Developing My Newspaper

Front cover









I have been developing my first page and front cover using Indesign. After creating the design of where I would like to place my pictures, headlines etc. I added in placeholder text, to give an idea of how the newspaper will look once I have written my articles and headlines. I also added pictures and advertisements which some I have taken myself and will use in my Final newspaper and others I found on the internet to give an idea of how the newspaper will look.

First page

First Page Flat Plan

I created this flat plan as a guide to where I would like to place the advertisements, pictures, mastheads etc. for when I'm creating my final Front cover of the newspaper. I used my research of conventions from other local newspapers to create this. Paying attention to the measurement's of the bleed and slug and columns.

Making the first page of my local newspaper

I have used the page measurements as I did with the front cover from the newspaper, yet added five coloums instead of four:




















Here is a mock up of how I would like the first page of my local newspaper to look:

I especially liked the way the "Ham&High" local newspaper designed there first page as they show each main article included in the newspaper including lead ins to show which show readers which page to turn to to read the full article. The black boxes indicate where images or advertisements are places, I would personally perhaps include more images as this appeals more towards a younger audience and is also more tabloid like, which is what i am aiming for . In the first column they have put a contents with a list of different articles included and also a "regulars"section which includes different topics such as music, theatre, books, films etc with the page numbers for each places next to them.

Making the front cover of my local newspaper

I have starting working on Indesign to create my local newspaper, these are the page measurements I used:

Here is a mock up of the way I would like the front cover of my newspaper to be layed out:

 I have used the local newspaper "Ham&High" as a guide as to how to layout my newspaper. I measured the gaps between each article as well as the bleed and slug and then used these measurements. I would like to design my local newspaper similar to this layout yet changing a few things around as I feel this layout is slightly cramped and include more images and puffs too make it seem more tabloid like.

Audience research

After looking at statistics of the local area I was planning to do my local newspaper about, I have found that there is a small percentage of young people in the local area.

Here is a bar chart showing the statistics of the ages in the local area:

From looking at these statistics I can see that there is not a large  percentage of young people in the Eastcote town.

Here are the age statistics of the ages in the county of Hillingdon:

Here are the statistics of the young people in the Hillingdon area and the number of people in age group:

After looking at the statistics of the Eastcote area, and comparing these to the overall Hillingdon county, I think it would be a better idea to do my newspaper for the Hillingdon country rather than the Eastcote town as there is a much larger percentage of young people which I can aim my newspaper towards.

Audience Research

I created a brain storm of different topics for articles to include in my local newspaper. I did this from looking through various local newspapers to see the topics mainly used in them.



















After discussing with my teacher about my ideas we decided I need to think of my own ideas which would appeal more towards my target audience being younger people as most newspapers target audience is adults and elderly people. An idea we discussed and also spoke about with the class was of celebrities visiting the local area, as I learnt from the questionaire I did asking my target audience what would interest them to read a local newspaper, celebrities was a topic they would be interested in. Another idea was writing an article on a new business opening in the area giving the chance of unemployed university graduates or young people who did not go to university to help them find jobs or help them to pursue any business ideas they have.

Here is a newspaper i analysed:

Headline: Community debate about the future of the towns leisure facilities.

Advertisements: The local travel agent promoting a cheap holiday deal.
- Train travel offer with a lead in dedicated towards the details.
- Local hotel offer of party nights and cheap deal.

Sub articles: Tributes to fell run legend with an image of an old man running with a lead in.
- 24 page property guide with a lead in.

Articles Included In My Local Newspaper

Over the past week I have tried taking various interesting pictures in the Eastcote area which I would be able to create articles from. Bearing in mind my local newspaper is aimed towards a younger audience, I can not use all the conventional topics used in the local newspapers I have researched as they do not appeal to them. From my questionaire I know that my target audience is mainly interested in sports, music, events, interesting events, fashion and celebrities, which are mainly topics included in national newspapers. When taking pictures I have kept this in mind, yet I dont feel all my pictures will interest a younger audience as I havent been able to take pictures related to these topics, therefore I will carry on taking pictures which I feel will appeal and interest a younger audience more.

Here are the pictures I have taken so far: