Summary of the ownership~
Statistics have shown that the ownership of national newspapers remains concentrated in just a few large companies: 70% of the UK national market is controlled by just three companies (News UK, Daily Mail and General Trust, and Trinity Mirror), with Rupert Murdoch’s News UK fully holding a third of the entire market share. Furthermore, just two companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp UK and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, control nearly 60% of national newspaper circulation If you include online and mobile readers, the situation isn’t that much better with five companies accounting for 80% of all consumption, online and offline.
In terms of local news six companies account for over 80% of local newspaper titles – more than four times the combined number of titles published by the remaining 56 publishers – and 85% of revenue.
Issues created from these ownership models~
The problem that arises from this is the fact newspapers exercise power and influence in a number of ways as well as having privileged access to politicians. One of their most powerful forms of influence is the ability to effectively set the political agenda for the other media and more widely, in parliament, the workplace in households and even in social gatherings. The nature of a paper is set by its owner which creates anomalies in the system; press barons wield far more power and influence a majority of MPs have, and use it to further their own interests. Ultimately this means, corporations run our government and the 5 billionaires who run our media have huge power in our democracy, forcing our political parties to prioritize their wishes over the wishes of the British public. They dominate and monopolise the British culture and that is a disaster for democracy as it means the wishes of the super wealthy 0.1% dominates our governments actions.
