consume their news these days and so have published their own websites. This increasing popularity of online news has even meant that huge companies such as: Sky, BBC, and the Independent all now have websites catering for this.
These same providers have also noticed the constant increases on the usage of smartphones in daily life, and have seen similar opportunity here by creating news apps. BBC News, The Huffington Post, The Guardian all have news apps available for free on the App Store.