Newspaper Content - Articles

Main Front Page Article -

"Fury at Local Burglary"

Many local residents have been left feeling panicked and distraught after the Portishead Mirage building was broken into last weekend. Three different appartments had their doors badly damaged and locks broken off as the culprit made their way into the homes. So far the items recorded to have been stolen are some very valuable belongings including one iPad, two laptops, and several other expensive appliances. One of the residents from these appartments came to us to explain her distress, "I have always felt so safe living where I live and this incident has made me doubt even my closest neighbours. The sooner this criminal is put behind bars, the better for everyone in our community.".
Improved security is said to be being placed at the entrances to the building but one man claims the damage has already been done. Most of the items that were stolen are said to have been insured, but it's the uncertainty of knowing the criminal is still out there that will haunt these residents insists one local resident. "I cannot put into words how devestating it is, knowing you cannot feel safe in your own home. I have lived here with my young daughter for five years now and never have I felt so worried for her or myself." 



Second Page Articles - 

"See No Evil, See Stunning Art!"

Artists from all over the world came together recently to form a truly magical display of art on Nelson Street in Bristol. One local young man Daniel Gordon was lucky enough to be able to take part in this memorable event by painting his artwork on one of the grand scale buildings involved in the project! He and the other artists aimed to create an outdoor gallery of world standard pieces of art, put forward to inspire and excite the community of Bristol. It represents hundreds of elements of the designs and styles in the street art world and thousands of people came together to celebrate this phenomenon. We asked Daniel how it felt to take part, "I've never felt so proud and honoured to express myself through my street art as I did taking part in this project."

"Turnaround Triumph! Local Hockey Team Goes for Gold!"

After training for many months, the Local Hockey Team have been thrilled to announce that they have qualified for the National Hockey Championships! The 18-25s gathered together recently to celebrate their achievements so far! The team captain Marsha Byrne explains, "We have worked so extremely hard for this, and I am so proud to hopefully strive to lead our team to victory! The girls and I have formed such strong friendships through our training together and now is the time to push harder than ever before."

"Olympic Pride Spreads Through the Nation!"

A true sense of unity has been spread through the community recently as people have come together to celebrate the outcome of The Olympics! There have been barbecues, fun runs, street parties and more all over Portishead to show our support for the athletes of Britain! We spoke to one local Pub Owner who claims "These last few weeks have been wonderful. It was just what we needed as a community; something to bring us all together in fun!" There have been reports of some local sports days and events being hosted in further celebration of the Olympics, and news will be released at a later date.

"Facebook Friends? Facebook Foes for One Local Girl"

Almost all young people these days will be proud owners of their own Facebook accounts, and most of the time we can recognise this as good, modern online friendship profiles. However this was not the case for one local girl, Jennifer Phillips. Bullies have targeted her for a number of months and have been making her life hell, writing explicit, hurtful comments on Jennifer's photos, status updates and much more. Jennifer's form tutor came forward and reported, "Jen hasn't appeared in school for weeks. The teachers and her friends have been getting extremely worried about her, this needs to stop before it's a comment too far." The bullies have been suspended from school and meetings with their parents have been arranged. Hopefully this will be the end of the misery this local girl has had to face. 

Newspaper Photographs

Here I have chosen to blog some of the photographs that I will be using for my main front page image, my advert images, and some article stories too. 

Advertisement Photographs -

Here is the photo I plan on using for one of my front page adverts, "Marina Boat Trips". I have chosen to include the marina obviously, and have tried to include enough white/light space in the photograph so that layering dark coloured text over the picture won't be an issue. Still allowing people to read it easily. 

This is the photograph I am planning on using for my advertisement for a local photographer. I plan on having white text layered over this image, with details of the photographer including email address and phone number. I have based the inspiration for this advert on an existing photography company named "Planet Photon". Here is the image used for their advert, and where my inspiration for my own image came from:

Mock up of second page layout - Made on Powerpoint

Here is a mock up I created of the second page of my newspaper to give me a basis for when I start creating my final product. 

There will be two adverts on this page, the larger of the two being for a local photographer. For this advert I plan on having a high quality photograph supposedly taken by this photographer with their information layered over this picture. My other advertisement will be for a local PR company, based on an advert along the lines of this one:

The main article lines on this page will read "See No Evil, See Stunning Art!", and my article will be positioned in the section below my main image. This article will be aiming to persuade people to go and witness the amazing graffiti exhibition for themselves!

At the bottom of my page will be another article, this time about a local girl being bullied over Facebook. The headlines for this article being "Facebook Friends? Facebook Foes for One Local Girl". My image positioned next to this article will be an over the shoulder shot of someone sitting on a computer/laptop with the Facebook homepage up. I thought this would be a more sufficient choice of photograph in comparison to an image of the local girl in question, as the article covers a sensitive topic and a real local newspaper would not want to single out this girl in her time of distress. 

Either side of my main image of the See No Evil artwork will be my other two articles, "Turnaround Triumph! Local Hockey Team Goes for Gold" and "Olympic Pride Spreads Through the Nation". Both of these articles won't have images.

Mock up of front page layout - Made on Powerpoint

This is a mock up I created on powerpoint of my newspaper front page, with very basic labels to explain my thought process and where I plan on locating the different features that make up a generic local newspaper front page. 

I will have three columns for my main article surrounding my main cover image of The Mirage building in Portishead. These columns will include a brief introduction to my main article and will give my target audience something to entice them into buying my newspaper. I will later take some more photographs of this building and blog which one I will be using and why, based on lighting, angle and and shot type. Layered over this photograph of the building, will read my main cover lines "FURY AT LOCAL BURGLARY!". I plan to make it so these words are layered to fit in line with the different tiered levels of the building, giving my front page an advanced design layout. 

On my final product, I may decide to make my main cover image larger, as this would abide more closely to the expected conventions of a local newspaper. This would also result in less of my main article being written on the front page, which I think is an effective way to make people want to purchase my product by wanting to read on after only previewing a small section of the whole article. 

I will have three adverts at the bottom of my front page, two of similar size and one roughly double the size of these two. I have aimed to appeal to both genders with my adverts, having one aimed at women, one aimed at men, and one potentially appealing to both genders. For the marina boat trip advert I may experiment with different photographs of the marina and different boats docked here in order to capture a quality photograph to attract my audience to this offer. For my advert on local car specialists, I will have a picture of a nice parked car I expect, or possibly a garage connoting ideas of cars being fixed and repaired. Finally, for my local hair and beauty salon I will take a photograph of one of the existing salons and layer my information on top. 

For my masthead, the words "GORDANO EXPRESS" will be written in thick black lettering across the top of my page. I plan on using a font similar to this in a serif type font. Below my masthead is my tagline "AT THE HEAD AND HEART OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY" however I may change it to "our community" rather than "the community", as this would make my newspaper seem more representative of the views and opinions of the local community and allows people to interpret the newspaper as 'one of them'. 

Mock up of second page layout - Sketch

Here is my sketched mock up of my newspaper second page. I am going to have my main image on this page to be placed in the centre, surrounded by separate articles and placed just above the story it will accompany. This article will be about the See No Evil graffiti art exhibition in Bristol, and this is what my main image will be of, and I will state that a local teen has been lucky enough to take part in the exhibition, and explain that the piece of graffiti pictured is their work. The headlines for this main article will be placed where it reads "MAIN HEADLINES HERE" in large letters.
On the bottom right of my newspaper second page, I plan to place an advert I will later create advertising a local photographer, with a high quality photograph as the background of the advert. Along the bottom of my page, I will position another smaller article about a local girl being bullied over Facebook, with an over the shoulder shot of a computer screen and the Facebook logo popping up. Above this article on the left hand side of my page, I will put an even smaller article, this time without a picture. At the top left hand side of the second page of my newspaper, I will have a small article with no photograph of a local sports team "going for gold". The article in the top right corner will be about "Olympic Pride" spreading through the nation.

Mock up of Front Page Layout - Sketch

Here is my quickly sketched mock up of my front page layout. 
(this isn't my decided font, just used this one for a template!)
The tagline on my newspaper will read; "AT THE HEAD AND THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY" which I have positioned just beneath my masthead. The date will be just beside this. 
I have decided to have my main image positioned to the left, with my cover lines being layered over the top of this photograph. For my main image on the front page of my newspaper, I was considering using a photograph of The Mirage building in Portishead, which is designed in a tiered way, which I thought would work excellently on my front page as my headlines would be able to fit in the space around the building, being written over the sky/space behind the building in the photograph. This technique of text and picture layout will help give my front page the professional edge I want it to have, and will show I have thought through the best way to make everything layered effectively in order to attract my target demographic.
Surrounding this will be my main article, as shown in my sketch. (The long columns with horizontal lines on them)
Along the bottom of my front page I will have 3 adverts, two small ones to the left side and a third larger one to the left. Starting from left to right, these adverts will be advertising Portishead Marina boat trips, Local car specialists, and a local hair and beauty salon. I think these are three useful adverts to include on my front page because there is one appropriate for each gender. Hair and beauty will help to attract my female audience to purchase my newspaper, cars could attract both genders but perhaps more men than women, and Marina boat trips could attract both. By targeting my audience when considering my chosen advertisements, I can maximise the newspaper's potential readership. 

Headline Ideas

Ideas for Headlines: 

• "Facebook Friends? Facebook Foes for One Local Girl"
  Good use of alliteration in this particular headline, and use of rhetorical question which is common in newspaper headlines! As it's a local newspaper, featuring the word "local" is useful because it allows people to know that the article will be featuring people from their area.
  
• "Turnaround Triumph! Local Hockey Team Goes For Gold"
  
  Again, good use of alliteration for the first two words in this headline. Again, as it's a local newspaper, featuring the word "local" is useful because it allows people to know that the article will be featuring people from their area. As the Olympics have been so recent, having a headline/article talking about "going for gold" is useful because people have sport already on their minds.
  
• "Fury at Local Burglary"
  
  Slight rhyme in this headline! Between 'fury' and 'burglary'. Helps this headline to roll of the tongue and allows readers to immediately understand the nature of the article as key words have been used to suggest theft.
• "See No Evil, See Stunning Art!"
  
  A play on words including the name of the Bristol Art Exhibition of graffiti "See No Evil". The word 'stunning' encourages people to go see the work as it makes them curious to witness the greatness for themselves. The exclamation mark also suggests excitement to not only purchase the newspaper to find out more, but to also see it in person.
• "Olympic Pride Spreads Through The Nation"
  
  The Olympics have been a very popular topic over the last few months and so having headlines about this is very effective as people always want to read more about it following all the events and previous media coverage it has received. The word 'pride' gives a warm, glowing feeling to the article and local people will want to read about a story that refers to them; 'The Nation'.

Font Ideas - Headlines

Headlines 

It is important for headlines to stand out on newspaper front covers as it's often the main stories that attract people to purchase that particular newspaper, if they come under that person's interest. Often, the headlines are larger that the masthead of the newspaper, which suggests the importance of the story, and persuades people they need to read this story. For example on this front cover of the Evening Standard, the headlines are noticeably larger than the masthead, aiming to attract people to buy the paper after having an interest in this main article. The letters are in a serif style font, giving readers the impression that the Evening Standard is a newspaper which aims to be portrayed in a traditional manner. 

Here is another example of a newspaper front page where the headlines are made to seem more eye catching than the masthead itself. In this example the headline "Fight For Life" is in thick, bold lettering which I think is an effective way of making the headlines easy to read, and clear for their target audience. In this particular example, the headline is roughly the same size to the masthead, however the boldness of the lettering allows these words to be most dominant on the page. I may choose to use a similar style in my own newspaper publication. 

Font Ideas - Main Body

Newspapers' use of font in the main body of text can give a strong impression of what feel they're trying to give through their newspaper.

For example if they use a serif font, they often are aiming for the newspaper to come across as traditional or slightly old-fashioned, or perhaps aimed at an older audience. 
For example, Times New Roman:

"The police were interviewing suspects yesterday."


However, if they use a sans serif font, they often want the newspaper to appear more modern and up to date with trends and aim to attract a younger audience. 
For example, Arial:

"The police were interviewing suspects yesterday."


In my own newspaper publication I will use a sans serif font such as Arial or Calibri, as I want to attract a range of ages including young people to widen my target demographic. 

In order to find out whether this was a good decision or not, I decided to ask three people what they thought of each font, and whether they thought a font such as Arial or Calibri would be appropriate for my newspaper. 

Here are the questions I asked, and their responses:

Person 1

• Do you believe that using a sans serif font to help target a younger audience and give my newspaper a more modern feel is a good idea?Yeah, I do think that type of font would help attract a younger audience because it'll give the paper a more modern feel to it.
  
• Would you personally be attracted to purchasing a newspaper with this type font?
  Yes I think it makes it easier to read and would make me prefer to read it.
  
• Could you give any other suggestions of ways to target my audience effectively?
  You could have pictures featuring people the ages of the target audience you're aiming for.

Person 2

• Do you believe that using a sans serif font to help target a younger audience and give my newspaper a more modern feel is a good idea?
  No, I think all fonts in newspapers should be something more like Times New Roman because that's the most common feature of newspapers and it would be better to stick to expected conventions.
  
• Would you personally be attracted to purchasing a newspaper with this type font?
  Depending on what was in the newspaper, for example what stories were in it. I wouldn't base my whole decision on what sort of font was used.
  
• Could you give any other suggestions of ways to target my audience effectively?
  Large titles and headlines so people know what's to be included. 

Person 3 

• Do you believe that using a sans serif font to help target a younger audience and give my newspaper a more modern feel is a good idea?
  Yes, a much more modern feel! People would get the impression of a more modern publication just by looking at this type of font.
  
• Would you personally be attracted to purchasing a newspaper with this type font?
  Yes I think it would make it more attractive as a newspaper.
  
• Could you give any other suggestions of ways to target my audience effectively?
  Short, sweet and to the point! Keeping articles focused on the story would attract readers to purchase a more modern paper.

Font Ideas - For Masthead

Planning

 



To attract people's attention and effectively when creating newspapers, the font used for the masthead is very important as it gives an initial impression of the newspaper and can even give a feel as to what sort of newspaper the reader can expect. Bold, clear letters allow the title to be easily read and for my newspaper cover I think I'll decide to use black lettering because this is a common feature of many local newspapers, for example 'Brentwood Weekly News' pictured on the right. I also think for my masthead I will use capital letters as I think this looks proffessional and more confident, making people want to read my publication. Similar to 'The Times' front cover, pictured above.



 

 

Here is one example of a style in which I could write my masthead for my newspaper front cover. The letters are easy to read in this example, however I don't believe the letters are thick enough to be clear to read from far away; perhaps effecting people's ability to recognise my newspaper effortlessly. I also this this font style is quite plain, and not in keeping to ordinary conventions of a newspaper masthead. Overall, I do not think I will choose this font for my own newspaper cover, as I think the style would be better suited to maybe either a leaflet or magazine publication.

Here is another example of a potential masthead for my newspaper. I think this one is more effective than the last because the letters are bolder, allowing the masthead to be read more easily from a further distance. Overall, I think this font is more appropriate than the previous one I analysed, and would be more suited for use on a newspaper front page than the last font.

 

I prefer this font to both two previous fonts I have analysed because I think it most resembles the fonts that are commonly seen on newspaper front pages. Perhaps for my own front page I will use a font similar to this but slightly thinner, in order to fit more letters horizontally across my front page. Overall, I think this is the best font for a masthead based on the fonts I have already analysed. When it comes to creating my cover I will look for more styles like this and analyse more before I come to my final decision.

Out of all 4 possible masthead fonts I have analysed I think this one most resembles the conventional newspaper title because the letters are positioned closely together, with contrasting think and thin lines in each letter. I like this font and will also consider using something similar to this when creating my newspaper front page. I may have to do some further research and analysing before I begin to decide which is most appropriate out of this font and the third one I looked at.

Article Ideas

When creating my newspaper, part of the overall profect requires us to actually write the news articles to be included in our final outcomes. In order to make my newspaper successful, I need to include articles that directly target the interests of my demographic.


Some possible ideas for article topics:

• Local News - stories from local people
• What's going on in local schools - With the young people in the area
• New opening bars and restaurants in Portishead - (Hall and Woodhouse, the plan is pictured below)
• Sport - Local Teams
• The See No Evil Project in Bristol (pictured below) - Could do an art feature telling people to go see it for themselves
• Olympics/Paralymics
• Local Scandal - Theft within the area

Ideas for Headlines:

• "Facebook Friends? Facebook Foes for One Local Girl"
• "Turnaround Triumph! Local Hockey Team Goes For Gold"
• "Fury at Local Burglary"
• "See No Evil, See Stunning Art!"
• "Olympic Pride Spreads Through The Nation"

Initial Audience Feedback about Local Newspapers

Audience Research

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. 



Evaluation of my findings: 

From this initial audience research I have found that it is very important when creating a newspaper to make the information easy to read and understand, especially in the articles as this is one of the main reasons people purchase newspapers in the first place. If the articles are difficult to interpret, then people won't bother reading on to find out more and thus readership figures will decrease. I also found out from this particular questionnaire in my research that people like newspapers to use the space effectively. By positioning my text boxes and images in an effective way, I can make my pages appear attractive and allow the space to include as much information for my audience as possible, encouraging them to purchase my publication. A few people also mentioned that use of bright, colour photographs was likely to attract them to buying a newspaper so I must remember to include colour photography instead of black and white. Overall this audience feedback has been very helpful, and I will bear these ideas in mind when drafting up the layout and content of my own newspaper pages.