Tuesday 22 September 2009

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.


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