The Independent is a British
newspaper published by
Tony O'Reilly's
Independent News & Media.
It is
nicknamed the
Indy, while
the Sunday edition,
The Independent on Sunday, is the
Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK
national daily newspapers. The daily edition was named
National
Newspaper of the Year at the 2004
British Press Awards. Originally a
broadsheet newspaper, since 2003 it has
been published in a
tabloid format.
The Independent is regarded as leaning to the left
politically, although it has not affiliated itself to any political
party and a range of views can be found on its
editorial and
comment
pages.
The paper had a certified average
daily circulation of 215,504 copies in
January 2009 a drop of 14.02% on January 2008, as compared to sales
of 842,912 for
The Daily
Telegraph, 617,483 for
The
Times, and 358,844 for
The
Guardian.
History
Creation in 1986
The Independent was first published on 7 October 1986 as a
broadsheet. It was produced by
Newspaper Publishing and created by
Andreas Whittam Smith,
Stephen Glover and
Matthew Symonds. All three were
former journalists at
The Daily
Telegraph who had left the paper towards the end of
Lord Hartwell's
ownership.
Marcus Sieff was the first
chairman of Newspaper Publishing and Whittam Smith took control of
the paper.
The paper was created at a time of tension in British journalism.
Rupert Murdoch was challenging
long-accepted practices and fighting with the print unions.
In this
atmosphere the new paper attracted staff from Murdoch broadsheets
who preferred not to move to Wapping
.
Launched with the advertising slogan "It is. Are you?", and
challenging
The Guardian for
centre-left readers, and
The
Times as a newspaper of record, it reached a circulation
of over 400,000 in 1989. Competing in a moribund market,
The
Independent sparked a general freshening of newspaper design
as well as a price war. The market was tight and when
The
Independent launched an independent Sunday edition in 1990,
sales were less than anticipated. Some aspects of production merged
with the main paper, although with a largely distinct editorial
staff.
In the 1990s,
The Independent started an advertising
campaign accusing
The Times and
The Daily Telegraph of
reflecting the views of their proprietors,
Rupert Murdoch and
Conrad Black. It featured spoofs of their
mastheads with the words 'THE
RUPERT MURDOCH', 'The Conrad Black', and below, 'THE
INDEPENDENT'.
Financial problems
By the 1990s, Newspaper Publishing had financial problems. Several
other newspapers launched in the 1980s (the
Sunday Correspondent being one)
had collapsed without enough readers to ensure profitability, and
The Independent was experiencing similar problems. Two
European media groups took small stakes. A number of other media
companies were interested in the paper.
Sir Tony O Reilly's media group and
Mirror Group Newspapers developed substantial
stakes by mid-1994. In March 1995 Newspaper Publishing was
restructured with a rights issue, splitting the shareholding into
Independent News &
Media (43%),
MGN (43%), and
Prisa (
El
Pais, 12%). In the same month, Whittam Smith left the
paper.
In April 1996 there was another refinancing and in March 1998
O'Reilly bought the other 54% of the company for £30 million, and
assumed the company's debt. Brendan Hopkins headed Independent News
while
Andrew Marr was appointed editor
of
The Independent and
Rosie
Boycott of
The Independent on Sunday. Marr introduced
a dramatic if short-lived redesign which won critical favour but
was a commercial failure, partly as a result of a limited
promotional budget. Marr admitted his changes were foolhardy in his
semi-autobiographical,
My Trade.
Boycott left in April 1998 to
The
Daily Express and Marr in May 1998, later to join the
BBC as political editor.
Simon Kelner was made editor. By this time the
circulation had fallen below 200,000. Independent News spent
heavily to improve circulation and the paper had a number of
redesigns. While circulation improved it did not approach 1989 or
restore profitability and job cuts and financial controls took
their toll on the journalists and their morale. Ivan Fallon, on the
board since 1995 and once a key figure at the
Sunday
Times, replaced Hopkins as head of Independent News &
Media in July 2002. By mid 2004, the newspaper was losing £5million
a year. A gradual improvement meant that by 2006, circulation was
at a nine-year high.
Format changes
The Independent was originally published as a
broadsheet but from September 2003 was produced
in both broadsheet and
tabloid versions,
with the same content in each. The tabloid edition was termed
“compact” to distance itself
from the more sensationalist reporting style usually associated
with "tabloid" newspapers in the UK. After launching in the London
area and subsequently the
northwest, the smaller format appeared
gradually throughout the UK. Soon afterwards
Rupert Murdoch's
Times followed suit and introduced its own
tabloid version. Prior to these changes,
The Independent
had a daily circulation of around 217,500, the lowest of any major
national British daily, climbing to claim a 15% rise by March 2004
(to 250,000). Throughout much of 2006, circulation stagnated at a
quarter of a million. On 14 May 2004,
The Independent
produced its last weekday broadsheet, having stopped producing a
Saturday broadsheet edition in January.
The Independent on
Sunday published its last simultaneous broadsheet on 9 October
2005, and has since followed a compact design.
On 12 April 2005,
The Independent redesigned its layout to
a more European feel, similar to France's
Libération.
The redesign was out
by a Barcelona
design studio. The weekday second section
was subsumed within the main paper, double-page feature articles
became common in the main news pages, and there were revisions to
front and back covers.
On 25 April 2006, a new second section,
Extra, was
introduced. It is similar to
The Guardian's G2 and
The
Times' Times2, containing features,
reportage and games, including
sudoku. In June 2007
The Independent on
Sunday consolidated its content into a news section which
included sports and business, and a magazine focusing on life and
culture.
On 23 September 2008 the main newspaper became full-colour and
"Extra" was replaced by a "Independent Life Supplement" focusing on
different themes each day.
On 28 November 2008, following staff cuts, a move of production was
announced to Northcliffe House, headquarters of
Associated Newspapers. The two
newspaper groups' editorial, management and commercial operations
remained separate but shared services including security, IT,
switchboard and payroll.
Website
On 23 January 2008,
The Independent relaunched its online
edition
independent.co.uk. The relaunched site introduced a
new look, better access to the blog service, priority on image and
video content and additional areas of the site including art,
architecture, fashion, gadgets and health. The paper launched
Podcast programmes such as The Independent
Music Radio Show, The Independent Travel Guides, The Independent
Sailing Podcasts, and The Independent Video Travel Guides. Since
2009, the website has carried short video news bulletins provided
by the
Al Jazeera English news
channel.
Political stance
When the paper was established in 1986, the founders intended its
political stance to reflect the centre of the British political
spectrum and thought that it would take readers primarily from
The Times and
The Daily Telegraph. However it is
now seen as tending towards
left-wing
views, more a competitor to
The Guardian, even though it
still features
conservative columnists
such as
Bruce Anderson
and
Dominic Lawson and tends to take
a
classical liberal, pro-market,
stance on economic issues. A 2004 poll by
MORI
showed 39% of readers were Liberal Democrat voters while 36%
supported the
Labour party .
The paper took a strong editorial position against the
2003 Invasion of Iraq and aspects of
US and UK foreign policy related to the
War on Terrorism following the
September 11 attacks.
It has also been
critical of Israeli
government
policies and highlighted what it refers to as “war crimes” being
committed by pro-government forces in the Darfur region of Sudan.
A leader published on the day of the London Mayoral election of
2008 which compared the candidates said that, if the newspaper had
a vote, it would vote first for the
Green Party candidate,
Sian Berry, noting the similarity between
her priorities and those of The Independent, and secondly, with
"rather heavy heart", for the then incumbent,
Ken Livingstone.
The paper has also taken strong positions on environmental issues,
and has run campaigns for
electoral
reform, against the introduction of
ID cards and against the
restriction of mass immigration to the UK. In 1997
The
Independent on Sunday launched a campaign for the
decriminalisation of
cannabis, however ten
years on it reversed that position, writing that it had
underestimated the harm caused by the latest strains of the drug.
Originally it avoided
royal
stories, with Whittam Smith later saying he thought the British
press was “unduly besotted” with the Royal Family and that a
newspaper could “manage without” stories that focused on the
monarchy.
The Independent sponsors
The Longford Prize, in memory of
Lord Longford.
Front pages
Following the switch in format,
The Independent became
known for its unorthodox and campaigning front pages, which
frequently relied on images, graphics or lists rather than
traditional headlines and written news content. For example
following the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, it used its front page to
urge its readers to donate to its appeal fund, and following the
publication of the
Hutton Report into
the death of British government scientist
David Kelly, its front page
simply carried the word “
Whitewash?”. In 2003 the paper’s
editor Simon Kelner was named “Editor of the Year” at the “
What the Papers Say” awards, partly in
recognition of, according to the judges, his “often arresting and
imaginative front-page designs”. In 2008 however, as he was
stepping down as editor, he stated that it was possible to “overdo
the formula” and that the style of the paper’s front pages perhaps
needed “reinvention”.
In 2007,
Alan Rusbridger, editor of
the
The Guardian, said of
The Independent: "The
emphasis on views, not news, means that the reporting is rather
thin, and it loses impact on the front page the more you do that."
In a 12 June 2007 speech British Prime Minister
Tony Blair called
The Independent a
"viewspaper", saying it "was started as an antidote to the idea of
journalism as views not news. That was why it was called the
Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper not merely a
newspaper".
The Independent criticised Blair's comments
the following day.
Satirical magazine Private Eye
frequently refers to The Independent
as The Indescribablyboring.
The (RED) Independent
The Independent has supported
U2 lead
singer
Bono's
Product
RED brand by creating
The (RED) Independent, an
occasional edition that gives half the day's proceeds to the
charity. The first edition was in May 2006. Edited by Bono, it drew
high sales.
A September 2006 edition of
The RED Independent, designed
by fashion designer
Giorgio Armani,
drew controversy due to its cover shot, showing model
Kate Moss in
blackface
for an article about
AIDS in Africa.
Sections
The weekday, Saturday and Sunday editions of
The
Independent all include supplements and pull-out subsections
-
Daily Monday to Friday The
Independent
- "Independent Life" - A new feature section (September 2008)
with its 'Ten Best' also including television schedules, film and
theatre reviews.
- "Education" - Pull-out section with an emphasis on schools,
also information on Graduate, Post-Graduate life and UCAS
features.
Saturday's The Independent
- The Information - A compact, primarily listings magazine, including television schedules, film
and DVD reviews and events listings for the
coming week. It also includes a round-up of the "50 best" items in
a particular category. For example over the Christmas period there are weekly supplements of
'Gifts for him' and 'Gifts for her'
- The Independent Traveller - Contains travel articles,
advertisements etc.
- The Independent Magazine - A features magazine
including sections on food, interiors, fashion etc.
|
The Independent on Sunday
- The New Review - A features magazine
|
The IoS website offers more conventional and readily navigable
format than the physical newspaper, and offers access to additional
content.
Editors
The Independent
|
The Independent on Sunday
|
There have also been various guest editors over the years, such as
the Body Shop's
Anita Roddick on 19
June 2003 and U2's Bono in 2006.
Writers and columnists
Predominantly The
Independent
|
|
Predominantly The Independent on Sunday
|
Notable photographers
David Ashdown
- Jonathan Evans
- Brian Harris
- Tom Pilston
- David Rose
References
- U.K. paper follows rivals into tabloid format: At The
Times, size matters, International Herald Tribune, 8
December 2003.
-
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=37809
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/23/theindependent.pressandpublishing
- Full text: Welcome to The Independent's new
website, The Independent, 23 January 2008
- Full text: Independent unveils revamped
website, Journalism.co.uk, 23 January 2008
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/14/theindependent.pressandpublishing
- Mori poll
- "So consonant are her priorities with those of this paper that,
if we could vote for mayor today, we would place our
first-preference cross against her name. This would underscore the
importance of the environment to both London and to the rest of the
nation. Then, and with rather heavy heart, it would be illogical to
do anything other than make Ken Livingstone our second choice." See
"If newspapers had a vote, this one would put its cross beside..."
(leader), The Independent, 1 May 2008, p. 28.[1]
- What happened when the Guardian editor met Piers
Morgan, The
Guardian, 2 April 2007.
- Full text: Blair on the media, BBC News, 12
June 2007
-
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blairs-attack-provokes-anger-among-newspaper-editors-and-broadcasters-452891.html
-
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-kelner-would-you-be-saying-this-mr-blair-if-we-supported-your-war-in-iraq-452901.html
External links