Researching National Newspapers

Again, i have scanned in a front cover and two inside pages of a few newspapers, however this time i am going to analyse national newspapers to see any comparisons or contrasts with local newspapers that i need to take note of.

The Sun

My initial thought of The Sun newspaper is that it is very colourful and opinionated; as you can see on the left hand page they are criticising Victoria Beckhams coat and it seems that is all they are interesting in, humiliating her as they don't acknowledge she is there for a charity event. Furthermore on the right hand page they have photoshopped a picture of Tony Blair to turn him into a devil with flames in the background which also indicates the newspaper is very right wing and the use of the rhetorical question above him also suggests the newspaper knows there audience very well, they know what the audience would answer to that and are addressing them very well. This shows the people that are likely to buy the sun are also right wing. There doesn't seem to be much of a house style to this newspaper apart from headlines that take up the majority of the page and a lot of colour to stimulate and attract the reader. Additionally; The Sun seems to use humour to relate to their audience with examples from the Tony Blair picture and the Gordon Brown story on the cover. The Suns political views are very obvious and is a very strong theme throughout the newspaper. This is a very busy newspaper, it seems that if there is any space left over on a page layout they will try and cram a small 'snippet' of a story in the gap.

The quality of the newspaper is very low and it is aimed at lower class, this is shown as it's very colourful, it has a busy look and it is very bias.

The Independent

This newspaper looks very high end, it has a very professional look to it and is very elegant, this show the good quality of the newspaper and the higher social class audience, in comparison to The Sun. The flag looks very traditional and the whole layout of the newspaper is neat and consistent. The Independent seems to be right wing and bias too, the front cover is all about the expense scandal and has three 'mug shots' of three MP's. The similarity to The Sun is that The Independent also knows its audience very well as it also uses a rhetorical question heading to relate to the audience as they know the audience they appeal to shares the same views, especially in politics and this is how newspapers such as The Sun and The Independent can be so opinionated. The majority of the inside pages have been taken up with columns of text which shows the consumers of this newspaper are more than happy to sit and read long columns of text and not flick through which is in contrast the the local newspapers i annotated. The house style is subtle but the deep red is present and the photos are very neat and are full pictures which haven't been cropped of photoshopped which just adds to the sophistication of this newspaper. Furthermore the use of a drop cap at the beginning of the story justifies this point further.

Independent Life

The Independant life paper is a small paper which is inside of the main Independant newspaper. Immediately you can tell this is more of a high end paper as the text to photo ratio is much higher, although there is quite a few pictures which are fairly large, because there is so much text that fills all of the space it balances it out. Additionally, there isn't one advertisement on those two pages which also suggests it's in the higher end market. This pull out newspaper is in keep with the main Independents house-style.

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is another national newspaper, it is very different from the Independent and shares a lot of similarities with The Sun, however i think it is slightly higher quality than The Sun. The headings are all very large and bold to stand out, however within different stories The Daily Mail has used different fonts, this is very unusual and makes the newspaper look unprofessional, with addition to this, there are a lot of pictures and adverts which lowers the quality of the newspaper and makes it look a little busy. The front cover of the paper is split in two, one half is a large advert and the other half is a very big heading, this may have been done to grab the readers attention with the colourful advert and large text.

Terminology

While I was researching newspaper terminology I came across this annotated picture from TheTimesOnline which is going to help me as i will be able to look back and refer to this.


Additionally, to make sure I get to grips with the terminology I have below annotated a few newspaper clippings to show some of the terms so i can later refer back to them to help me. I have used a mixture of terms from the glossaries at these websites:
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072407611/student_view0/glossary.html
and
http://www.jsprinting.org/glossary/




METRO or any newspaper title is called the flag

The short snippets of news down the left hand side are called fillers

A headline which is placed either to the left or the right, like above, is called a side saddle head

The text within the main story on the front page has been justified to look neat as all the edges line up

The small text underneath the photo is called a cutline and at the end of the cutline it says >P9 and this is called the jumpline, as it is telling the reader where the rest of the story is.




At the very bottom of this paper there was a long strip of advertisement for a free public seminar, this is called a banner ad




What i have highlighed above is the text underneath the three photos, which are called captions




The box i have drawn above shows the editors, photographers and any contact info etc. This is called the masthead and is often on the inside page of the front cover, which is where i found this one.

Reseaching Local Newspapers

Below i have scanned in pictures of local newspapers to analyse them, for each newspaper their is a front cover and two inside pages.

London Lite




The first thing i notice about the London Lite is that it is very colourful, the flag and the headings are all in colour, and all different colours too - pink, yellow, black and white - this emphasizes that it is a low end paper. This is also justified because it is free. However the colour could have been used to show that the paper is contemporary.

There isn't much 'story' text on the front cover either, around 80 words, this shows the picture:text ratio is very high. This is also shown in the two inside pages where there are a lot of pictures spread around, additionally; because the pictures aren't full pictures but have been photoshopped and cropped, to cut out the background, shows the cheap quality of the newspaper. It looks very busy and tries to grab your attention to different parts of the page. Furthermore this layout shows the newspaper is more of a 'flick through' paper, where the reader just flicks through reading a few snippets and small stories but doesnt take much interest. The reason behind this could be that the editors know their main audience are people in/around London and especially people travelling on trains as it is well known that this paper aswell as the METRO are left on trains for the next reader, this is how their newspaper gets so much coverage and a very wide audience.


The Echo




This other local paper, The Evening Echo, also has a high picture:text ratio, as you can see the pictures are very large aswell, taking up the majority of the page, however this is a double spread story so there's also a lot of columns of text; although these have been cut up to smaller subjects with sub headings within the story so the reader can go to the part that interests them, instead of reading the whole story. This paper on the other hand, has full pictures, which shows a bit more quality then the London Lite but still looks very busy. This could be because it isn't a free paper so has to show some more sophistication, but is still on a small scale as it is only a local paper.

This newspaper is aimed at people from Basildon and surronding areas so the stories discussed in the paper are just related to these residents. Apart from the flag and headline on the cover there isn't much colour throughout this newspaper as I believe it is trying to show professionalism inside to make it a trustworthy source however the front cover shows me that they're trying to make it contemporary.


London Evening Standard

The London Evening Standard is another local paper, there isn't much colour at first glance of the front cover, except the two yellow strips that have been elegantly used to seperate the flag to the story and then again form the story to the adverts. This is a very smart, yet contemporary look for a local paper. Although, when you open the newspaper, it is a different look, it is colourful, with a very large picture nearly taking up the majority of the right hand page and the left hand page sectioned to many different topics; weather, news and contact information. Both the pages looks very busy in comparison to the front cover. On the other hand, as you look closer you can see the house style which is very consistent throughout the newspaper. The yellow strips and house colour, all the text is in the same font, all the headings/subheadings are all bold and the every picture has a thin border, combining all of this, it look very professional.
The reason I believe they have given the newspaper this look is to relate to their audience who are the London business people also it is released at a time when they have finished work.

METRO

Just from looking at these three pages, I believe the METRO is more of a low end newspaper; the layout on the front cover is trying to cover as much 'snippets' of news as possible so people pick it up, the METRO is free which is also an indication of this, looking through the paper, with an example above, the majority of he right hand side pages are advertisements, if not the full page, normally about three quarters full. There are big or bold titles and headlines and on the front cover some are in colour too which doesn't show high end quality. The METRO is being portrayed as quite a contemporary paper this is because of the coloured headlines and titles, also their date and website are vertical which is edgy and different.

The audience for this newspaper is the same as the London Lite.

The Brief

The first two pages of a local newspaper, together with a poster for the newspaper and two hyperlinked pages from the paper's website.