Peter Cole's Take on Newspapers.

Having read the articles produced by Peter Cole, I found his views and his writing style easy to follow and interesting. However, he does refer to Broadsheet newspapers as 'serious' newspapers suggesting that Tabloid newspapers are not. I feel that the two formats simply have different ways of writing, they supply different types of content and as a result are writing for different audiences, but this is something that does not make them any less serious than The Times or The Independent, for example. Broadsheets tend to be more neutral and do not contain celebrity news, but they are also newspapers read by those exceeding the age of 35, in that way, it would be not suitable and best left to the Tabloids.

Recently, there has been a panic within society about the decline in newspapers and the controversial predictions on whether the production of newspapers will come to an end, with the internet being their replacement. Cole touches on this and freely admits that there has been a fall in newspaper sales, however, he does insist that this is a gradual process (much to my relief, as I like having a newspaper to read whilst eating my lunch!) He stated that   around 11.7 million newspapers are during the week whilst 12.5 million are sold on Sundays. This I found interesting, but does make sense as Sunday is the day that most people have off from work and are more likely to have time to sit down and engage with the world's news on that particular day. Aside of this, Sunday is the day that all the freebie supplements arrive, for example 'Fabulous' magazine found inside the News of the World.
Cole mentions how many people have one paper they love to read, maybe it's one that they have been brought up to have on their coffee table, one that their parents love or one that they simply enjoy but the point being that most people rarely read two papers on the same day without a reason for doing so. This, from my experiences seems to be true. For example, my grandparents for as long as I can remember have always without fail bought The Sun each day. This may seem odd as it is usually full of the latest celebrity gossip, but it is hard to deny that most people do not enjoy reading gossip and to many people this is sometimes enjoyable. (After all, what with The Sun being the best selling newspapers, they must be doing some thing right for British consumers!) My parents however, read The Guardian or The Times but never usually anything else. This, I think goes to show that Peter Cole could be right about that.

Cole explains with regards to Sunday newspapers, that these are embedded into our culture and is something that will always remain even if the nature of our Sunday is dramatically changed. This may be true as linked to what I said earlier, Sunday is the one day a week which most people are likely to be free from work and have more time to read making this an enjoyable time when they do engage with their favourite Sunday newspaper.
He also suggests that Saturday papers are imitations of the successful Sunday newspapers, as they too provide small supplements on various different topics of interest including property, finance, G2 (found in the Guardian), technology etc and Cole suggests that this offers some good reading for the weekend. I feel this is true, and I like the style that many broadsheet newspapers adopt where each section is covered in a 'miniature' version making easy reading. I'm learning to appreciate all the national newspapers for what they do and their viewpoints. I have to say I like reading The Guardian and all the mini pull outs that cover the latest Apple 'Apps', I like reading the 'Fe-Mail' section of The Daily Mail and I think everyone has a soft spot for The Sun now and again. Cole has helped me understand about newspapers and media as a business and how successful they really are. I feel I have a better knowledge now on the background of many of the newspapers mentioned in his articles and overall found it very interesting.