1978 The Sun Newspaper commercial

The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (where it is known as The Irish Sun) with an average circulation of 2,904,180 copies a day in October 2010, making it the biggest-selling newspaper in the UK. A separate Scottish Sun is published and printed in Glasgow with a circulation of about 339,000 copies daily (September 2010). The total daily readership is approximately 7,700,000. By circulation it is the tenth biggest newspaper in any language in the world, It reaches 2.9 million readers in the ABC1 demographic and 5.0 million in the C2DE demographic, compared to the 1.5 and 0.1 million respectively of its broadsheet stablemate The Times. It is published by News Group Newspapers of News International, itself a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1978 Daily Star Newspaper commercial from the UK.

The Daily Star is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom. the first publishing was on 2 November 1978, and was the first new national paper to be launched since the Daily Worker in 1930 (now Morning Star). For many years it published Monday to Saturday but on 15 September 2002 it expanded to bring out a Sunday edition, the Daily Star Sunday, which is edited by Gareth Morgan. On 31 October 2009 the paper published its 10,000th issue.

The paper was launched from Manchester and initially circulated only in the North and Midlands. It was conceived by the then-owners of Express Newspapers, Trafalgar House, to take on the strength of the Daily Mirror and Sun in the north. It was also intended to utilise the under-capacity of the Great Ancoats Street presses in Manchester as the Daily Express was losing circulation. The Daily Star sold out its first night print of 1,400,000. Its cover price has decreased over the years in order to compete with its rival The Sun.

The Daily Star is published by Express Newspapers, which also publishes the Daily Express and Sunday Express. The group is now owned by Richard Desmond’s Northern and Shell company. The paper predominately focuses on stories largely revolving around celebrities, sport, and news and gossip about popular television programmes, such as soap operas and reality TV shows.

Its editor is Dawn Neesom. She was promoted to the post in December 2003 after the previous editor, Peter Hill, moved to become editor of the Daily Express. Previously she had been an executive on the paper in charge of the features department.

1978 Daily Mirror Newspaper commercial from the UK.

The Daily Mirror is a British tabloid newspaper founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. The circulation of the Daily Mirror in September 2010 was 1,213,323 copies daily.

20th century

The Daily Mirror was launched on 2 November 1903 by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) as a newspaper for women, run by women. Hence the name: he said, “I intend it to be really a mirror of feminine life as well on its grave as on its lighter sides….to be entertaining without being frivolous, and serious without being dull”, and also invited men to read it. It cost one penny.

It was not an immediate success, and in 1904, he decided to turn it into a pictorial newspaper, changing the masthead to The Daily Illustrated Mirror and appointing Hamilton Fyfe as editor who then fired all the women journalists. This name ran from 26 January to 27 April 1904 (issues 72 to 150), then reverted to The Daily Mirror. The first issue did not have advertisements on the front page as previously, but instead news text and engraved pictures (of a traitor and an actress), with the promise of photographs inside. Two days later, the price was dropped to one halfpenny and to the masthead was added: “A paper for men and women”. This combination was more successful: by issue 92, the guaranteed circulation was 120,000 copies and by issue 269, it had grown to 200,000: by then the name had reverted and the front page was mainly photographs. Circulation grew to 466,000 making it the second largest morning newspaper.

Alfred Harmsworth sold the newspaper to his brother Harold Harmsworth (from 1914 Lord Rothermere) in 1913. In 1917, the price was increased to one penny. Circulation continued to grow: in 1919, some issues sold more than 1 million copies a day, making it the largest daily picture paper.

By the mid 1930s, the Mirror was struggling – it and the Mail were the main casualties of the early 1930s circulation war that saw the Daily Herald and the Daily Express establish circulations of more than two million, and Rothermere decided to sell his shares in it.

1977 Sunday Mirror commercial

The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday edition of the newspaper. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and changed to become the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People (once Sunday People). The circulation of the Sunday Mirror in September 2010 was 1,126,053 copies weekly.

1978 TV Times advert

TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by IPC Media, a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big star interviews and soaps. TVTimes is positioned in the premium sector as a quality TV weekly magazine for all generations.

TVTimes belongs to IPC Media’s family of television magazines, which form the sub-group TX. This includes What’s on TV, TV Easy and TV & Satellite Week, as well as the soap bi-weekly Soaplife.

info gleaned from Wikipedia

1978  TV  Times commercial from the UK.

TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by IPC Media, a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big star interviews and soaps. TVTimes is positioned in the premium sector as a quality TV weekly magazine for all generations.

TVTimes belongs to IPC Media’s family of television magazines, which form the sub-group TX. This includes What’s on TV, TV Easy and TV & Satellite Week, as well as the soap bi-weekly Soaplife.

info gleaned from Wikipedia

1975 commercial for the UK’s  TV Times .

TVTimes is a television listings magazine published in the United Kingdom by IPC Media, a subsidiary of Time Warner. It is known for its access to television actors and their programmes. In 2006 it was refreshed for a more modern look, increasing its emphasis on big star interviews and soaps. TVTimes is positioned in the premium sector as a quality TV weekly magazine for all generations.

TVTimes belongs to IPC Media’s family of television magazines, which form the sub-group TX. This includes What’s on TV, TV Easy and TV & Satellite Week, as well as the soap bi-weekly Soaplife.

History

The magazine was launched in 1955, but became a national magazine only in 1968. Prior to 1968, several of the regional ITV companies – Westward Television, Scottish Television, Tyne Tees Television, Ulster Television, TWW and Teledu Cymru (and briefly WWN) – produced their own listings magazines. The Midlands originally had their own edition of TVTimes listing ATV and ABC programmes, but a separate listings magazine in the Midlands called TV World existed from 1964-68 before TVTimes went national. Until television listings were deregulated in 1991 the TVTimes was the only place where complete weekly listings of ITV programmes could be published.

Channel Television continued to publish its own listings magazine until 1991 (it was feared that the company might go under without the revenue from its own magazine).

Irish commercial for the TV listings guide the ‘RTE Guide’ from 1995

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (Radio [and] Television of Ireland; abbreviated as RTÉ) is the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on 31 December 1961, making it one of the oldest continuously operating public service broadcasters in the world.

RTÉ is a statutory body run by a board appointed by the Irish Government. General management of the organisation is in the hands of the Executive Board headed by the Director-General.

Radio Éireann, RTÉ’s predecessor and at the time a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, was one of 23 founding organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

Irish commercial for The Lion King Magazine from 1995.

The Lion King is a 1994 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Released to theaters on June 15, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures, it is the 32nd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. The story, which was influenced by the Bible stories of Joseph and Moses and the William Shakespeare play Hamlet, takes place in a kingdom of anthropomorphic animals in Africa.  The film was the highest grossing animated film of all time until the release of Finding Nemo (a Disney/Pixar computer-animated film). The Lion King still holds the record as the highest grossing traditionally animated film in history and belongs to an era known as the Disney Renaissance.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1992 advert for the SUN Newspaper.

The Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland (where it is known as The Irish Sun) with the second highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world and the biggest circulation within the UK, standing at an average of 2,986,000 copies a day between January and June 2008 and with a daily readership of approximately 7,900,000, of which 56 percent are male and 44 percent female. By circulation it is the tenth biggest newspaper in any language in the world, four places behind its Sunday stablemate the News of the World, although their circulations are close and these places were briefly reversed during May 2008. It reaches 2.9 million readers in the ABC1 demographic and 5.0 million in the C2DE demographic, compared to the 1.5 and 0.1 million respectively of its broadsheet stablemate The Times. It is published by News Group Newspapers of News International, itself a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

History

The Sun was first published as a broadsheet on 15 September 1964  – with a logo featuring a glowing orange disc. It was launched by owners IPC (International Press Corporation) to replace the failing Daily Herald. The paper did not live up to IPC’s expectations. Circulation continued to decline and it was soon losing even more money than the Herald had done.

The first use of the word Sun as a UK newspaper title was the Student Newspaper of The Birmingham College of Advanced Technology (which became Aston University in 1966). The Birmingham Sun – SUN stood for Student Union Newspaper and was founded in 1951.

In 1969, IPC decided to throw in the towel. The tycoon Robert Maxwell, eager to buy a British newspaper (which he later did, with the Mirror Group in 1984) offered to take it off their hands and retain its commitment to the Labour party, but admitted there would be redundancies, especially among the printers. Rupert Murdoch had already bought the News of the World, a sensationalist Sunday newspaper, the previous year, but the presses in the basement of his building in London’s Bouverie Street sat idle six days a week. Seizing the opportunity to increase his presence on Fleet Street, he made an agreement with the print unions, promising fewer redundancies if he got the paper. He assured IPC that he would publish a “straightforward, honest newspaper” which would continue to support Labour. IPC, under pressure from the unions, rejected Maxwell’s offer, and Murdoch bought the paper for £800,000, to be paid in instalments^. He would later remark: “I am constantly amazed at the ease with which I entered British newspapers.”