Planning My Newspaper - A short video

Over the summer, we as a class were required to begin planning the layout and content to our newspapers. We were given a small list of things to begin thinking about, and get our ideas written down in order to get a good head start on the planning of creation of our final products. 

The list included:

• Detailed layouts for both pages - pencil sketches & more detailed mock ups using InDesign.
• Title for paper with blogged justification of choices.
• Headlines and notes on content of stories & articles.
• Descriptions of photographs & adverts - captions are a good idea!
• Timetable for shoots, casting notes, locations scouted etc.

In order to effectively show the progression of my planning and a little bit of my thought process, I decided to create a short video illustrating some of my planning work.

It records some basic mock up drawings of an idea of my layout, mind maps of potential titles for my publication, and other short clips of my work. 

Title for my Newspaper - bubble map of ideas!

After considering many different types of title that would be appropriate to use on my own newspaper publication, I have decided to use "Gordano Express" for my own product. 

I have chosen this title because I think it's good to have a short title that easily rolls off the tongue, in order for people to remember it and so that it's easy to read and pronounce. I also particularly like the use of the word "express" as it's a classic newspaper title and gives the impression of moving information. 

Audience Research - Pie Charts

On this pie chart, the number of people who like reading free local newspapers and bought national newspapers seem to be pretty much equal. Seeing as though my task is to create a local newspaper, I'm going to create a free local newspaper based on this result. 

Judging by this pie chart that I created based on the results of the people I asked,  almost 75% of people thought newspapers worked best with colour photographs; therefore I shall be using colour photography in my own publication. Some of the reasons for this being the images will be more eye catching, and will allow the front page to potentially stand out on the shelves. 

 The majority of people I asked preferred reading The Post which is a good thing for my research because I had already decided to base a lot of my ideas and future planning on The Post as a newspaper. The Times is also another good one to look at based on this pie chart as it is a hit with my target audience. 

I asked my audience which kinds of adverts they are most likely to respond to and which they found appealing in the newspapers they tend to read. Local businesses was the top answer, which will be helpful when creating my own local newspaper. Competitions and charities were not as popular, but I may experiment with creating some smaller adverts of these kinds in the making of my publication anyway to experiment with my skills on photoshop and InDesign.

Audience Research - Questionnaire

I decided the best way to find out the questions I needed to know, was by asking a questionnaire to a small number of people, all different ages and genders. Here are the questions I asked:

Questionnaire:

1.  Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?
2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?
3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?
4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?
5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

I asked six people these five questions in order to compare and contrast what people look for in their newspapers, and what features would be effective to use in the publication I create myself. I was interested to find out what sorts of articles were of interest to different sorts of people. In order to be able to compare the actual people who took part in this effectively, I’ve included the age and genders of the people I asked. This way I could see if a pattern began to show relating the ages to the articles they found interesting. I also could then compare whether age affected what features they found effective on front pages of newspapers too. 

Person 1 – Age: 74 Gender: Male

1. Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?

Tends to buy the Daily Mail.

2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?

“The language used in the newspaper is easy to understand, and the layout allows for easy reading. There are many different stories and article topics which mean there’s a little something for everybody.”

3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?

“The photographs are often eye catching and show exactly what you can expect from the stories.”

4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?

“I personally enjoy reading more local news, and stories about what normal people have been up to in their own communities.”

5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

“Maybe vary the style of font on the headlines? I don’t know though, because the font they already use allows the front page to be easily recognised.”

Person 2 – Age: 25 Gender: Female

1. Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?

“Normally The Sun.”

2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?

“Because it’s got celebrity news in there too and all the showbiz sort of stuff… easy reading even though it’s still a newspaper.”

3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?

“Lots of interesting photographs and bright fonts.”

4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?

“Anything celebrity based.”

5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

“Maybe could put some less gross pictures on the cover sometimes. Women would be less likely to want to buy a newspaper with a massive photo of a naked woman on the cover!”

Person 3 – Age: 61 Gender: Male

1. Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?

The Evening Post.

2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?

Interesting stories.

3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?

Good use of photographs on the cover, clear use of headlines telling you what will be inside.

4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?

Anything about politics.

5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

“I don’t know.”

Person 4 – Age: 17 Gender: Male

1. Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?

“Don’t normally read newspapers, but if I do, I read The Mail on Sunday”

2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?

Easy to read. Good photographs. Good sport news.

3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?

“Again, the photos maybe?”

4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?

Anything about sport.

5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

“Could have more text on the front page?”

Person 5 – Age: 30 Gender: Female

1. Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?

The Daily Mail

2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?

“Has lots of various articles, with lots of various content!”

3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?

“Bright photographs and clear headlines.”

4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?

“Articles about things that effect the whole country. Politics, and sometimes some celebrity news.”

5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

“Perhaps more introductions to the articles on the cover could be included.”

Person 6- Age: 44 Gender: Male

1. Which local newspaper do you regularly buy?

The Guardian

2. Why do you favour this particular newspaper?

Intelligent articles, often with political content. Information about campaigns.

3. Are there any key features you think effectively attract you to buy this newspaper?

Recognisable masthead. Good high quality photographs.

4. What kinds of stories are you most likely to look for/read?

Again, political pieces mainly.

5. How do you feel the layout/content of the cover could be improved on this newspaper?

I think it is already that of a high standard, using the space effectively. 

In conclusion, I have found that many newspapers appeal to different people of different ages and genders. However, based on the results I got from doing my questionnaire, I found that men were more likely to be interested in content such as sport or politics, while women found the appearance of the front page to be as interesting and important when choosing which publication to purchase. 

If I were to repeat this questionnaire, I may ask more people a bigger range of questions that could get more detailed responses. As I asked these questions to people as they were leaving the local corner shop, they didn't have much time to spare to answer these questions in depth. 

Overall, I thought this was an effective and successful way to gather the information required to complete my first piece of audience research.

Double Page Analysis - Sunday Mirror

Here is another example of a newspaper double page spread but this time from The Sunday Mirror. This may not be a 'local' newspaper as such, however I thought that this layout and design was very effective and could be used to base a few of my own ideas on. 

I decided to look at this double page spread because I like the way the thick black lettering used for the headline goes across the entire width of the double page in capital letters: "BUT I DIDN'T KILL MADDIE". (This headline follows on the initial check list of all the reasons why this man was suspected to be the killer of Madeline McCann.) 

I think the layout of this page is very effective because it has all the key generic aspects of a double page appearing in it, including large bold lettering for the headlines, red text used to catch the reader's attention, one main image of the person/topic in question, vertical columns for the article and many more. 

The main colours used on this double page are black, white, red and yellow which suits the content of the article well because it's about a potential killer and red and yellow are colours that are supposed to signify and represent danger. They are also not gender exclusive which, like I've already mentioned, helps not make readers feel intimidated when purchasing the publication. 

In my own work I may decide to use a similar style of layout for the content of the article in small sections of columns surrounding the main image, in order to allow the reader to easily see which bits of text relate to each of the images.

Overall I think this double page spread is really effective and uses many generic newspaper features well in order to use the space effectively, while also attracting their demographic and including all the necessary information and images.

Newspaper Double Page Analysis - The Oldham Chronicle

This is an example of a double page taken from a newspaper called The Oldham Chronicle. This isn't a newspaper I aim to focus much of my research on, however thought it would be useful to look at this particular photograph of one of their double pages and note the features I thought were positive, and the features I do not think are effective.

On the right side of this page layout, there are many different advertisements split up into sections, and in my opinion it is difficult to work out which images are supposed to be used for their articles, and which are simply advertising business prospects and evenings out. 

On the left side of this double page layout, the headlines read "Oldham's reasons to be cheerful..." suggesting that all of the adverts and photos dotted around on the page could perhaps be these reasons, but again I don't think the layout is clear enough at all and I don't think the space is used effectively. 

There are also four columns below this main headline giving an introduction to the article which is a common place to locate the introduction on pages like these. In my own work I may single out small bits of space in between two columns like these with small quotes from people featured in the article.

For example like in this image on the left.

By singling out small quotes included in this article, it allows the audience to read the article clearly and it effectively splits up the text to allow attractive looking articles and variations of bold text and different sizes too.

The Daily Express - Inside Page Analysis

Here is an image of the inside pages of an article inside The Daily Express. This image doesn't show an idea of the entire sort of page I will be creating in my own publication, rather just a small idea of how I might plan to layout my articles with the appropriate text and photographs. This is an example of an article where a large photograph of the people featured in the article is shown in the centre, with two vertical columns are placed either side of the image. By locating the text in this style 'surrounding' the three people, the pages clearly show which sections of the article relate to which image. 
Different sizing of text is used to show quotes of what the people have said and I think this is an effective way of portraying their own opinions throughout the article, without making it difficult for the readers to understand. There is also bold pieces of text used to create the same effect. 
On these pages in particular, a colour photograph is used to show the supposedly 'happy family' idea portrayed through the story. In my own work I will also use colour photography to help my pages stand out and attract my target demographic.