Drawn plan of page layout.

I have said throughout i will decide how big articles will be when i have written them and when i am actually making my newspaper on Publisher etc. However, i decided to do a post where i decide roughly how my layout will be on the two pages. So here is a drawn plan of my cover page and the next page in:

I am planning for my colour-scheme to be very blue and black, with white writing as i feel it is very modern and new. I also think it will contrast with the other newspapers on the shelves. I have to keep in mind that i canno use too many dark colours because i am printing on traditional newspaper paper and it woudnt hold a lot of ink.

I want to overlap the outlines of different boxes so it gives the look that i have thrown it together, and also it is a new take on the traditional newspapers where everything is in line and square.



Starting the Production of my newspaper pages, radio advert and poster.

This is the post which takes me from my research to production. Throughout my production posts and process i still plan to do a bit more research and will constantly refer back to my focus group. I decided that i need to write a list of what i need to do for all three aspects of this brief in order to make it more similar for me. So here is the rough list of things i need to do:

2 pages of Newspaper


- Plan the layout of the newspaper pages with help from the post where i have decided what is going to be on each page
- Write the articles about my main headline,film, music and art. They do not have to be perfect but they do have to be believable and interesting enough for my target audience of educated adults to want to read it.
- Create the newspaper pages on Publisher while looking back at my font and content posts and plans. The colours and layout have to be very similar to what i have planned etc.
- Print off the newspaper pages, trying to choose the correct sort of paper only if available.
- Do the evaluation of my newspaper pages, declaring what is good or bad about them.


Radio Advert


- Write the final script after altering my script with the help from my focus group
- Find somebody who has the right voice for the job
- Do some tests on what the person sounds like
- Record my radio advert and then put it on this blog, then evaluate it.


Poster


- Do some plans of what the poster could look like
- I am planning to be very traditional with this poster because they are fairly affective, so look back at research on existing posters.
- Make the poster on Publisher or PhotoShop, whatever one works best, looking back at typography plans etc.


I will do all of these points as soon as i can so i will have more time to improve them afterwards. When creating them i will refer back to the research i have done in order to ensure my finished artifacts target my chosen market.

What i am planning to have on my newspapers pages.

I have to fill up two pages of worthy content which attracts my target market, therefore i thought i would plan and state what i am definatley going to include on each page. I will also say what the reason for this is. Here is my scanned list:

Eventhough this is finalized, i may have to take something off if it doesnt fit on my page.

Puzzles.

I am planning to include a couple of puzzles on one of my newspaper pages in order to attract and keep my target audience reading my newspaper. Puzzles are very common in most newspapers because they can influence greatly on how many people purchase the newspaper as the audience feels as if they are getting more for their money. Puzzles are there for entertainment which sharpens the mind and passes the time. I have decided to do a bit more of research into this:

After extensive research with various websites such as: 

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/fornewspapers_puzzles.html
http://www.wordgames.co.uk/page/01index.html

I found that newspapers buy or employ companies to make the puzzles for them, the newspapers do not make them themselves. These companies would probably be used for many years because audiences would get to know a certain style of puzzle. Companies who produce these puzzles would want a trademark style.

Having loyalty with a newspaper guarantees that they are going to be in business. They can also advertise their name on every newspaper that they feature their puzzles in.

I have decided to analyse puzzles in existing local newspapers, no matter where they are in the newspaper itself. I have looked at the placements, style and type of them:

Deconstructing and analysing a newspaper's radio advert.

 I have found it quite hard to find a recording of a radio advert as it isn't something which is then put on the internet, so i have decided to analyse a radio advert which was done about a newspaper by a previous a2 student in order to understand the concept more:





The first thing i think of when listening to this radio advert for her made up newspaper is that she has tried to make it personable by it being set at somebodies home and also i feel as if her accent makes the newspaper seem more local, as the readers would have the same accent.

At the start of the advert it is a bit hard to follow and not clear about what she is trying to sell, but towards the end when the mother starts declaring what content is in the newspaper, which realistically isn't what would be said in a conversation between a mother and a daughter.

The characters are introduced informally, making it sound as if we are listening in on somebodies conversation, which could appeal to an audience of local people. With it being an advert which sounds so informal, it isn't intimidating.

I do think this is a good concept for a newspaper radio advert (making it being set in a scene for the audience to imagine), however i would make it more snappy and modern in order to attract the educated type of audience who wouldn't have much time on their hands. I want to declare as much information about my newspaper as possible, whereas this is a bit long-winded.

The purpose of her advert was to sell her newspaper to the local audience who wanted a newspaper which wold the latest news and stories. This is what i am planning to do but with a more untraditional, updated twist on it.

It sounds as if she has used the same person or girls of two similar ages for both the mother and daughter, which is easily identifyable. As i am not planning to use two characters, one one declaring what my newspaper is about, i will not have this problem.

If i were to make a radio advert just like this, i would record it all in one tape so i wouldn't have to edit it, therefore taking less time to make. Professionally, a radio advert wouldn't take to long to produce as the newspaper would want it to get out there fast in order to gain as much selling as quick as possible.

I could also hear them them passing over the microphone to eachother, making it sound less professional. I think the script also includes a lot of 'greats', too many 'greats'. I also thin at the end with the cheesy song makes the newspaper sound less serious and more of a joke. However an advert not being so serious can work because people like humour.



I have decided to write out and print her script for her radio advert so i can anotate it:

What i would do differently to suit my target market: I would probably not set it as a conversation between two people because i think it is a little long winded and I'm not sure my target market would really listen to it if i carried on for ages. I would need to make my point early on in the advert in order for the name of my newspaper to be heard by as many as people as possible. I would probably advertise my newspaper in a more formal way because i am aiming at towards an audience of educated adults. But this is not to say that they do not like humour and less serious stuff.

Results from SurveyMonkey.

A while ago i did a survey on survey monkey and have now got the results back. Unfortunately you have to pay in order to be a member and get pie charts etc, however i have the results in general form. I have had to print screen every question. Here they are in graph form which SurveyMonkey did for me:

This shows that most of the people i asked are middle aged, this could affect the rest of my results, but they are classed as adults.

Most of the people i asked were female, which could also affect the rest of the data i receive. I do not know whose answers are whose, so i do not know if they are a female's answers or not.

I was able to get individual responses from each person which gave me more of an insight into each persons view on newspapers etc. On this particular question i asked if they were in employment in order for me to see what sort of audience this data is from.

This shows that my audience prefer national, tabloid newspapers. I wasnt able to see if the people who preferred local tabloid newspapers were male or female etc. I am planing for my newspaper to be tabloid, local so at least i know that tabloid content is the right way to go. They must like the informal, readable aspect of it.

I was able to ask in detail where these people got their newspapers from, telling me where i could put my sandwich board which advertises a headline. Most people said a local shop, possibly meaning a newsagents - which is the place i was originally planning to put my poster and what i could say in my radio advert.

This was quite a strong response as most people would buy a newspaper because of a headline, showing me that a headline affects how many sales are made. I need to make sure my newspaper's headline is strong and would affect my audience to make it more personable.

Most people use a car so they would be able to listen to my radio advert. I asked this so i could get a rough idea of how much of an audience i could get. i have kept in mind that not everyone who drives in a car listens to the radio in it.

This was the type of response i wanted to get because it shows that most people listen to the radio daily, so it would be affective to put my radio advert on air daily. I did ask this so i would get a rough idea of how often.

I would want my radio advert to feature on a local radio station because my newspaper is to be local, so this is a good response knowing that half of the people i asked listen to a local radio station. And also that nobody i asked does not listen to the radio.

I got detailed answers from this as it was a general question. The responses were mainly about the content of newspapers. I am planning to do something new with the content of my newspaper, so i feel like they would have a different view on mine compared to the newspapers they are commenting about.

In Conclusion

I wasn't able to find out who answered each question, what their gender, job etc was which hindered my results. However, overall i found that people prefer national, tabloid papers so i will take inspiration from them when creating my newspaper, also most people would buy a newspaper because of the headline, showing that the poster on my sandwich board will cause my audience to buy the newspaper. I will have to make the headline strong and shocking. using SurveyMonkey has helped my to ask people who i may not have been able to and also put the results into percentages. I have used this information to help me to finalize my plan.

I got the results i did through technology, therefore the people i asked have some knowledge of how technology works. This could affect the results i got because through some previous research i did, i found that the older you are, the less technology you are in touch with - the older people in my research could be the minority of people who use technology at their age - therefore i haven't gained a general insight into everybody in society of a certain age.

Newspaper Supplements - Research and Analysis.

After researching different local newspapers around the country, I was reminded about publishing supplements in newspapers which are often slotted into newspapers weekly.

They commonly give information on reviews, films, art, music, days out etc. This is the sort of information and content i want for my newspaper so i thought i would research further into supplements. I have done a little prezi of information about supplements:

Supplements on Prezi

I have also found a website which has information and pages on most of the newspaper supplements in the country, both local, national and regional:

http://www.mydigitalnewspaper.com/aboutus.aspx?id=1

Analysing an existing newspaper supplement:

The newspaper supplement that i am going to analyse is Evening news' 'Going Out' supplement. Here are a few facts about it:

• It is the same size of the newspaper itself but as it is central in the newspaper, it can be pulled out.
• It has information on whats on in music, art, film, books, days out, TV listings etc.
• It is known as 'What's on' on the newspaper's website.
• It looks and reads like the actual paper so they are connected to each other, but it has quicker, less tabloid information.

Here is a scan of the front and next page in for me to analyse. I will split my analysis into the front page and then the next page in. This supplement is easily missable in the newspaper as it is central in the paper, but it is interesting to investigate how the newspaper has tried to get people reading. I can use my knowledge of semiotics to analyse them. Due to the size of my scanner, i couldn't fit the whole newspaper in, but you get the idea:

Aethetics

Colour: The background colour is black so whatever is applied ti it, such as coloured writing and photos stand out and catch the viewer's eye. The colour of the writing is white, red and yellow, these colours aren't associated with Norwich in particular but they are bold and impacting, giving the impression that whatever is in these colours is an important thing to read.

Layout: the headline is central and below where a headline traditionally is. this makes the photo the main focus. The name of the newspaper is traditionally at the top and advertisements of other articles inside are on the side. It also has at the bottom of the page a list of what music and comedy acts are in this issue. This is so the audience recognises a name and can instantly and conveniently search for that article. However it doesn't state which page they are on - a ploy to get the reader to look on every page?

Typography: The text on the front page varies from capitals to not. The word 'JOKERS' is in capitals because it catches the eye of the reader and is an important word in the article. Most of the sizes of the texts are quite big, but there isnt much of it, so doesn't go into elaborate detail. This is so the reader looks inside. There are no staring articles on this page.

Photos: There is only two photos on this front page, one of the world-known star Johnny Depp and the other of the not so well-known comedian Daniel Sloss. As one of them is more well-known than the other, it balances it out to have a very well-known star on the front. The central photo of the comedian is displayed as a joker on a card which supports his day-job and what the article is about. A reader may recognise his face and then want to read the article inside.
Adverts: there aren't actually any adverts on this page, probably due to space and the idea that there is a lot of adverts in the official newspaper. They are only advertising articles inside on the front cover which isn't in much detail as they are just lists of names.There is the supplement's website just underneath the paper's name so that the reader can read even more and the main newspaper can gain visitors to their website. There is a bit of text on a competition to win tickets for a comedy show - gets the reader even more interested in looking inside.
Overall: This is a very simple and readable front cover. There aren't any articles starting, or elaborate information on the names in the list. Everybody likes comedy so i can see why having a not very well-known comedian central would work compared to a huge Hollywood star.

Audience

The audience of the Evening News wasn't disclosed to me when i sent them an e-mail. As i know for definite that it is for people who are local and proud that they are, having an article about who is coming to their local area would be an interest to them. The article advertised about Johnny Depp has nothing to do with the local area, other than the people of Norwich knowing who he is and being able to watch his new film. Most people like comedy, so having a list of the comedians featured in this issue would attract the right kind of attention. 

As this is a supplement in the newspaper, it isn't misable. This guarantees that every reader of the newspaper will flick past the pages of this supplement which is the same size and made of the same paper as the whole newspaper. Even though this is traditionally not what a newspaper supplement is lie as they are usually much smaller and made of magazine paper, it is still classed as one because it has separate information that the actual newspaper.

Purpose

The overall purpose of this newspaper supplement is to provide extra information for the reader which isn't in the official newspaper so that they read the newspaper as a whole for longer.

Readers may mistake this supplement for part of the official newspaper because it is the same size and made of the same paper, therefore might be more likely to read it even if they aren't interested instead of skipping. 

The purpose of the text is to catch the readers eye and stand out from the neutral, 'normal' colours of the entire newspaper. The purpose of the two photos on this front page is to support the articles inside the supplement and to act as something which the audience will recognise and then want to read the article.


Production

I suspect that the producers of this newspaper supplement are different to the people who make the whole newspaper, however the two have to reflect each other in some way. Whether that is linguistically, visually or by values or subjects, it doesn't matter. For the front page there are no articles so the main work would be around the visual design of it.

The photos would have had to be taken or bought from a company for exclusivity or usage.



Second Page

Here is the second page from the newspaper which is after the front page. It has part of the article of the comedian on he front page and also has little articles on dance, theatre, art and family shows. I have taken a closer look at this part of the page because it has the sort of content i want to write about and feature in my newspaper:

Aesthetics

Overall the look of this second page is also simple. It is easy to locate where certain information is if this has never been read by somebody before. I have only looked at the next page in which features the main article spread out over the two pages, meaning that i have had to split the main article in half to analyse.

Colour: There is a red and yellow border around the main article so it is similar to the cover - it connects the two. There is a thin blue border around the articles which write about what is on in the local arts. There is no background colour like the front page because it doesn't need to catch the readers eye so much, so it is very easy to read.

Layout: It is also very simple which could attract a wide audience. The articles about what is on in the arts is all in one big box so it is locatable.

Typography: The days of the week on the arts article are in bigger and brighter texts so that the reader can find out what day they are free or want something to do and find it easily. It is very similar to a TV listing.

Photos: Photos are supporting the arts articles which help the reader to know what sort of thing they would be watching. There is a central photo of the same comedian from the front page as it is the same article. The photo is humorous which relates to the fact that he is a comedian. The photo is very big and impacting.

Adverts: There are again no adverts on this page, not even about the newspaper's website, which i find convenient as a reader. This is a good example to use as i am planning not to have any adverts because i think for the little amount of space i want to include i will not have enough room.

Overall: this is a very simple, boxy designed page and i like it. It is easy to look at and is approachable. They have made the page more interesting with colourful borders and photos. I am planning to use colour, boxes and photos to make my pages look more interesting and target my audience of educated adults.

Audience

The type of person that would be interested in what arts are going on in the local area are local people, families and the educated reader - so a very varied audience. Somebody who would be interested in the comedian on the front page would be interested in the article on the second page in which wasnt declared on the front page.

This is an supplement aimed at local people who want to know what is going on in their area, so having an article on a visiting comedian to Norwich/Norfolk would interest the reader.

Purpose

The purpose of the article is to keep the readers hooked, especially the readers who were interested in the comedian on the front page. As soon as the reader starts reading the articles they need to be hooked in order to keep reading, therefore spending more time reading the whole newspaper.

This is the type of supplement which could be pulled out or kept slotted in the newspaper to be read - convienient for the reader because this supplement can be kept for longer.