Primary Research (Newspaper)

Pam Edelston from the Southport Champion came in to hold a talk on local newspapers as she had been involved with the Southport Champion for 10 years. I took this opportunity to listen to her views and what she had to say about her experience of working within a local newspaper.
Local newspapers can either be daily or weekly, with the weekly ones tending to be free therefore there is a need for advertisements as the newspaper needs to take in revenue from somewhere.
These advertisements would normally be placed in what is called a wrap around and this is where there is almost a separate cover which advertises something like, Matalan or the NHS for example.
I found that the Liverpool Echo has the name of its website printed above the title of the paper but others have it printed inside on the second page so it is important to include the website for my newspaper somewhere on the first two pages.
The Southport Champion, being a free newspaper holds a "Whats happening today" section and this includes The Southport Airshow and photo competitions which again help to bring in revenue.

Pam stated that everything written in a newspaper is looking for a reaction.
The main story of a newspaper must stand out noticeably from the rest of the paper and these stories are usually exclusive which means that no one else has this story, it is exclusive to that paper only. There is then some key info which is normally shown in a black box as followed,

this is called the first stance and is there to inform people with a bit more information than the headline gives.

Other stories that may be included are entertainment, fashion, health and extreme weather.
Other things could then relate to the main story for example, a column or an opinion piece where the writer gives their views, or even a feature column that could include facts and figures on the story to make it seem more interesting to the reader. This then allows the viewers to log on to the website and give their opinions in blogs or sending letters which can sometimes be controversial.

There are times on a front cover where the main headline is not accompanied by a main image. But it is more important that they do.
The example used was " Oil leak on beach". It is important to make the pictures relevant to this story, i.e. show kids playing on the sand, birds being affected, or simply show the beach.

A byline is also important and this is the introduction to the main story, it is often in a darker text and is followed by the body text. A bullet with a number is a representative of which page to turn to for the rest of the story.

Pam told that newspapers with kids on them tend to have the best sale figures, they increase the revenue. The main picture is best to be captured in an action shot to make it noticeable.

There are several different fonts used throughout a newspaper, they include
Headline which tends to be Big and Bold
Introduction which tends to be small and dark
Body text which tends to be in small print.

It is also useful to introduce some facts and figures to go along side the main story, about the main story to keep the reader interested.

When asked what makes people want to buy a paper? the answer was variety, meaning that the newspaper needs to have a variety of stories and genres throughout it.
Teasers are also useful for the front page because it shows whats coming in the paper.
It is vital to put the page number on so people know where to go inside, this seems simple but often occurs. Advertising holidays and introducing competitions are also effective as it gets the reader involved more and can bring in a better intake for the paper itself.
Internal adverts are where the paper is trying to sell something to make money or to inflate its revenue. Other adverts are bought and paid for by external people.
Adverts can be landscape or portrait and can come into different styles, half page adverts, quarter page adverts and eighth page adverts are just some of the styles in which adverts can be used.
It is also important to include contact details for your newspaper, for example phone number and e-mail adress. The date and price need to be labelled somewhere on the front page.

Different newspapers have different agendas.

Example of my questionnaire

1. What type of news do you look for in a local newspaper?

Entertainment
Economic
Sports
Fun
Political
Science
Industrial
History
Religious
Art


2. How much would you like to pay for a local newspaper?
20p to 60p …………..

3. How often do you purchase your local newspaper?
Once a week
Twice a week
Everyday
Other ………………………………………………………..
Never

4. Do you prefer local newspapers over other newspapers, e.g Daily Star, Telegraph?
Yes
No

5. What do you like about newspapers?
Content
Style
Images
Language



6. How long do you read newspapers for?

Cover to Cover
Scan the pictures
Flick through
Main headlines/ stories
Sport section



7. If a new local newspaper was to come on to the market, would you be interested in purchasing it?

Yes
No
Unsure



8. Do you get the newspaper yourself or from other sources, i.e family members?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

9. Do your prefer the printed newspapers or the online versions?

Printed
Online



10. Do you feel your current newspaper is lacking anything? If so what?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..



This is the questionnaire that was given to people to fill in.

Secondary Research (Newspaper front pages)

I have decided to do the first two pages of a local newspaper.
As part of my secondary research I explored the Internet and found the following site;

http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk//Default.aspx?page=1228

This site allows links to other local newspapers across Great Britain, therefore it gives me a wider range of ideas for how local newspapers are set out and what information is used within them.

I used the following images as examples to represent this.

The Liverpool Echo

The Liverpool Daily Post

The Chester Chronicles

The Coventry Telegraph

I took these images of the local newspaper front pages to gain an understanding of how they look and the style that these newspapers use.
It is clear that the main story is the focus of the front page as it is normally shown in the centre with other news stories scattered around it. Side stories are also used and these are helpful because they add variety to a newspaper which is very important. Mixing the genre of stories can help to keep the audience interested. For example the main story may be political based and then there could be 2 or 3 side stories that are relevant to sport, history and education.

On some newspaper front pages there are advertisements and competitions so if I want to keep my newspaper traditional I may stick to these style or ideas. Advertisements are more used in free newspapers and this is done to increase the revenue as the newspaper is being paid for. There is no set position for where advertisements should go, some are placed at the top or even at the side but the most common place for advertisements to be put is at the bottom of the paper because is then allows the main body of the newspaper to be about its stories and content. The date and price as well as the title of the newspaper are all printed at the top and this seems to be a style that all newspapers stick to so I will also be using this style. Newspapers make there names stand out so that the audience knows which newspaper they are purchasing.

It is important that as it is a local newspaper that the stories and the content of the newspaper are relevant to the areas of that region. For example writing about areas of Newcastle in a Liverpool based paper will confuse people and put people off buying this newspaper.

There is also no set colour boundaries as can be seen because different newspapers use different colours to others. However it would be useful to limit the amount of colours used because if there are several colours used then it may confuse a person or even put the audience of buying it as it is too in your face.

Research

I will be undertaking several types of research for the production of my product including;

• Primary



• Secondary



• Qualitative



• Quantitative

Primary research will include me producing and distributing a questionnaire and then from the results of this questionnaire putting together a focus group where I will discover what people like about local newspapers and what sort of ideas I should avoid. It will also mean having to purchase newspapers to analyse and e-mailing editors from local Liverpool newspapers.

Secondary research will involve me looking at newspapers online and finding out the sort of stories that are published and how the newspapers are laid out. This is secondary research because it is work I am taking from another source.

Quantitative researching is used to measure what people think so this will be useful for me as I will be able to measure what people's opinions are to local newspapers.

Qualitative researching is finding out why and this will be very useful to me because it will provide me with reasons why the audience like or dislike an idea.

I will also be looking into market research will allow me to see what people want, what they feel is missing in the market.

I will be looking into two industries

• National Readership Survey (NRS)
• Broadcasters Audience Researchers Board (BARB)

This will give me an indication on the figures of how many people read certain newspapers.

For my target audience i will be looking at the

• age of my audience (16-24 25-40 40-60)
• gender (male or female)
• social class (working, middle or upper)
• Culture and Ethnicity

I will also be answering the following questions;

1. Is my product financially viable?
2. Do I have the necessary skills to produce this product?
3. Do I have the right equipment and technology?
4. Have I got enough time to produce my product?

Target audience

A target audience is the primary group of people that a media product is aimed at appealing to.



The target audience for my newspaper is going to be age 24-30, both male and female. As this is the target audience for my production I will be aiming to use ideas from music magazines such as 'Q' because my age group are also likely to read these sorts of magazines.



This will involve me going against some of the typical codes and conventions of newspapers and although my newspaper is a local one I want to make it look more interesting for the reader by using these ideas from magazines.

I have also chosen this age range as my specific target audience because I feel people below 24 are less likely to be interested in reading a newspaper. Although this is my target audience I will still aim to include elements that will involve age groups above and below this age range.
I will appeal to my target audience by using contemporary stories and making them interesting. I will also use relevant stories that are local to the area of Liverpool because using stories for other regions would be more suited to a national newspaper.

Proposal

For my production I am making a newspaper including the front cover and first page of a local newspaper. In this newspaper I intend on inlcuding a main story aswell as the title of the newspaper on the front cover. This will also be shown with a picture to illustrate the story.
Within this newspaper I hope to inform my readers of any stories or main headlines from the area.
My target audience will range from 24-30 and this is because I am aiming at this age because the younger generation (teens) dont seem interested in reading a paper and I feel the stories I will be introducing are more aimed for this age group and will be seen as more interesting to them.
I am aiming to introduce other side stories across the two pages that will vary in genre so that I have a variety of news stories which will again appeal to the audience as they won't be reading the same style of story over and over.
I will be researching the different types of local newspapers looking specifically at local newspapers like, the liverpool echo, the knowsley challenge and the metro.
I will also be looking into the styles of newspapers and how both the front cover and the second page are laid out as these are the two pages I will be creating.
The stories I use will be very important so I will look carefully into the genres of the stories I use, for example will it be crime related or entertainment related and then I must make sure the pictures I use are relevant to that specific story.