Everything about The Independent totally explained
The Independent is a
British compact newspaper published by
Sir Tony O'Reilly's
Independent News & Media. It is nicknamed the
Indie, with the Sunday edition,
The Independent on Sunday, being the
Sindie. Launched in 1986, it's one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers, with a circulation of 240,116 in August 2007 according to the UK
Audited Bureau of Circulations; a 5.37% drop from November 2006. The Sunday edition has bucked its trend of faring worse than its daily sister; up 1.63% in the last nine months to August 2007 at 216,371. This first rise for a considerable time would seem to reflect a buoying effect of the June 2007 relaunch. The daily edition was named
National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004
British Press Awards. The Independent is politically left-leaning.
History
Creation in 1986
The Independent is the youngest of the current British "compact" newspapers, first published on
7 October 1986 as a broadsheet. It was produced by
Newspaper Publishing Ltd. 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 considerable tension in British journalism.
Rupert Murdoch was challenging long accepted practices and was fighting with the print unions. In this unsettled atmosphere the newly created paper was able to attract very good staff from the Murdoch broadsheets, who chose to jump ship rather than move to
Wapping.
The Independent also had a rather better relationship with its printers, mainly because it hadn't been around long enough for the relations to sour.
Launched with the advertising slogan "It is. Are you?", and challenging
The Guardian for its politically centre-left readers, and
The Times as a 'newspaper of record', it reached a circulation of over 400,000 in 1989. Competing for readers in a moribund market, the arrival of
The Independent was one of the factors that sparked both a general freshening of newspaper design as well as a costly 'price war'. The market was very tight, and when
The Independent launched an independent Sunday edition in 1990, sales were less than anticipated. Some aspects of production were consequently merged with the main paper, although Sunday publication did continue with a largely distinct editorial staff.
In the 1990s,
The Independent started an advertising campaign, accusing its rivals,
The Times and
The Daily Telegraph of reflecting the views of their respective 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 it became clear that the parent company, Newspaper Publishing, was suffering financial difficulties. Several other newspapers launched in the 1980s (the
Sunday Correspondent being one example) had swiftly collapsed without establishing a large enough base of loyal readers to ensure profitability, and
The Independent was experiencing similar problems. Two European media groups soon took small stakes in the company. A number of other media companies were interested in the paper for a number of reasons. Both
Sir Tony O Reilly's media group and
Mirror Group Newspapers developed substantial stakes in the company 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 out 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 some critical favour, but was largely a commercial failure, partly as a result of a limited promotional budget. (Marr has since admitted his changes were foolhardy in his semi-autobiographical work
My Trade.)
Boycott left in April 1998 (to
The Daily Express) and Marr in May 1998 (later to join the
BBC as its Political Editor).
Simon Kelner was made the new editor. By this time the circulation of the paper had fallen to below 200,000. Independent News spent heavily to improve circulation and the paper underwent a number of redesigns. While circulation improved it didn't approach the 1989 figures or restore the paper to profitability and the job cuts and tight 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 still losing £5million a year. A gradual improvement has meant that by 2006, with circulation at a nine year high, profitability is expected soon .
Change from broadsheet to tabloid size
The Independent was originally published in
broadsheet form, but from September 2003 was produced in a choice of broadsheet and
tabloid forms, with the same content in each. The tabloid version was termed by the newspaper "
compact", to distance itself from the racy, down-market publications usually associated with the term "tabloid". The smaller format was rolled out gradually throughout the UK.
Rupert Murdoch's
Times followed suit, introducing its own "compact" version. Prior to these changes,
The Independent had a daily circulation of around 217,500, the lowest of any major national British daily newspaper, climbing to claim a 15% rise in circulation by March 2004 (taking it to circa 250,000). Throughout much of 2006, circulation generally stagnated at the quarter of a million mark. On
14 May 2004,
The Independent produced its last weekday broadsheet edition, having stopped producing a Saturday broadsheet edition in January. The
Sindie (Independent on Sunday) published its last simultaneous broadsheet edition on
9 October 2005, and has since also followed a "compact" design; the only UK weekly newspaper to do so thus far.
On
12 April 2005,
The Independent unveiled a 'radical redesign' of its layout to a more European feel, somewhat similar to France's
Libération. (The redesign was carried out by a
Barcelona design studio.) The weekday second section was subsumed within the body of the main paper, double-page feature articles became common in the main news pages, and there were revisions to both front and back covers. It has spent over
£1,000,000 on promotion.
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.
Politics and readers
While
The Independent claims to represent contrasting political opinions, and argued that a
hung parliament would be the best outcome of the 2005 General Election, its politics are probably closest to those of
Liberal Democrats. A
MORI Poll taken between April-June 2000 showed that 60% of
Independent readers were Labour Party voters (cited in
International Socialism Spring 2003, ISBN 1-898876-97-5). A 2004
poll
by
MORI showed that 39% of its readers were Liberal Democrat voters whilst 36% supported
Labour.
The stereotypical reader of
The Independent is politically left-wing and a Liberal Democrat, or perhaps a Labour voter and interested in issues concerning the environment. These values are directly reflected in the newspaper's style. The paper's editorial line favours the implementation of
proportional representation and the tackling of climate change through governmental measures. However it isn't uncommon for the editorials to cover right-wing ideas, thus making it difficult to place the paper on the political spectrum.
In recent years, it has often had critical, editorial-style front page spreads on
George W. Bush,
Tony Blair, and Israeli government policies. As part of its criticism,
The Independent accused Israel of being guilty of using uranium-based shells in Lebanon. This accusation turned out to be false.
It has recently run campaigns for
electoral reform and against the introduction of
ID cards and the restriction of mass migration into the UK. Originally,
The Independent has consciously avoided Royal stories; Whittam Smith once commented that he did this to protect the institution rather than out of
republican motives. The newspaper still gives comparatively little attention to the
British monarchy.
The Independent sponsors
The Longford Prize, named in memory of
Lord Longford.
The Independent is frequently satirised, particularly by
Private Eye for its front pages, often dominated by statistics on specific political issues or an expressly politicised leader article, rather than more traditional news and photographs.
Private Eye has in the past referred to
The Independent as
The Indescribablyboring or
The Irrelevant.
In a speech given on
12 June 2007, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair called
The Independent a "viewspaper":
The Independent attacked Blair's comments on its front page the next day, accusing him of hypocrisy over his alleged fawning to the
Murdoch press.
On 23 January 2008,
The Independent successfully relaunched its online edition
independent.co.uk. Generally seen as a critical and commercial success, the relaunch introduced a radical new look, better access to the popular blog service, priority on image and video content and a range of additional areas of the site including Art & Architecture, Fashion, Gadgets & Tech and Health & Wellbeing.
The (RED) Independent
The Independent has recently shown support for
U2 lead singer
Bono's
Product RED brand by creating an edition of the newspaper called
The (RED) Independent, an occasional edition of the paper that gives half of the day's proceeds to the charity. The first edition was printed in May 2006 and edited by Bono and 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 dressed in
blackface for an article about
AIDS in
Africa.
Sections
Following newspaper trends, the Saturday and Sunday editions of
The Independent provide a considerably more substantial read, constituting a considerable bulk, published as they're with a host of regular supplements and pull-out subsections. The four- and five-part publications, respectively, consist in addition to the main paper of:
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 - This supplement is compiled information of weekly events including weather, gossip, lesser known news etc. This section also features sections on food, interiors, fashion etc.
- save&spend - consumer-oriented personal finance and share tips.
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The Independent on Sunday
Business & Money - the self-contained financial section incorporating share and stock market details, personal finance and media news.
The Compact Traveller - the travelling supplement consisting of family holidaying columns, a holiday Q&A page, and special regional features.
ABC - the magazine standing for "Arts, Books & Culture", consisting of reviews of all media and entertainment forms and interviews with sector personalities.
The Sunday Review - a substantial, slightly wider magazine encompassing special reportage features, regular columns, and sections spanning lifestyle, fashion, gardening and motoring.
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The Independent on Sunday relaunched on 3 June in two sections - a main paper including news, comment, business, sport, travel and a magazine - The New Review
Editors
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
Notable photographers
Timothy Allen
Jonathan Evans
Brian Harris
Tom Pilston
David Rose
David Sandison
In popular culture
In Nigel Williams' book Scenes from a Poisoner's Life, the only newspaper allowed in the house of Henry Farr (the main protagonist) by his wife Elinor is The Independent on Sunday.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Independent'.
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