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.