Twelve daily newspapers and eleven Sunday-only weekly newspapers are distributed nationally in the United Kingdom. Others circulate in Scotland only and still others serve smaller areas. National daily newspapers publish every day except Sundays and 25 December. Sunday newspapers may be independent; e.g. The Observer was an independent Sunday newspaper from its founding in 1791 until it was acquired by The Guardian in 1993, but more commonly, they have the same owners as one of the daily newspapers, usually with a related name (e.g. The Times and The Sunday Times), but are editorially distinct.
UK newspapers can generally be split into two distinct categories: the more serious and intellectual newspapers, usually referred to as the broadsheets, and sometimes known collectively as the "quality press", and others, generally known as tabloids, and collectively as the 'popular press', which have tended to focus more on celebrity coverage and human interest stories rather than political reporting or overseas news. The tabloids in turn have been divided into the more sensationalist mass market titles, or 'red tops', such as The Sun and the Daily Mirror, and the middle-market papers, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail.