The British teaching Americans an ironic lesson: "when it comes to newspapers, more is better".

Whilst American publications only go to town on exciting content and glossy supplements on a Sunday, British publishers see this a weekend-long affair; the Saturday packages are as satisfyingly hefty and colourful as their Sunday editions. Tabloids and quality papers alike are similarly heaving with news stories, gossip, advertisements and offers.

The reasons for the weekend long-dynamism in the British press are largely based on circulation: the national industry is quite unique in that it has maintained a sense of competition between the daily and Sunday editions of the same papers. Moreover, Britain does not have an equivalent of the "scrappy news aggregators", such as the Huffington Post and the Drudge,  which rival American papers as news and analysis providers. The majority of British online news seekers look to the online editions of national newspapers or the websites of BBC or Sky News to satisfy their information needs, at least in the first instances.  

Furthermore, as one would hope, the content of Britain's papers is seen as just as valuable as their wonderful colour supplements. The hard-nosed competition and perennial love of exposure running through newsrooms lends itself to cutting-edge investigative works, published in reader-grabbing serialisations. The Telegraph's MP Expenses Files, for example, was a recent journalistic coup that sent copies flying off the shelves for weeks after and had huge political ramifications. Often, the finest targets of attack are fellow publications: the Guardian's allegations of the dirty tactics used by the News of the World has sparked a "good old-fashioned newspaper war."

At first reading, Shearer's observations may seem a tad reductive; the article is general in its comparisons, and makes no reference to the structural differences between American and British societies and their press industries which may account for why "more" might be "better" for the British but could be a waste of ink for the Americans. On the other hand, comparisons are more often than not based on general themes and visual indications. The fact that publishers are prepared to continue pooling resources into extensive weekend packages and investigative campaigns, moreover, is a good indication as any of the health of British papers. The British press, despite the range of standards within the industry, remains a pertinent synecdoche to illustrate its continued existence as a cherished, albeit currently beleaguered, national institution.

Source:  The Atlantic