Our Phonecall research to Ham&High local newspaper

Here is a voice note that we recorded from our phonecall with Ham&High which is a hampstead and highgate local newspaper. Me and Issy wanted to find out their target audience and what articles are mainly featured in their local newspaper.

Our Questionaire

Possible mast head's for our local newspaper

Local Hood

The Enfield Goss

The Enfield Gully

The Gully

The Enfield Holla

I looked up on goggle what gazette means as many newspapers are named The Gazette.....etc

This is a local newspaper for Midhurst and Petworth. When i first saw this local newspaper something about it was appealing to me, this local newspaper looks more like a broadsheet paper as in tabloid newspapers they are a quick easy read even by taking a glance,but as in this paper there are long articles and not quick storys to read. The main thing that mixes up this paper towards a broadsheet and tabloid is because of the use of colour and enlarged images.  Although i do notice on the top right corner underneath the banner says £0.65, which explains the use of colour and detail. The main story is about the local bus that may stop on sundays an the community are very angry about it. This is quite a typical local newspaper story, and shows that its outside the city because of the country buses driving, So this is a good front page story as for the community of Midhurst and Petworth would deffinaitly want to read about the local buses running or not.

My main focus for my product

• Articles easy to read
• Article ideas which would appeal to my target audience
• Big pictures
• Focus group
• Test market my product
• Colour for my newspaper to stand out?
• Interesting layout for my front cover

Local and National Newspapers

The following statements is what I found in my research in my media book:

Local Newspapers have to fight hard for market share against the nationals. Most are now weekly and many belong to one of the main newspaper groups. This means that you can see a house style across many different local newspapers, and journalists may contribute stories across several regions. Most local newspapers try to keep a local identity because they know that is what their audience want. They will often mimic the layout of national tabloid newspapers to attract audiences. Many local newspapers are becoming tabloids, with a much greater emphasis on community stories and less on national stories, in order to ensure they can secure their market share with a particular, local identity in his very congested marketplace.

News Institution Research

For apart of my research I researched through my revision book for a2 and I came across these statements.


Two main newspaper institutions in this country.

• Associated Newspapers (chairman Lord Rothermere) owns the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Evening Standard, This is London etc, as well as very many local newspapers, Teletext, GWR Radio, independent Television News and British Pathe, among other institutions.
• News corporation (which owns News International), owned by Rupert Murdoch, publishes the Sun, the News of the World, The Times, The Sunday Times and many other newspapers worldwide. It also owns Sky TV, BskyB and Fox TV, film and cable institutions.
• Other national newspaper ownership breaks down as follows:
• The Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express and OK! Magazine are owned by Northern and Shell.
• The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph belong to The Telegraph Group.
• The Independent is owned by Independent News and Media PLC.
• The Guardian and the Observer is owned by the Guardian Media Group which also owns other institutions such as Jazz FM and Auto Trader magazine.

Analysis of The Star

'The star' is one of the largest font on the paper as this signifies the importance to the audience. The masthead is in a serif font style, with distinctive flicks. The star itself on the left side at the top of the paper itself connotes importance, and power, this is the iconic symbol of the newspaper. The headline/strapline 'SAVAGED' BY POLICE DOGS", this headline uses emotive language to draw in the readers attention as this headline sounds shocking. This sort of language is commonly used in tabloid newspapers, as a tabloid mode of address is outspoken and opinionated and would usually use slang to connect with readers. A broadsheet often uses more factual and non biased mode of address. The headline is a Sans Serif font style without the flicks to connote seriousness and urgency, as they would not put this headline a elaborate style to a serious and gory story. The photographs are almost a paparazzi style as this draws in audiences, as you can tell this is the main story and 'the star' make that clear, as the photograph of wounded people are shown and the headline is bold and large. The newspaper uses two dominant, block colours which are red and blue, the colour red i think signifies importance and stands out. The front page is an easy page to have a quick read and they have made it like that for there tabloid local newspaper audiences. 

The first thing you notice on the second page is the headline which says 'POSTIE DELIVERS GOODS IN CRISIS'. Just like the front cover The Star uses slang mode of address as 'postie' is short for postman as this would appeal to there known target audience. The community would most likely know the 'POSTIE', its almost like he's the local celebrity and the reason why they have made this story the main focus of the second page, is because they know the community would want to read about the 'POSTIE'. The Star is a northern paper based in sheffield therefore the word 'postie' is the kind of language which is used by northerners which they can relate to. The article manages to get the main points in the start of the column as they use short sentences. On this second page they include weather to which follows the conventions of a local newspaper.

South London newspaper

This newspapers print is of a much better quality as the use of colour is more prominent. Unlike the Newshopper the Masthead is a royal blue colour which is shown on every issue, in a rack of newspapers the different colour scheme would immediately catch you attention and get your eye drawn to the paper.. The title is positioned in the same place as on all of the local newspapers I have looked at. The small strip of writing beneath the tile also like on all of the newspapers that tells us the price, date, website address etc that is made to stand beneath the colours and the important news article within the paper. On the right hand side of the South London Press is the “What’s inside” the newspaper, each of these small boxes of separate stories states a title, brief article information and small picture on each so you can see just by looking at the box what the article inside is about and whether or not you want to read on. The headline 'SHOT DEAD IN STREET' is shocking and would make readers interested to read the article by seeing this, the typeface for the headline is sans sherif as theres no flicks and this make the title more bold and serious. This newspaper shows a sense of cosmopolitan as there are two young people shown at the front which are from an african culture and south londoners would know that the area is very multicultural.

Eastend life newspaper

This is the east end local newspaper which appeals to the east London community. In this paper we found it more interesting as it has more of a mixed culture as there were pages which were written in Somalian and Bengolian as east London is very cosmopolitan. They also had the gay pride advertised which showed they are accepting everyone in the community. The paper also had a page on black history month which shows they promote interest to a multi culture society.