Possible Headlines-

Research into local newspapers has revealed that stories that are generally found on the front page are important to the local area, or will interest the target audience- people that live in the local area. Examples of front page headlines found within local newspapers are as follows ..
- 'BOOZE BAN IN TOWN'- Halstead Gazette
- 'CRASH CAUSES PARTIAL ROAD BLOCKAGE'- Halstead Gazette
- 'REFORMED BURGLAR SAYS SORRY'- Halstead Gazette
- 'PHARMACY IN HAVERHILL APPEALS FOR WITNESS TO TEEN TILL THETFT'- Haverhill Echo
- 'SPECIAL GUESTS FOR 100TH BIRTHDAY'- Halstead Gazette
- 'POLICE OUT OF REACH?'- Braintree and Witham Times
It is clear that all of these headlines outline issues within the local area, unlike a national newspaper the stories are more personal and relevant to the local people. For example a wider, national audience would not be interested in the 'booze ban' in a small town. 

So far i have come up with the following headlines for the cover page of the newspaper-
- 'GIRL UPSET OVER STOLEN CAT'
- 'HOW COULD THEY DO IT?'
- 'SQUATTERS IN SQUWALER'

- At the moment i am swayed towards using the headline 'HOW COULD THEY DO IT?'. It seems that this headline is the most effective, the use of a question intrigues the audience and causes them to question what the story might be and who 'THEY' are.
At the moment i am deliberating whether or not to use the same headline on the frontcover of the newspaper as well as the poster, I may use the headline 'HOW COULD THEY DO IT?' on the cover of the newspaper.

After looking at existing local newspaper websites I was able to recognise a layout that was common within these websites. All of the websites I looked at had a simple layout and interactive features that allowed the audience to connect with the website.

Research into newspaper websites-

All of these websites follow a similar layout and they all use the same features. Which is what i plan to replicate in my own website. The key features of the website appear to be

- A Masthead

- Menu bar- with links to other pages on the website

- hyperlinked article headlines

- adverts for local businesses

- interactive features such as feedback forms

- 'log in' feauture

- search bar

- accompanying images for articles

- captions on all photographs

Newspaper Poster First Draft-

This is the first draft of my newspaper poster. At the moment there is a temporary headline when I have created the newspaper front cover I will replace it with the headline shown on that. Seemingly from research he headline will be less shocking but related to incidents within the local area.
             The layout will remain the same with the focus being on the headline, while the masthead will be shown in the centre at the top of the page. The page curl in the bottom right of the page gives the effect of a newspaper page; it is as if the poster can be turned over to reveal more about the story. I have done this to draw the reader in and make them want to go and buy the paper rather than just look at the poster.

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.