Questionnaire Results-

After undertaking a questionnaire it was clear the audience preferred one masthead in particular- Masthead 4 which is shown below. The questionnire involved a sample of individuals aged between 15 and 50 which is the age range i found were most interested in the news in their local area. The table below shows the results of the questionnaire. I have then converted the table of results into a pie chart which claerly illustrates the percentage of the sample that voted for each Masthead.

 

Masthead	Number of ticks
Masthead 1	4
Masthead 2	4
Masthead 3	3
Masthead 4	9
Total	20

The questionnaire results showed that Masthead 4 (shown below) was the favourite of the audience therefore this is the masthead that will be used throughout the production of my coursework.



Possible Mastheads -

The following are mastheads that I have created based on the earlier post about existing local newspaper mastheads. As there are several different options I have decided to make a questionnaire in order to decide which is the most effective and which the target audience like best.

From looking at real examples of newspaper adverts I have been able to identify particular features that are present in all of them…

• Simple colour scheme- usually primary colours
• A Newspaper Logo or the mast head seen on the front cover of the newspaper
• Tagline- also present on the cover of the newspaper
• A headline in capital bold print
• Date
• Use of shortened words – e.g. “N YORK” – New York

Billboard poster for a newspaper

After analysing these existing billboard advertisements for a newspaper i have come up with a layout i feel will suit my local newspaper.

Tabloids, Broadsheets & Local Newspapers

Tabloid- A tabloid is a newspaper with pages that are more compact and smaller than those of a broadsheet, although there are no specific measurements of the tabloid format. Tabloid Journalism tends to emphasise more everyday topics such as sensational crimes, TV and celebrity gossip. This is not always appropriate as ‘The Independent', a broadsheet, is in tabloid format. Generally this layout is used by local newspapers in the United Kingdom.

Broadsheet- a broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages covering all in all more serious news.

Local- a local newspaper adopts a similar layout to that of a tabloid, it is compact and smaller than a broadsheet. A local newspaper concentrates on news in one particular region, for example one particular county or on a smaller scal one particular town e.g. The Braintree and Witham Times. These newspapers document events and news in their local area and seem to remain politically neutral with the local community

Mastheads

All of the mastheads shown above are from local or evening newspapers, and clearly they have some similar features. Only one of the above mastheads doesn't use colour, all of the others use both colour and black and white. The fonts used vary however they are all clear fonts that would be readable from a distance. The use of colour makes the masthead stand out and therefore attract the reader. The coulours used could possibly link to the local area they involve - for example corporate colours or colours used within a local crest. When creating my own local newspaper i will use ideas and features similar to those above in order to create a believable masthead.




NEWSPAPER NAME-

Above is shown a spider diagram i created of initial ideas i had for names of the newspaper. The majority of them are based on names from existing local newspapers, i have altered them in order to suit the area i will b covering within my newspaper. After creating this diagram i assembled a table that would act as a survey to see which name the target audience liked the most. I used a sample of 20 individuals of a variety of ages in order to replicate the likely audience of the newspaper

 Th results showed that the largest amount of the sample liked the name 'The Suffolk Standard' therefore i have chosen to use this name throughout the creation of my coursework. I feel this name is quite catchy as its use of repetition makes it memorable to the audience.