Before I created the front two pages of my local newspaper, I decided to do a bit of research into the names and cost of a paper, also the owner and whether each paper had an E-Edition available online. I did this for both Local and National newspaper.

A table of results from my research can be seen on the following page:

Enfield Local Papers

Paper Name

Owner Cost Online Availability

Distribution 2007 2008 2009

Percentage free (2010)

Enfield Advertiser

Tindle Newspaper

Free E-Edition Available

N/A N/A N/A N/A

Enfield Independent

Newsquest Free E-Edition Available

92,538 88,833 65,802 99%

Enfield Gazette

Tindle Newspaper

Paid For

None N/A N/A N/A N/A

London Local Papers

Paper Name Owner Cost Online Availability Readership Figures

Metro Daily Mail and General Trust

Free E-Edition Available (Known as e-Metro)

1,361,306

Evening Standard

Daily Mail and General Trust

Formerly £0.50, as of October 2009 Free

E-Edition Available 263,095 (when £0.50), 600,000 (Free)

London Lite Associated Newspapers

Free Closed as of 13th November 2009

400,741

thelondonpaper News International

Free Closed as of 18th September 2009

497,244

The Londoner (By Mayor of London)

Free Closed as of March 2008

N/A

Hospital closure story – On going campaign

Emphasis on ‘ToTs’ (Tragedy over Triumph)

‘Flow’ follows conventions of readers of reading from left - right

To fill up any empty spaces

Attracts/lures readers.

Makes the audience feel as if they can relate to the local people in their area.

When we read and researched several newspapers, we as a group decided that we would borrow elements from certain papers, as they were affective and visually appealing. We decided to chose these elements as they were also easy to recreate.

Enfield Independent

Enfield Advertiser

Metro

Enfield Independent

Looking at various papers available in London, such as the 'Metro', 'Evening Standard' and 'thelondonpaper', we were quick to identify that most common features of the papers. For example we could see that most of the newspapers were distributed for free, with the exception of the 'Evening Standard’, however whilst we were conducting our research the 'Evening Standard' has since decided to end 180 years of paid circulation and on October 12th 2009 became a free paper.

As there are now only two London newspapers available in the London area, this suggests that local papers are struggling to survive in the current market, therefore they are having to try new ways of gaining more readership, such as becoming a free paper. The 'Evening Standard' has since managed to increase its circulation from 263,095 to 600,000, whilst many of the newspapers haven’t survived.

The causes of circulation figures decreasing, are due to a number of issues, these are the following:

Online news – Such as BBC news, these are updated more regularly than print text. There are also more interactive than print media, and the reader can ‘pick & chose’ the stories that are relevant to them, rather than having to rely on an editor picking and having to guess what stories the reader want to read. Recently the internet has expanded to people pockets, where people are now able to retrieve news directly to their phones, wherever and whenever they wish.

24 hour news channels – Again this is more appealing to the audience as it is more up to date than print media, this has resulted in people realising that they no longer have to read ‘yesterdays news tomorrow’.

Therefore not only do newspapers compete with one another they also have to compete with other forms of media.

Rupert Murdoch, of News International, has gone on record saying that, “The age of free news is coming to an end”, and has since launched plans to charge for access to his, The Times online. (See “Online News: Fee-for-access” Slide) He has also closed his free publication, ‘thelondonpaper’, as he does not wish to support the free-sheet industry, as he believes there is money to be made¹.

Also we can see from the circulation figures that the 'Metro‘ stands out as the dominant free local paper with over a million readers. This suggests that the Metro’s news values reach out to the readers more than any other paper.

It is also clear that online media plays a crucial role for the newspaper industry, as most papers now have E-editions available online and some have applications downloadable to mobiles.

This online presence may seem like it would only affect national newspapers and not local papers as they won’t be getting any revenue from their cover price.

In recent years increasingly sources of news have developed. Due the advance in online communication, newspapers have exploited peoples willingness to submit news stories and images. This has grown to be known as ‘Citizen Journalism’, where people are “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information”. This theory is put forward by the authors Bowman and Willis in the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information.

Source ¹: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/mar/18/paywalls-times-online-rebekah-brooks

Paper Name Circulation 1995

Circulation 2000

Circulation 2005

Birmingham Evening Mail 201,476 136,743 (-32.1%) 93,339 (-31.7%)

Sheffield Star 100,971 84,327 (-16.3%) 62,850 (-25.5%)

Yorkshire Evening Post 106,794 100,794 (-5.6%) 68,767 (-31.8%)

Leicester Mercury 118,594 110,652 (-5.9%) 82,232 (-26.3%)

Newcastle Journal 57,677 50,295 (-12.8%) 38,187 –(24.1%)

Source ¹: Local Journalism And Local Media by Bob Franklin

News values was a term coined by Gasturg and Ruge in the 1960’s. However today some people argue that news values are out of date due to globalisation.

Editors will and need to look for news worthy stories, and they contain a number of these factors:

Size/Popularity: Bigger and popular stories generate more interest than small ones.

Negativity: bad news is generally more news worthy than positive stories, such as deaths, tragedies, disasters, murders and so on. People are more interested and want to be aware of such things. Negative news grabs people’s attention; situations like financial bankruptcy tend to catch the reader’s eyes. For example a story like for example Woolworths closure in 2008 was more newsworthy than Tescos profits.

Moral panic is often use in the news. An example of this is the swine flu crisis, it caused havoc around the world, and people thought they were going to die. So they buy the newspapers to find out more on the situation and what’s happening.

Closeness to home: is also another case the public or the readers are usually more interested in stories that are closer to them geographically.

Continuity: As a story unfolds it may have a continuing impact over a period of time, for example: the war on terror or the kidnapping of “Madeleine McCann” which kept rolling in the news in 2007, however now the story has died down due to no new information. Some stories continue to be newsworthy because they stay in the public eye and remain current. The Madeline McCann case was an example of “Currency”.

Frequently pictures are excuses for a story. An example of this was when Hubble space satellite produced a new image of the solar system,. This lead to many news co-operations publishing the picture to create an article out of it.

Predictability/sterotypes: Does the story match the media’s and audience’s expectations? Newspapers (practically tabloids) are more likely to report on stories that confirm their preconceived ideas. An example of this is teenager in hoodie’s automatically mean they’re yobbs, hell-bent on antisocial behavior.

Elite Nations and People: The media pays more attention to powerful nations and organizations for example the USA would be seen as a more important in terms of news, rather than Bangladesh.

Famous and “important” people are newsworthy. Michel Jackson’s death was defiantly newsworthy than a “non-famous” person who died on the same day. This was because he was a pop culture icon, people would naturally be interested in his death, regardless of their feelings towards him.

Unexpected: stories that are different or unusual are newsworthy; like The Robbers Tunnel Into Banks, were the robbers tunnelled their way into the vault of a Parisian bank at the weekend and cracked almost 200 private safes, is news worthy. 

Personalisation: Stories that focus on a particular person are often newsworthy. While people relate to human-interest stories, an entire industry has grown up around reporting about the lives of celebrities.

 National news often have relevance to local news, for example decisions made in Westminster filter down to the local level.

The People:

local residents can and often do submit there own stories of pictures to the local news, often for free

The Council:

Deal with things like recycling and rubbish collection, flood prevention work and schools. The district, City and County Council, will usually have a press officer (sometimes several) who will send out dozens of releases a week promoting the council’s activities. There are a few things that are below councils; the police, fire brigade and ambulance service are the other big source for the local news.

Police:

The local police force provide news in two ways: firstly by responding to criminal incident s, including murders, rapes, road deaths, burglaries, armed robberies and missing persons; and secondly by launching public safety campaigns.

Fire Brigade:

The fire brigade are source information about floods, river rescues, major road accidents, fires and even the occasionally cat stuck up a tree.

Ambulance Service:

Most ambulance services are update local news journalist via email.

It is important to remember that press releases are sent out for a reason. Press releases are usually released to publicise a company or product. So are almost always a biased source of information.

These figures support the fact that there is an obvious decline in circulation figures in recent years. If we look at the circulation figures for the “Sheffield Star” and “Yorkshire Evening Post”, their circulation decreased by -16.3% and -5.6% respectively from 1995 – 2000. These percentages have since increased to -25.5% and -31.8%, from 2000 – 2005.

The reason for this is due to the increasing availability of other sources of information, such as online news, therefore a frequent reader of a local newspaper can now go online to receive the latest news and other news which may have been left out from the printed publication at their own leisure.

Looking at the circulation figures of local newspaper, we can see that within recent years the circulation of local newspapers have decreased. This has caused local newspapers to take action and try overcome this in a number of ways.

Website

With the growing popularity of the internet many people have taken to reading the news online rather than going out to buy a local newspaper. Online people are able to receive up to date news as soon as they happen. This has led to local newspapers creating a regularly updated website.

E-Edition

Many newspapers now have an E-Edition available to view for free online, therefore people don’t have to pay for their news. This also helps reduce printing costs and also the environment. Even though local newspapers are free to residents of the borough, people outside of the area don’t have the opportunity to buy or view the local newspaper. The E-edition is distributed in an electronic format which is identical to the print version, which can include hyperlinked pages and video segments.

These figures support the fact that there is an obvious decline in circulation figures in recent years. If we look at the circulation figures for the “Sheffield Star” and “Yorkshire Evening Post”, their circulation decreased by -16.3% and -5.6% respectively from 1995 – 2000. These percentages have since increased to -25.5% and -31.8%, from 2000 – 2005.

The reason for this is due to the increasing availability of other sources of information, such as online news, therefore a frequent reader of a local newspaper can now go online to receive the latest news and other news which may have been left out from the printed publication at their own leisure.Source ¹: http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GB#

Source ²: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7105242.stm

This news website is by the BBC, this is obvious as the logo in the top right is the trademark BBC logo and the red coloured theme with the globe image is identical to it’s news channel.

The website has a simple layout, with the different section of news listed in a column on the left, this is so that people can easily navigate from page to page.

The site also has a “Top stories” section at the top right on the website, with images from the top stories in the centre of the page. This is so that when people arrive at the site they can have access to the most read story instantly, without having to search for it yourself.

There is also a “Latest” news section at the stop of the page, were this section is updated as soon as there are incoming news.

This a website by the Guardian newspaper. This is seen by the use of their colours scheme and their title logo. This follows the guardian’s identity in the print format.

This website too has a simple layout, with the different categories of news listed clearly along the top to allow people to easily navigate from page to page.

The Guardian website has adverts primarily running down the right hand side of the page, this is so that readers won’t be confused to link the advert with the guardians content.

The Guardian website has more interactive content such as videos, audio, picture galleries and comment sections.

When we visited several news websites, we as a group decided that we would adopt features from the site to include in our own products.

BBC.co.uk

Metro.co.uk

guardian.co.uk

iTunes Software

Enfieldindependent.co.uk

On March 26th, February 2010 it was announced that News International would begin charging it’s online readers a fee to access “The Times” and “The Sunday Times” online starting from June 2010.¹

The charge for access is planned to cost £1 for a day’s access and £2 for a week access.

If this plan proves to be successful it could be the start of other papers following in “The Times” footsteps.

However considering that there are still other newspapers available for free online I doubt “The Times‘” decision will work. If anything “The Times” may see a decline in their circulation.

Source ¹: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/03/would_you_pay_for_online_news.html

Currently in Enfield the are three local newspapers; Enfield Independent, Enfield Advertiser and Enfield Gazette.

There is also competition from ‘Everyone’s a WINNER’ magazine dedicated to local news, information and articles on local sport & leisure activities. The magazine is distributed through leisure centres, various sports clubs, schools, youth clubs, supermarkets, cafes and other retail outlets.

There is also www.enfieldpeople.co.uk which is a hyperlocal blog website that provides news and a social area for the people of Enfield to discuses issues that matter to them

In recent years local councils have also produced their own local ‘newspapers’ which also compete. However these are controversial as they have been described as just council spin or propaganda. http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/538088.php

If we look at the ‘Enfield Advertiser’ and ‘Enfield Independent’ local newspapers we can see that 60%-80% of each page is filled up with advertising. This is the main source of income for local newspapers, even if ten copies of the local paper were sold the, the paper would continue to make a profit as advertisers would continue to pay for advertising space as most business can only afford space in local papers.

The types of adverting in local newspapers can vary. Typically local companies tend to dominate the local news adverts, however there isn’t anything to stop multi-national corporations.

The reader many have certain needs, which the paper can help address. So it is important for our local newspaper to have local adverts. For example a reader may want a local building company and may turn to local papers for information. This adheres to the uses and gratifications theory.

In addition local papers often have large sections devoted to second hand cars and housing.

The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) is the regulator for advertising in the U.K. and has guidelines which all adverts must follow.

All of the advertisements in our project will abide by the ASA codes.

The ASA states that it “ensure that advertising does not mislead, harm or offend”. It continues to state that “Ads must also be socially responsible and prepared in line with the principles of fair competition. These broad principles apply regardless of the product being advertised”.¹

For printed media, advertisements that fall in paid-for spaces in newspapers (both national and regional) and magazines published fall within the responsibility of the ASA. (This category covers reciprocal arrangements not involving actual payments of money.) Advertorials are also within the ASA's remit as long as a reciprocal arrangement of some kind is in place and control over the content of the advertorial lies with the advertiser. If the editor of the publication maintains control over the advertorial, however, the piece is likely to be seen as editorial rather than advertising.

Source ¹: http://www.asa.org.uk/Regulation-Explained/The-Codes.aspx

It has became important for all media to have a clear sense of identity and brand, so that theaudience can quickly identity with certain newsValues and brand values.

National newspapers tend to have more of a distinctive brand identity. With national papers generally

being bold and ‘in your face’ and localnewspapers being more reserved.

Broxbourne Printers – In May 2008, News International built a printing plant at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. “The Times”, “The Sun” and the “News of the world” all use the plant to print large quantity

In May 2008 the Wapping presses rolled for the last time and London printing was transferred to Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, on the outskirts of London, where News International had built what is claimed to be the largest printing centre in Europe with 12 presses.Broxbourne also produces the News of the World,Times and Sunday Times, Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Wall Street Journal Europe and local papers. Northern printing was switched to a new plant at Knowsley on Merseyside and the Scottish Sun to another new plant at Motherwell near Glasgow. The three print centres represent a £600 million investment by NI and allow all the titles to be produced with every page in full colour

As I was unable to find a newspaper poster. I decided to analyse several posters, which advertise a film, music album or other products.

This advert is for the Armani fragrance for women “Diamonds”. We can see the poster has Beyoncé Knowles endorsing the product, having a celebrity in the advert gives the impressing that they use the product, therefore core fans of the celebrity are possible consumers of the product.

The advert is in black and white with a blue filter on top of the image, this effect connotes a cool appearance for both Beyoncé and the fragrance.

In the poster there is a clear ‘diamond’ theme, for example in the image, 1. Beyoncé’s dress sparkles, this related to diamonds as people assume

that diamonds do in fact ‘Sparkle’. 2. The spotlights used in the poster represent the reflection/refraction

of light in diamonds.3. The fragrance bottle is a diamond shape.

The poster has limited text and the only texts used highlights the essential information, e.g. The name of the fragrance, the name of the brand and a sentence stating what the product is.

The image of Beyoncé fills up 50% of the poster whereas the image of the product only uses 25% of the poster.

Also the poster uses white text on a black background, this makes the text stand out more than say if the text was on a grey background.

This advert is a poster for the film “28 Weeks Later”.

The poster is white and has red text, this connotes that the text is supposed to be written in blood as there are “blood” splattered images across the poster all this suggest to the user that this is horror film.

The poster has limited text, only including the title of the film and a lure, “It’s Back”, which implies that this is a sequel.

The poster uses a logo which was used in “28 Days Later”, therefore hints that the film is a sequel.

The image of the logo and text fills up around 50% of the poster whilst the remaining 50% is the background.

Overall film posters follow these conventions;1. Have an eye-catching image or images, that are often related to character (and thus the stars in the film) or the setting of the film2. the title of the film, carefully constructed in terms of font style, colour, size and placement: a lot of thought goes into the title – it is meant to be memorable, and also to suggest the genre of the film3. a tagline for the film – which is like the catchy slogans of advertisements – offering another clue to the genre and key themes or content of the film4. the names of well known or key people, connected to the film. This is usually the lead actors in the film if it has a high budget but it may also be the director or producer. Consider where these names are placed on theposter for best effect5. endorsements from other media productions e.g. Empire magazine, giving their comments on the film such as ‘an unmissable film’6. details of any award nominations or awards that the film has already won will be placed clearly on the poster – Titanic won 13 Oscars in 1997, which resulted in the film being re-released.