Newspapers: The Sun — Industry and Audience
The Sun: An Industry and Audience Case Study
In Section B, questions on The Sun test what you know about it as an example of a newspaper industry and how it reaches and targets its audience, so you answer from your own knowledge rather than from a copy of the paper. (In Section A, where newspapers may be assessed for media language or representation, a copy of the set product is provided.) This lesson focuses on those facts — ownership, funding, regulation, distribution and audience targeting — rather than analysing a specific front page.
The Sun is a British tabloid daily newspaper owned by News UK, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Its distinctive red-and-white masthead has earned it the nickname ‘red top’, a style shared with other tabloids such as The Mirror and The Daily Star. The Sun on Sunday was launched in 2012, in part because News Corp closed its Sunday-only title News of the World following the phone-hacking scandal. Politically, The Sun has moved between supporting Labour and the Conservatives over the decades, but today it is generally seen as Conservative-leaning and opposed to EU membership.
The Sun is owned by News UK, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. It has an average daily print circulation of roughly 1.3 million and a daily readership of around 2.2–2.3 million. It stopped publishing official circulation figures in 2020.
How The Sun Is Produced
Newspaper production happens in stages overseen by the editor. In the pre-press stage, journalists generate stories and take photographs during newsgathering, increasingly supplemented by citizen journalism — members of the public capturing events on smartphones. The editor sets the agenda and signs off content, a sales team sells advertising space in the paper and on the website, and a page designer lays out stories and adverts according to house style.
In the press stage, the paper is published in print and online after editorial sign-off. The finished print edition is distributed to newsagents and supermarkets, while digital content reaches readers through the Sun app and is pushed out to platforms such as Apple News and social media to maximise reach.
Advertising is central to The Sun’s funding. As well as conventional adverts, the paper runs advertorials — content that looks like ordinary journalism but has been paid for by a brand, giving it more persuasive weight because it appears to carry the endorsement of the paper and its journalists.
As print circulation falls and advertisers become choosier, The Sun has turned to diversification, launching gambling brands such as Sun Vegas and Sun Bets. Readers can also pay for an ad-free version of the website (£4.99 a month) or a digital edition of the print paper through the Sun app (£6.99 a week).
The Sun earns revenue from advertising, advertorials, digital subscriptions and diversification into brands like Sun Bingo and Sun Bets — all needed as print circulation and traditional ad revenue decline.
Regulation: Self-Regulation and IPSO
Unlike broadcasters, newspapers are subject to self-regulation. Editors are expected to follow the Editors’ Code of Practice, and readers who believe The Sun has breached this code can complain to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
Digital Convergence and Reach
The Sun shows convergence in action: all print content is free on thesun.co.uk, the Sun app carries a paid digital edition, and stories are distributed through Apple News and social media platforms including Facebook, X, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, each tailored to a different audience.
A 2021 PAMCo study found The Sun online reached around 6 million people a day, and Apple News click-throughs generate roughly 23% of the paper’s page views.
Rival publishers argue that reach alone is not the best measure — engagement time matters too. MailOnline has claimed 5.4 billion minutes of reader engagement a month across print and digital, compared with only 3.1 billion minutes for The Sun, showing how newspapers dispute whose online audience is really biggest.
Apple News click-throughs generate about 23% of The Sun’s page views, showing how much newspapers now depend on other platforms for digital reach.
Who Reads The Sun? Targeting the Audience
The Sun’s biggest audience share comes from the C2DE demographic, and most readers are male. Print readers tend to be older — around 45 to 64 — while roughly 60% of online readers are under 34, showing the print and digital audiences are quite different in age.
The average UK reading age is about nine; The Sun is written to a reading age of around eight. Bold text, strong visuals and short chunks of copy make it accessible and quick to skim — useful for readers with weaker literacy or those reading on a commute — which fits its tagline, ‘The People’s Paper’.
The Sun targets a C2DE, largely male readership and is written to a reading age of about eight, below the UK average of nine, to maximise accessibility.
Audience Theory: Active or Passive?
Historically, newspaper readers were assumed to be a passive audience who accepted what they read as fact, since news is expected to be truthful. Today, theorists argue audiences are active: readers interpret The Sun’s stories through their own beliefs and experiences, meaning the same story can be understood very differently by different readers.
Loyalty schemes reinforce audience targeting: Sun Savers codes let readers collect points for money-off deals, while promotions such as Sun Superdays offer free or discounted tickets to attractions like Alton Towers. These reward repeat purchase and particularly appeal to The Sun’s lower-income C2DE readers.