The Daily Mail; 'Femail' demographic

The Daily Mail is a well-established newspaper, with its form being midway between the broadsheet, through the style of news articles, and tabloid topics and features. Its main demographic, in terms of social status, would be the C1, C2 and D categories; it is stereotypically assumed that this group of people enjoy the tabloid style, of which majority of the newspaper content appears to be.  Thought the Daily Mails general target audience can be narrowed down to women, within the above social codes, and of middle to older age group. Various aspects of the newspaper will help to demonstrate this as well as the newspaper’s history; being one of the first newspapers to include articles on things, such as cookery and fashion, which interested women.

The main aspect of the Daily Mail that highlights its female demographic is the everyday and weekend magazines ‘Femail’ and ‘You.’ The articles within these are features about ‘womanly’ things including fashion, cookery and lifestyle articles such as ‘could you spot your body shape?’ The content appears to be written by women, include women’s experiences and comment.  Articles like this allow women be reassured by others who have the same worries as them, rather than a sex who feel ostracized by the medias image of the ‘perfect’ woman.  A weekly breakdown of the paper highlights its aim at females:  Monday; Life Style, Tuesday: Good Health, Thursday; Femail Magazine, Friday; It's Friday and Saturday; Escape and the Weekend Magazine.Statistics show that during the week, 53% of the readership is female. 

Throughout the newspaper, the advertisements are to a more ‘womanly’ appeal, particularly those with families. There is a repetition of large supermarkets adverts, which compete with prices and deals, as well as, offers for children’s toys and party clothing, which reflect the needs and wants of a stereotypical woman around the Christmas period. The offers suggest a certain appeal to the lower income that comes with the social codes.  These advertisements are also online and appear more glamorous in advertorials themed for Christmas.

The online version of the Daily Mail appears even more feminine than the newspaper; the homepage has links to the features in the woman’s magazines, highlighted in pink, as well as articles generally aimed at women. 

In terms of capturing a male readership the sport, and ‘city and finance’ sections of the paper, seem to take up a considerably smaller capacity, compared with the ‘Femail’ and womanly features.  Though, with the Mail on Sunday, there is a male magazine, ‘Live’, full of male orientated features and the latest gadgets, suggesting there is effort made to attract a male audience and is successful, with a 2% rise in male readers (to 49%) on a Sunday. But the larger appeal to women could raise the thought that patriarchy is still very prominent in society today, and how it used by the media to get women to conform to certain ideas and stereotypes of liking pink and enjoying shopping.