As are *Maxim *and FHM, so not sure how any of them are relevant. **foolsguinea **,you’re seriously forming an opinion of UK newspaper journalism based on two lads magazines? That would be like me reading the National Enquirer and judging US journalism by that, surely.
Assuming this is a serious question, national newspapers in the UK fall roughly into three groups: the red top tabloids, the other tabloid-type and the (formerly all broadsheet) ‘serious’ papers. There are of course other ways of grouping them, and the following are massively sweeping generalisations.
Into the first group fall the Sun, the Mirror, the Star and the Sport. Fairly simplistic in their reporting (although the writing does require a great deal of skill), usually sensationalist, very interested in Entertainment etc. Since you’ve looked at the Sun and Mirror, you’ve only touched this group so far. There are some significant differences between these two, particulalry their general political bent, but they are similar in many ways, and not prototypical of UK papers in general.
The second group includes the Mail and the Express. They take themselves more seriously, the writing is usually less simplistic and they’re arguably less sensationalist.
The third group includes the Independent, Times, Telegraph, Financial Times and Guardian. This is the heavyweight group, focussing more on serious news and measured reporting.
Most national daily papers have a Sunday equivalent. Almost every town or city area in the country has at least a weekly free newspaper, and a good number of them will have something like a chargeable daily evening local paper too. Some notable examples: London Evening Standard, Manchester Evening News, Yorkshire Evening Post and so on. Some UK newspapers have noble histories going back more than 100 years, and though a lot of them are struggling to find a place in the new information world, newspaper reporting is very important in the UK, I’d say.