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.