Help a clueless American out: what British newspapers and/or magazines would Giles read in 2000?

[punch_kicker15]

This is for a Season 4 fanfic I'm writing. I have only the slightest understanding of British media. I think The Guardian is generally well-respected, but I don't know if that was the case in 2000. I also don't know if there are age/class issues: for American newspapers, I think of The Wall Street Journal readership as older, wealthier, and

Comments

[gillo]

I reckon he's a Guardian reader. It's slightly left of centre - supported Blair in 1997, but against the Iraq war.

He might alternatively read the Independent, which claims to be middle of the road. I doubt if he'd read the Telegraph, which is pretty right wing and has a much older readership profile. He probably used to read The Times but no despises it as a "Murdoch rag".

Those are known collectively as "the broadsheets", based on the original size of the papers. In that category there is also the Financial Times, but it is very finance-oriented, so probably not his thing.

He would almost certainly not read any of the "tabloids" (again a reference to the original size of the papers), which tend to have shorter articles, written in shorter sentences, one per paragraph. He would despise the Sun and the Mail and dislike the others.

He would not read them online back then - still very wary of computers, remember - and would only read an occasional copy picked up in LA perhaps - I doubt if a place the size of Sunnydale would have them, even at the airport.

If he was back in England (or Olivia brought a paper with her when she visited) he might enjoy a Sunday paper, like the Observer, Sunday Times or Independent on Sunday. Back then the Sunday editions all came in multiple sections, with a colour magazine full of glossy adverts. He might refer to The News of the World as "The News of the Screws" - it was full of scandal and closed by Murdoch when it was implicated in a repugnant phone-hacking scandal. Most tabloids used (still do) any excuse to have a photograph of a half-naked woman, and tend to have a lot of gossip about (British) soap stars and other "Celebrities".

I hope the above helps. The Guardian, BTW, is notorious for punning headlines and typos, to the extent that it is known affectionately to its readers as The Grauniad, while The Independent is often known as The Indy. Editorial approaches in all the broadsheets haven't changed very much since then.

I know - far more than you wanted to know!

[punch_kicker15]

Thanks so much for this; it's really helpful. I'm writing a scene where Giles goes to a newsstand in San Francisco and buys a newspaper or two. It might not end up being more than Giles buying a copy of The Guardian, but I like having all the background info in case I decide to expound a little more on his reading habits. :)