In wondering why anyome buys or reads tabloids?

[Janos]

Really.

They are utterly devoid of any interesting content or intelligent comment.

Can't understand why people actually spend money on them.

And yet they must be popular as their cirulation is consitently higher than the so called 'quality press'.

What gives?

I don't understand it either.

We had the Mail delivered a few days ago by mistake and I was shocked at just how awful it was.

I kind of think it is better that people buy or read tabloids rather than nothing at all, but only just.

I don't know why either. BIL always buys them for the sport- I call them his comics as that's all they seem to be.

I guess if you don't want to know/don't care what's going on in the world except whose shagging who then they're great.

I would never pay for it, but I read the Daily Mail online.

For me, reading it gives the same pleasure that picking a scab or popping a spot might give to another person. Or digging out an ingrown hair. Probably for the same reasons.

i would NEVER read one with the pretense that it was for becoming informed about 'events' such as they are.

People are so snobby about tabloids.

The majority of people in this country DO read them and they're not all thick scumbags.

Every tried reading the Telegraph on a train? You need about 3 foot either side of you.

They contain a mixture of news, sport, health and lifestyle.

to say they don't cover the news is to show your ignorance. They DO cover the news, albeit in a condensed easy to read style.

Always makes me laugh that people on here are so rabidly anti Daily Mail yet every link to every story is to the Mail - so why do you all read a paper you hate so much.

Politics aside the Mail is a very well written newspaper.

Er, for a bit of gossip and an easy read on a hangover? As an antidote to reading 4 inch thick contracts at work? Because they have lots of pictures?

It's just one of lots of things to read, doesn't really have to be a particular (good) reason. I am the sort who'll read the back of a cereal packet though - I have to have something to read so anything goes!

We go one better than buying/reading - DP writes for one. He's a damn fine writer as are most of the other talented journos he works with.
Stop being so damn snobby, OP.

I don't feel that I have the right to turn my nose up at tabloid readers because I read The Times which in my opinion is a cross between Red & Junior Magazine with a bit of current affairs thrown in for good measure.

I don't regularly buy them but I do buy a sunday tabloid (Usually the Mirror) along with my Observer just for a bit of tat reading, infact mostly for the free magazine!

The Guardian is probably the most poorly written newspaper in print.
The faux intellectuals that read it might feel terribly pleased with themselves but it's increcdibly low quality. They pay terribly and therefore, mostly, get shit writers.

I know lots of very talented writers who write for the Mirror, Sun and even the Star. Just because a newspaper is so-called 'quality' doesn't mean the people who right them are of superior intellect.

Love the feel of paper in my hands - also a chance to relax on commute to work!

cough: Write? cough

It's not the quality of the writing, it's the content of it that shocks me.

How many times have you seen people get outraged about something they read in the paper when in fact it's a total non story hyped up to highlight 'PC gone mad' or asylum seekers etc.

I have every right to object to racist, sexist, homophobic newspapers, and to look down upon them. They are shit and they encourage their readers to make harsh judgements without supplying them with the facts.

Many people in this country believe that in Birmingham they banned Christmas to as not to offend ethnic minorities. It didn't happen - that's the power of the lying tabloids.

I don't know why people pay for tabloids either, they are free to read online

Yup, they renamed it 'Winterval' and banned christmas trees, decorations etc.

(didn't really happen, but is widely believed, along with many other famous 'PC gone mad' stories, including many involving banning the English flag and renaming Snow White and the Seven Small People etc)

If they report it often enough in BIG ENOUGH LETTERS nobody challenges the small print.

Morriszapp, do you count the Daily Mail as a tabloid or not? Because they are responsible for a lot of the irresponsible journalism you complain about. Technically most papers are tabloid now because not that many print in broadsheet any more for practical reasons.

I buy them for the back pages. The Mirror has a fantastic footie section.

The papers all cater for their market. There is no point in The Sun and The Mail writing 'isn't immigration great' and 'let gays adopt' because their readers do not hold this view.

In the same way that right wing tabloids can ham up the element of a story - the left wing can play it down. Goes both ways.

No one has even mentioned the "page three lovelies" yet.

Why is it acceptable to have a topless woman in the paper everyday? Why?

My papers of choice (that I actually buy) are the Guardian & Observer, but reading the Daily Mail online is my dirty little secret. I mainly read it as I enjoy having my mind boggled by how hateful and horrible its 'journalists' are. DP indulges me by letting me read the worst bits out to him, even though he only half listens.

I prefer the idea of the Mirror and Sun to the Mail and Express - at least the Mirror and Sun don't masquerade as a semi 'quality' paper, whereas the Mail seems to be delusional, and doesn't realise its a nasty little rag. And yet I cannot stop looking at it...