The Independent was originally published in broadsheet form, but from September 2003 was produced in a choice of broadsheet and tabloid forms, with the same content in each. The tabloid version was termed by the newspaper "compact", to distance itself from the racy, down-market publications usually associated with the term "tabloid". The smaller format was rolled out gradually throughout the UK. Rupert Murdoch's Times followed suit, introducing its own "compact" version. Prior to these changes, The Independent had a daily circulation of around 217,500, the lowest of any major national British daily newspaper, climbing to claim a 15% rise in circulation by March 2004 (taking it to circa 250,000). Throughout much of 2006, circulation generally stagnated at the quarter of a million mark. On 14 May 2004, The Independent produced its last weekday broadsheet edition, having stopped producing a Saturday broadsheet edition in January. The Sindie (Independent on Sunday) published its last simultaneous broadsheet edition on 9 October 2005, and has since also followed a "compact" design; the only UK weekly newspaper to do so thus far.

On 12 April 2005, The Independent unveiled a 'radical redesign' of its layout to a more European feel, somewhat similar to France's Libération. (The redesign was carried out by a Barcelona design studio.) The weekday second section was subsumed within the body of the main paper, double-page feature articles became common in the main news pages, and there were revisions to both front and back covers. It has spent over £1,000,000 on promotion.

On 25 April 2006, a new second section, Extra was introduced. It is similar to The Guardian's G2 and The Times' Times2, containing features, reportage and games, including Sudoku.

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Politics and readers

Front page of The Independent, Robert Fisk claiming that Israel used uranium-based weapons in southern Lebanon during the 2006 Lebanon War, a claim later broken by a UN panel of experts, the IAEA and other international agencies.

While The Independent claims to represent contrasting political opinions, and argued that a hung parliament would be the best outcome of the 2005 General Election, its politics are probably closest to those of Liberal Democrats. A MORI Poll taken between April-June 2000 showed that 60% of Independent readers were Labour Party voters (cited in International Socialism Spring 2003, ISBN 1-898876-97-5). A 2004 poll by MORI showed that 39% of its readers were Liberal Democrat voters whilst 36% supported Labour.

The stereotypical reader of The Independent is politically left-wing and a Liberal Democrat, or perhaps a Labour voter and interested in issues concerning the environment.^{[citation needed]} These values are directly reflected in the newspaper's style. The paper's editorial line favours the implementation of proportional representation and the tackling of climate change through governmental measures. However it is not uncommon for the editorials to cover right-wing ideas, thus making it difficult to place the paper on the political spectrum.

In recent years, it has often had critical, editorial-style front page spreads on George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and Israeli government policies. As part of its criticism, The Independent accused Israel of being guilty of using uranium-based shells in Lebanon. This accusation turned out to be false.^[5][6][7]

It has recently run campaigns for electoral reform and against the introduction of ID cards and the restriction of mass migration into the UK. Originally, The Independent has consciously avoided Royal stories; Whittam Smith once commented that he did this to protect the institution rather than out of republican motives. The newspaper still gives comparatively little attention to the British monarchy.

The Independent sponsors The Longford Prize, named in memory of Lord Longford.

The Independent is frequently satirised, particularly by Private Eye for its front pages, often dominated by statistics on specific political issues or an expressly politicised leader article, rather than more traditional news and photographs. Private Eye has in the past referred to The Independent as The Indescribablyboring or The Irrelevant.

In a speech given on 12 June 2007, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called The Independent a "viewspaper":^[8]

Comment is a perfectly respectable part of journalism. But it is supposed to be separate. Opinion and fact should be clearly divisible. The truth is a large part of the media today not merely elides the two but does so now as a matter of course.

In other words, this is not exceptional. It is routine. The metaphor for this genre of modern journalism is the Independent newspaper. Let me state at the outset it is a well-edited lively paper and is absolutely entitled to print what it wants, how it wants, on the Middle East or anything else.

But it was started as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views not news. That was why it was called the Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper not merely a newspaper.

The Independent attacked Blair's comments on its front page the next day, accusing him of hypocrisy over his alleged fawning to the Murdoch press.

On 23 January 2008, The Independent successfully relaunched its online edition independent.co.uk.^[9] Generally seen as a critical and commercial success^[10], the relaunch introduced a radical new look, better access to the popular blog service, priority on image and video content and a range of additional areas of the site including Art & Architecture, Fashion, Gadgets & Tech and Health & Wellbeing.

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The (RED) Independent

The Independent has recently shown support for U2 lead singer Bono's Product RED brand by creating an edition of the newspaper called The (RED) Independent, an occasional edition of the paper that gives half of the day's proceeds to the charity.^[11] The first edition was printed in May 2006 and edited by Bono and drew high sales.^[12]

A September 2006 edition of The RED Independent, designed by fashion designer Giorgio Armani, drew controversy^[13] due to its cover shot, showing model Kate Moss dressed in blackface for an article about AIDS in Africa.

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Sections

The Independent Traveller.

Following newspaper trends, the Saturday and Sunday editions of The Independent provide a considerably more substantial read, constituting a considerable bulk, published as they are with a host of regular supplements and pull-out subsections. The four- and five-part publications, respectively, consist in addition to the main paper of:

• The Independent on Sunday relaunched on 3 June in two sections - a main paper including news, comment, business, sport, travel and a magazine - The New Review

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Editors

There have also been various guest editors over the years, such as the Body Shop's Anita Roddick on 19 June 2003 and U2's Bono in 2006.

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Writers and columnists

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Notable photographers

• Timothy Allen
• Jonathan Evans
• Brian Harris
• Tom Pilston
• David Rose
• David Sandison

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In popular culture

In Nigel Williams' book Scenes from a Poisoner's Life, the only newspaper allowed in the house of Henry Farr (the main protagonist) by his wife Elinor is The Independent on Sunday.

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References

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External links

• Website of the newspaper "The Independent"
• Website of the newspaper "The Irish Independent"