Poster (1st Draft)...

Here is my poster advertising my newspaper:

Changes...

According to the feedback I received from my teacher on the second draft of my newspaper, I have made several changes.

One thing they commented on the most was the layout of my paper. Here is my second draft:

My initial idea was to have a large advert along the bottom of my front cover with my one main story taking up most of my central, left page with another two adverts in the right hand side of the page. From the feedback I received I was advised to change the layout of my front cover as my teachers thought there was a large amount of writing on the front page and therefore encouraged me to make some changes in order to reduce the amount of text and make it look more like a newspaper cover. 

My Third Draft:

The changes I made to my cover were:

• Enlarged the image that goes with my main story, making it take up most of my page. 
• Put a caption underneath the image telling the audience that the story that goes with this image and title is on the following page (referencing a sentence from the story on the next page and the page number)
• Decided to have only one advert on my front cover and in the spare space I had (where the other advert was meant to go) chose to put small story leads giving the audience an insight as to what other stories are in my newspaper. 
• Underneath the heading and picture to the story on the second page, I chose to have another short story. This story is going to be a story about a crime that has happened locally. 

My Third Draft: Inside Page: 

At the bottom of my inside page is the story that is shown on my front cover. There is another image, caption and heading with it. Because I moved this story from the front cover to this page I now need to add more to it in order for it to cover the white space. To the right of this story is another one of my adverts, the 'Capital Conversions' one. Above this is also going to be another advert advertising a 2 for 1 meal at a local restaurant. 

The story above this I am in two minds about. The idea I had was to put two images on the right hand of the two restaurants, Mezze and Venga, with captions underneath and then write the story next to them. The only problem is that it is a lot of space to fill and like the problem I had previously I don't want it to look like there is to much writing. One idea I did have that might help a little is to put a pull quote into my story and above the main story put a sentence that is slightly bolder and bigger. Im going to try out these ideas and see what it looks like. 

Advert 2...

Here is my second advert that is featured on the second page of my newspaper. Originally I planned to have a coach advert, but as mentioned in previous blog post of mine I changed my mind twice, it was going to be an estate agents advert but is now a home conversions advert. From the feedback I received from the first draft of my newspaper I handed in, I was advised to change the layout of my front page. Because of this I therefore had to change the layout of this advert as originally it was supposed to go horizontally across the bottom of my page, instead it is now on the second page and only taking up a small part. Again just like my other adverts I made this one on Pixlemator and exported the file as a Jpeg so I can put it into my newspaper.

Advert 1...

I have created my first advert, the children's fashion advert. I created My advert on a programme I have on my computer at home called Pixlemator. The only problem is when I came into school to put my advert in my newspaper (on the cover) I could not do it as I didn't export the advert as a Jpeg. So I will go home and export the file and put it onto my newspaper next time Im in lesson.

Change In Story Idea...

Again I have changed my mind on one of my stories. On the inside page my initial idea was to have a story about the opening of the new Mezze on Portishead High Street. Instead I am now having something similar but it is about both the new Mezza and the new Tapas bar opposite called Venga. The title of my story is 'Restaurant Rivalry'.

I have also changed my mind on the health care story that I was also planning on including on the front cover. Instead I have now decided to have a story about a local teen who saves an elderly lady. I decided to include this story instead of the one about the health care centre as whilst carrying out my research on many different newspapers I noticed that there were a range of stories focussing on different things. There was a mixture of both stories about the local area and what sorts of things are happening and also stories about individuals making it more personal and I felt that a more personal story is what my newspaper needed, getting my audience involved and my newspaper having a certain effect on them.

My Image Ideas...

From my previous blog posts I have made clear that my adverts are all going to include my own images taken my me.

My first 3 adverts are on the front cover of my newspaper. One of then is my fashion advert.
For this advert I wish to advertise a local fashion boutique for women and girls. Tomorrow I will be taking my images for this advert and I will be using my little sister as my model. Here are some idea's I have found and just show some guideline as to what I would like my advert to look like.

I have collected some images that are slightly what I would like mine to be like but not quite the same:

This advert is ideal, although as my advert is going to be vertical in comparison to this one I am only going to have one image of my model. With the name of the boutique also on the advert and some small print text consisting of where the store is and the web address.  

This is what I want my advert to look like just with a slightly more suitable image of my model advertising stylish and sophisticated children's clothing. 

I have also collected some images with different clothing ideas that I like:

 I like what this model is wearing and would like mine to wear something similar. As it is winter I have decided that my model will either be wearing leggings or jeans with a nice either oversized or cosy jumper concluding the outfit with some nice winter boots and a winter coat. I have also been thinking about advertising a percentage off of the clothing at this boutique. I think this would be more suitable for my newspaper as it is advertising money saving and also cheap but nice clothing for children. This advert will be most suitable to my 'family' audience or grandparents with younger grand children. 

This outfit is along the lines as to what I would like my model to be wearing. And I will also be having a plain white background for my images and advert.

  

My second advert on my front cover is a Window Cleaner advert. For this advert my original idea is to take an picture of a window close up for the background of the advert and then add text and watermarks on top. I am going to make this advert and see if it looks good and fits in suitably with the rest of my newspaper cover. 

Finally the third advert that is on the front cover of my newspaper is going to be my estate agents advert. My plans for this advert is to go to the local marina and collect some pictures of the colourful houses along the water front down there. I am going down today to collect my pictures then from there I will go on to create my adverts. As this advert is horizontal I plan to have a row of house running along the top of the advert with the company name and logo underneath and slightly to the right hand side. Also underneath the name and logo I am going to have the address of the local estate agents and contact details, such as e-mail and phone number.

The first story of my newspaper which is on the front cover is about the Gordano School RAG fair. For this the image to go with my story is of students at the RAG fair in their fancy dress costumes raising money for charity. As it as the RAG fair today I will be collecting my images to go along with this story. 

Want my pictures to look something along these lines:

The second story in my newspaper is at the top of the inside page. This story is about the new Mezze restaurant opening on Portishead High Street. For this story I am just going to take a few pictures of the new restaurant and see which one I think looks the best to go with my story.
Something like this but my own images:

Last of all the last image I will need for my newspaper is for my 2 for One meals advert for the Albion pub. For this I am going to take a picture of a nice meal with a drink. I plan to do this on Friday when I go out for dinner. On this advert I will add the image and pub name and also the deal that is on offer.
Here are some similar adverts as to what I would like mine to look like:

First Draft Newspaper Cover Design...

I recreated the first draft of my newspaper cover in the software on the school computer's; InDesign. When I had finished it but again not yet got my images or adverts on there I showed the first draft to my teacher and peers for feedback. The feedback I got was positive but my teacher did say to me that he was unsure on the layout.

So from the feedback I got I rearranged the layout of my cover. I decided to move the adverts to the right hand side of the page rather than on the left,  so just done a straight swap with the story and image. I also rearranged the text of my story into three columns as I thought just having two made each one look a little too thick.   

First Draft Newspaper Cover Design...

I have created a draft design for what I would like the front cover of my newspaper to look like. Because I have not collected all of my images for my newspaper the draft doesn't have the images to go with the stories or any of my adverts, but this week I will be taking all of my pictures and putting them into my first draft design to see what it all looks like together. I have created my draft cover on a software I have on my laptop at home called Pixelmator, therefore I think I may have created myself a problem as I don't think the dimensions are correct for a tabloid newspaper. Despite this I plan to just create another version of my cover on the software we have at school; In Design and just put all of my written stories and my images into this version of my cover.

Front Cover Plugs

I have created my first two adverts for the front cover of my newspaper. The adverts that I have made are the plugs  that are at the top of my cover. These are used to attract my audience's attention and persuade them to read the newspaper.

My first plug is advertising a chance to win an iPad mini. Both of my plugs are aimed at my middle aged audience with families.

My second plug again is more for my middle aged audience with the families. It is an advert advertising a chance to win Bristol Zoo tickets.

I created both of my first two adverts with the a software called Pixelmator. I will create the rest of my adverts for my magazine when I have gathered the rest of my photo's.

Changed Advert Ideas...

Originally I did want to have a taxi company advertised in my newspaper but I have changed my mind as I thought it would be quite awkward to collect photos for this advert. Instead I have decided to include an advert for a local fashion boutique offering a deal, percentage off of clothes.

I have also changed my mind about the mega bus advert and am also replacing that one for another advert. The advert I will be replacing it with is an advert advertising a meal deal at the Albion pub.
I chose to change these adverts as I thought it would be better to have a range of different adverts rather than two lots of transport adverts. I also thought it these adverts would be more appropriate to an older and local audience base.

Advert Designs...

Here are all my adverts (final designs):

These draw up's consist of my two plugs on the front cover and also my first main advert, advertising the Estate Agents.

My first plug says 'Win iPad mini inside' as it is at the top of the front cover to my newspaper this is one of the first thing my audience will see. With it being a plug it should have the effect of the audience that they feel the need to find out more and how they may have the chance if winning the iPad and therefore pick up and have a look and read of my newspaper.

My second plug is advertising the Bristol Zoo butterfly exhibition tickets. This one is mainly aimed at the middle aged audience with families and younger children. I have designed this to have a grey background with black text but I am going to see what white text will look like and see if it works better. I have put a butterfly in the top right hand corner as it is appropriate to the advert and includes a bit of colour.

At the bottom of the front cover to my newspaper I am going to have my biggest advert, advertising the Estate Agents; WestCoast. I'm not 100% sure what this advert is going to say have wrote something on there roughly along the lines of what it will say. The background of this advert is going to be a lightish blue colour with white text and a dark blue banner at the bottom. To the rich hand side of the advert I am going to have images of different house with a sold sign coming up from the bottom right hand corner.

This is my second sheet of draw up's including my other three main adverts. My original idea was to just have 4 adverts but because I included the two plugs on my front cover I know have 6 throughout my newspaper.

One of the adverts that is on the left hand side of my front cover is advertising a taxi company around Portishead, Bristol, Clevedon and Nailsea. The taxi company is called Flash. I have designed this advert to have a dark orange background, with either white or black text; again I'm not sure so will try them both and see which one is better suited. Also on the advert in the top right hand corner there is a lightning flash. This is the companies logo, along with a car at the bottom of the advert. This advert consists of the areas in which the taxi company works and a contact number.

The other advert that is also on the left hand side of my newspaper cover is the advert advertising the local window cleaner. The design of this advert is like a window, with white edges. The name of the business is 'Gleam Clean'. The advert is again going to have a lightish blue background with darker water droplets around the title. Might yet change the colours so it the other way around but just need to have a look at what looks best. Similar to my other adverts on this advert it will say what areas in which the window cleaner works; Portishead and Clevedon, and also a contact number.

Finally my last advert which is on the inside page of my newspaper is the Mega Bus advert. It was going to be a coach advert but change to a mega bus system which is very similar. This advert is advertising a trip from Bristol to London at prices from £7. I am not 100% sure on colours and things for this advert so do not yet know how it will look. This advert consists of a website that the audience can access to book and arrange trips and also a telephone number.

Page Layouts...

I have drawn up two draft layouts of my pages. One of my front cover, and one of my inside page. These draft layouts just give an insight an some idea as to what my pages are going to look like and also what stories, adverts and titles are going to go where.

This is the draft layout of my front cover. At the top of my cover page I have two small adverts, One says "Win iPad Mini Inside" with a small image of an iPad mini. The second advert is to get tickets inside for Bristol Zoo Butterfly Exhibition This is just to show the audience that there are chances of winning different things inside of the Bristol Bulletin issues, this is a good example of a 'plug' drawing the customer in, and good promotion for both my newspaper, Apple and also the local Bristol Zoo.

Beneath these small adverts is my title "Bristol Bulletin". On the letter 'i' in both of the words the dots have been emphasised as part of my logo and individuality for my newspaper. I though the emphasis of the dots was effective as it suits the name of 'Bulletin' because they look like bullet points.

Underneath my title I have followed a convention of other newspapers an put the web address of my newspaper and also the date of the day the paper was issued.

Down the left hand side of my newspaper cover I have two of my adverts. The first advert (one on the top) is the advert of the local taxi company. I have not yet designed my adverts but know roughly what they will look like and what they will include. The second advert is of the local window cleaner, again like I said I have not yet designed any of them but know what they will look like and consist of. For example both of these adverts will have a small logo/image, a contact number, company name.

The next part of my front cover is my main story that does take up a majority of the page. My front cover story is going to be about a local fundraiser for a charity of some sort. I also have not yet drafted up my story but again roughly know where it is going and what it will consist of. There will be an image of people at the fundraiser raising money to go along with the story.

Finally at the bottom of my front cover there is another advert. This is the advert of the Estate Agents. Again I roughly know what this will look like and the design of it but it hasn't yet been created. On the advert there will be the company name, contact number, web address, office address, logo/image.

Here is the layout to my inside page. At the top of the page is a small section for the newspaper web address and the page number.

The first half of the page has one of my stories on. The first story one this page is about the new opening of the local restaurant (the mezze). As usual there will be an image of the mezzo to go along with the story of the opening. This story takes up a majority of the page.

On the second half of the page is a small story about the local health care centre but there is no image to go with this story as it is only small.

Beside the story is my last advert which is of the coach company and a trip that they are doing. Advert again will include; contact number, company name, web address, logo/image.

My Story Ideas...

My story choices:

Throughout my research I have read lots of stories from local and national newspapers. As my newspaper is going to be a local newspaper I am going to include three informative and interesting stories about things that are happening around the local area. As my audience are of an older age group it is important to make sure that my stories are relevant and of their interest. As I was unsure and couldn't decide on what type of stories to include in my newspaper I created a mind map to help narrow down my options:

Here are some of my story idea's and the ones highlighted are the ones I am going to start drafting up, and seeing what they look and sound like.

Finally I have chosen my 3 main stories. Slightly changed as I originally chose to do 4 stories within my newspaper but realised during the process of making it that there was not a lot of room once all of my pieces were coming together, like the images, adverts, headings and stories. So I now have 3 detailed stories in my newspaper.

On my front page I have chosen to have one story and this story is about the local secondary school 'Gordano School' RAG week. I chose to put this story on the front of my newspaper as from my research I found that most people read the newspaper in order to find out about local events happening around their local area. I thought this story would do a good job of drawing in the audience as it is about an institution from around the local area presenting a impressive image of the area by putting their own time and efforts into raising money for two charities

The second story featured in my newspaper but on the second page is the story about the new Mezze Restaurant  opening on Portished High Street. I also chose this story as I though it would fit in well with the purpose of my newspaper and also fulfil the audiences expectations by including interesting stories about their local area and again presenting it with a good community image. This story just includes why they decided to open the new Mezze here and how it is benefitting the are.

Finally the last story included in my newspaper is the story about the health care centre and what they offer. This is just an overview about the new health care centre in the are and how people can benefit by using it. The story just includes opening times and contact numbers and interesting things the public may need and want to know. 

Adverts...

Adverts found in newspapers:

From my research and looking through many different newspapers I have found that there is a wide range of different type of adverts from wedding packages companies to McCain chips. I have decided that in my newspaper I am going to include three adverts out of the two pages I am creating. My first advert is going to be on the front cover and it is going to be of window fitting and window cleaning company.

Here is a mind map I created in the process of my research. This mind map includes all different adverts I came across in different newspapers whilst doing my research. I'm sure there are a lot more different adverts that aren't included on my mind map but these were the ones I seen in the papers. The text highlighted in yellow are the adverts that I have decided to produce and include in my newspaper. I'm not exactly sure where each one is going to be in my newspaper just yet but it there is likely to be two on the front cover and two on the inside page.

Here are some real adverts I found whilst doing my research:

Audience Research...

Audience's:

To research the different audiences of different types of newspapers and also to see which type of newspaper was most common I sent out a questionnaire I created to many people and received the responses I needed back in order to help me get the right type of image in my mind of the audience base that my newspaper is going to be aimed at.  

Here was the questionnaire I sent out:

From the response's I received back from my research I found out that the age group people thought that mostly reads newspaper's was the 30+ age group. Personally I think I selected the wrong age gaps to put onto my questionnaire and that I should of made them larger, for example maybe 16-20 then 30-40 and so on. I think this because from my results I know that it is the age group of 30 and above that mostly read newspapers but I don't know exactly how old this audience base is, but I think it will be the older section, 30-50+.

From my research it was made clear that people thought the youngest age groups from 16-26 didn't really read the newspaper as it was seen time consuming for people that age as they are most likely going to have other things to do. It was also mentioned that the younger age groups probably didn't read the newspaper because now if there is anything they need or want to know they can just access the internet on the go and find what they were looking for.

People reported that older people are most likely to read the newspaper and either daily or weekly, tending to read local newspapers the most and national newspaper only every now and again. This shows that the audience's reading these local newspapers are reading to find out information about the local area they live in as it interests and is important to them.

My research has helped me massively as I know know what types of people tend to read the newspaper and what they favour (local newspaper). This is good as I now have a clear insight to who I need to aim my newspaper at as I will include appropriate language and information for my type of audience.

So because of this I will be aiming my newspaper at an age group of 35-50+  being appropriate for families around the local area and also the older residents. My newspaper is going to be a local newspaper including interesting stories about what is happening around Portishead and Bristol the local area.

Newspaper Fonts...

Commonly Found in Newspapers:

Whilst I have been researching all different newspapers, they all seem to have in common the idea to use a basic and easy to read font. Also the print on theses newspapers is always quite small with larger and bolder titles and subheadings.

For my newspaper I am going to use this convention and use a very basic and easy to read font for my basic story text. Although for my main front cover title(name) I would like to use a different font that is slightly unusual and recognizable to my newspaper, something that is unique and individual.

Title(name) Font ideas:

I have chosen to use font number 3 (Century Gothic) for my main front cover title(name) of The Bristol Bulletin. The reason I have chosen this font is because personally I think it suits the name of Bulletin very well as it is bold and blunt. I also think this font is suitable as it is quite modern and outstanding making it noticeable. 

Story Heading Font ideas:

For my story headings I have chosen to have the 'Arial Black' font. I have chosen this font because personally I thought it was simple and easy to read but also bold and noticeable which is what I want it to be as I want it to catch the audiences attention.

Story Font ideas:

I have chose to Bookman Old Style font for my basic story text throughout my newspaper. This is for the simply reason that it is basic and easy to read which will be appropriate for my newspaper and its purpose.

Newspaper Name...

My newspaper names:

Whilst picking my newspaper name I had two names that I particularly liked and slightly stuck on choosing between. These names were:

• The Portishead Print
• The Bristol Bulletin

Because I was not sure on which name to settle with I asked a few of my peers in class which name they preferred an they all said; Bristol Bulletin. I asked them why they preferred Bristol Bulletin in comparison to The Portishead Print and they said it sounded more professional and official. 

My Newspaper Name: The Bristol Bulletin.

Newspaper Logos...

Logo's:

Throughout my research I have looked at several different newspapers both local and nation. One thing I have noticed is that most newspaper have a logo that is individual to them. By this I mean they just use something small and basic to make them different and recognisable from other newspapers. Some newspapers don't have a particular logo, they just use their name.

Some Examples:

The Evening Post had a small ship.                                The Bristol Post has three small stars.

North Somerset Times.

Central Somerset Gazette.

Front Covers and Inside Pages of Local Newspapers...

Example of front cover of local newspapers:

From the research that I have carried out during the process of my course work I have looked at many newspaper, local and national. On the cover of the local newspapers there is always a interesting story that is relevant to the local area either about fundraisers, fetes and fairs or an emotional story about a local family or organisation that has achieved or done well for the community.

The local newspaper I have looked at during my research all only tend to have one main story on the front cover along with adverts for local business's from around the area. This is different to national newspapers as they do have one main story on their front covers but they also include small snippets of insights to other stories that are inside of the paper which only some local newspapers have.

Both national and local papers have a image or two with a caption to go with their main story on the cover.

  

Examples of inside pages of local newspapers:

From my research of local newspapers I have found that a majority of the pages are full of adverts. most of the pages either include one big story with an image and headings, and the rest of the page of adverts or two smaller stories again with images and headings and more adverts. 

Here are some I have looked at:

 These two inside pages are perfect examples of the usual inside page to a newspaper. The page on the left; it has a typical large heading at the top of the page drawing in the readers eye to the story. The heading to the stories are usually quite dirt and sound as though they are directly at the reader, making them feel engaged and as though this is important to them and therefore should read on and see what the story is about. This page (left page) has two stories, but one bigger than the other. The main story (the bigger one) is at the top of the page and has a big bold heading and a picture on the righthand side of it with a small caption underneath. Story number two is a lot smaller and is underneath story number one in a box. Story number two has a heading but not as big or bold as story number one.
Also on this page (left page) there are two adverts and one of them (the one at the bottom) takes up a majority of the page.

The inside page on the right also has two stories, again one with a picture and one without and both with headings but one bigger than the other. On this page (right one) there are four adverts which again take up a majority of the page, they go all around the edge of the page. All the adverts on this page are adverts for local businesses around the local areas all containing contact details and persuasive information.

All four stories on theses two pages are about different things that have happened or planning happen around the local area. All stories are appealing to local people that read the newspaper as they are interesting, informing and beneficial.

 On the other hand these two inside pages that I found are slightly different to the other that I seen. The page on the left hand side is different because it has three stories on but they are all rather small. Despite this, following the usual conventions only one of the stories has an image, they all have headings(some smaller than others) and there are three adverts. Again all stories on this page are about local things happening(informative). Furthermore the inside page on the righthand side is slightly different again. This page has two main stories on and no adverts. Personally I think the reason for this is because one of the stories on this page is very important about the "Calls for Military Actions in Syria". I think if there were adverts on this page it would draw focus away from the important story.

One feature I have noticed that is consistent throughout all the different local and national newspapers is the the reporter of the story is always mentioned at the end of the story.
Another  consistent feature is that, at the top of the inside pages there is always the web address of the newspaper, the date, and the page number.
Finally all images in the newspaper have captions underneath.

National Newspaper Covers, and the Similarities and Differences from Local Newspaper Covers...

National newspaper covers:

The national newspaper covers I have come across are slightly more unconventional in comparison to the conventional local newspapers. Despite this they do still include some of the main features:

 This national newspaper cover from the Daily Mail looks like a a usual newspaper cover and uses mostly all of the usual conventions found on covers of newspapers. For example it has the main heading (title) at the top of the page along with the date and price, local newspapers would also have the location also with these details. Also on this cover another clear convention is the big bold heading of the main story centre left of the page followed by smaller text linking with the story and also a small insight to other stories in the paper. There is an image on this cover as well which again is a main convention of a newspaper front cover.

This cover from the Daily Mirror is slightly less conventional to the Daily Mail cover. As the topic on the front cover is serious there are no other stories shown along side this main one on the cover. Also the writing about this story on the cover is made clear, big, bold and easy to read and understand. One very outstanding feature of this front cover is the black background colour. Most newspaper covers have a ordinary white background usually with black print and other images on top but this background is completely black, again this could have been to emphasis the importance of the story making the newspaper stick out and be noticed as different and important.

This newspaper cover from The Sun is also unconventional as it also only consists of one story and two images both of which complement with the main story on the cover. Again same to the previous newspaper cover the background is covered by one of the images highlighting that this is a differen, more important story, this is supported further by the lable in the corner saying 'Historic Edition'. Despite the less conventional features this cover does have the main bold outstanding title which works well to draw in the eye of the audience as it it bold white writting on red. Also a bold subheading of the story which also attracts the audience.

Conventional and Unconventional Newspaper Covers...

Most newspapers all have similar layout style with minor differences:

Conventional Newspaper Covers:

All fornt cover have large bold title with the main story as a bold headline. Most of the front pages contain one or two main stories with images relating to it. These stories are usually continued inside of the paper the the page numbers are usually given with the main stories on the front page. 



Another convention that is on each of the front covers is adverts. Each of these examples I have choose either have adverts at the top, bottom or left hand side of the page. In local newspapers these adverts are usually adverts of local businesses or event happening around that area.


Another key convention that is obtained in mostly all local newspaper front covers is competitions or special offers. These again are competitions or offers relating with businesses and things around the local area like restaurants and local super markets.



Despite the main stories being featured on the front covers of local newspapers there are also small snippets of other stories included inside of the newspaper. This is just to give the audience an insight as to what else is in the day newspaper. Again page number are given, maybe along with a small image.


Unconventional local Newspaper Covers:




Both of the following newspapers are unconventional. The main aspect of the covers that makes them unique and unconventional is that large images that take up most of the front cover.





The example of The Sun unconventional front cover is a good example as again there is a picture that is taking up a large amount of the front cover. This is also good because it is clear that the story is important as it is about
Margaret Thatcher. It is made clear that the story is of high importance as the front cover is full of headlines and picture rather than smaller story writing. 





The smaller titles on the Daily Mirror example also make that front cover unconventional as they are highlighted and they are also slanted. It is the small things like this that make the cover unconventional as they are different, and have a different layout to what you would usually expect to  find on a normal newspaper front cover.