Audience research summary

The target audience for my local newspaper which I am designing is broad. The age range is roughly 20 years old plus. Teenagers don’t have a great interest in local newspapers, if

they are then they’re more likely to read national newspapers like the Sun or The Times. However this all depends on the

person but on average most teenagers and children don’t read local newspapers.

Adults and the elderly have a greater interest in local newspapers than teenagers and children. There are a number

of reasons for this. Firstly newspapers in general are very formal, text can be very wordy and some young kids may not understand its meaning. The majority of older people have a fairly large vocabulary. So they have no trouble reading the stories, articles etc. Also content, use of images, colour can

make a difference too. For instance an article about politics is hardly going to appeal to a young child or teenager, threes not

much content within in a local newspaper which appeals to their age range

I have found out many ways to appeal to my local audience through the conventions I use. Websites of

local newspapers, printed versions etc have all helped what to include in my own local newspaper to appeal to my target audience. For example for layout I have used

columns to split up the text, making it clear for the person to read.

The font styles ive used, Times New Roman, Georgia, Arial etc are all clear and sharp. The

content is suitable for my older target audience, the way it is written too appeals to them. The colour scheme needs to be suitable, not too

vibrant and not too bland either. They don’t want distractions when reading an article or story they are interested in. Content needs to be appealing,

fairly serious stuff, not too childish. The only exception may be the humour part of the

newspaper.