NEWSPAPER PROPOSAL

CHETAN CHOUHAN

WHO IS THE NEWSPAPER AIMED AT?

My local newspaper will be aimed at the residents of Brent and also businesses located within the borough.

This local newspaper is titled Wembley Central Connect whereby the contents will be focused on this particular area (Brent central) of the borough rather than the borough as a whole which includes Brent North.
My primary audience are between the ages of 17-40 which received the highest volume of replies from my questionnaire. My secondary audience will be business and economic fanatics as business and personal finances received a great interest in as part of my results.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

From my market research, over 76% of people who took part in the survey stated that they read newspapers. This gave me a slight idea of how much to price the newspaper at as well as the guidance I received from looking at other local newspapers in the area.
My survey concluded that 9 out of 20 participants stated that they would pay up to 40p for a newspaper which was followed by 5 out of 20 saying they would pay up to 1. 3 out of 20 said they wouldnt mind paying up to 60p whereas 1 out of 20 said they would pay 20p and another 1 buy the last participant. Looking at Willesden and Brent Times which is a local newspaper near the area in which I am studying in, they charged 45p for their issues of the newspaper. I finally decided to charge 40p for my local newspaper BRENT CENTRAL CONNECT.

WHEN WILL IT BE ON SALE AND HOW FREQUENT?

Looking at WILLESDEN AND BRENT TIMES & HACKNEY GAZETTE for inspiration and an overall idea of the concept, I saw that they were both weekly issued newspapers and both released every week on a Thursday. This resulted in editing my initial survey and including weekly as an option in answer for the release date of my local newspaper. Results showed that 6 out of 20 who replied stated that they were interested in a weekly issued local newspaper compared with 7 out of 20 who replied that they read the newspaper daily. Although my research showed that more people read newspapers every day, I realised that local newspapers were mostly published weekly and therefore decided to publish BRENT CENTRAL CONNECT weekly on a Thursday.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONTENT OF THE NEWSPAPER?

As part of my survey, I chose to include a question asking WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FEATURED WITHIN A NEWSPAPER?. Answer topics included were: Business & personal finance Community news and people Gossip Crime Education Disaster and accidents Health, home, food, fashion and travel Relationships and religion Politics, government and war Science, technology and environment Sports and television

 Results showed that Business & personal finance, Community news and people, Gossip and Crime all had the equal highest volume of replies at 14 out of 20 which was followed by disaster and accidents and then Education with 13 and 12 out of 20. The topic which followed with only 10 votes was Politics, government and war. This surprised me as I initially thought that this topic would come across as interesting to read and gain knowledge of. I then looked back at the age group who mostly replied to my survey which was 13-19 year olds with 7 out of 20 replied as the highest. I feel that young people are becoming increasingly interested in politics however there are still low levels of this in the overall population.

I decided in taking the highest rated topics from my results which includes Business & personal finance, Community news and people, Gossip and Crime to include mainly inside my newspaper. I also decided to take local politics, government and war as a risk topic and also include it as part of the newspaper content.

GAP IN THE MARKET?

As mentioned earlier, my local newspaper will focus heavily on local businesses. I feel this is a gap in the market as well as an option for local business and people to buy a newspaper they would be interested in. Obviously everything in the newspaper will not be about business, however, an extra sub newspaper will be included as part of the whole newspaper especially for topic only. This idea was initially thought of as I was walking home from a visit to the barber shop to get a hair cut. I walked past an estate agents shop to see a local newspaper in a stand which included housing and propertys for sale and rent as a separate newspaper within the actual newspaper.

WHAT I PLAN TO DO THATS DIFFERENT TO WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS ALREADY DOING?

I have chosen to include prizes to be one by entering a free competition. The prize winner will be given the chance to have a three course meal with up to 4 other people at a restaurant of their choice provided by the newspaper (terms and conditions apply). The winner of the competition will be announced every two weeks. A subscription service will also be put into place which gives customers and readers an option to pay less than usual considering they pay an upfront price for a 6 month subscription. The price of this will be 40% cheaper than buying the newspaper every week and will also be delivered to your home.

WHAT APPROPRIATE CODES AND CONVENTIONS AM I GOING TO USE?

The front cover of BRENT CENTRAL CONNECT will include all of the popular conventions of a newspaper in this case:

Strapline Front Cover Flash Splash Head Full Caps Support Story Cross Reference Captions 4 Colour Pic Page Lead By Line Masthead All will be tailored in the BRENT CENTRAL CONNECT style and design which will make it stand out to the viewer and reader.

THE JOB THE TEXT WILL DO/HOW IT WILL MAKE AN IMPACT ON THE READER/THE WAY IN WHICH THE AUDIENCE IS ADDRESSED
The text written in BRENT CENTRAL CONNECT is not set out to entertain or even hook the audience a great amount. The main objective is to provide truthful and honest accounts of news and information to the reader. I will not use any shock language or include jokes as part of my newspaper, we will leave that to THE SUN. The text will attract the reader by using a formal and constructive language and format.

WHAT OTHER TEXTS ARE THERE LIKE THE ONE I INTEND TO PRODUCE?
I intend to follow the conventions from broadsheet newspapers such as The Guardian and The Times. Looking back at my results from my survey, 7 out of 15 participants said that they read The Guardian and 4 out of 15 said they read The Times. This left only 4 spaces which were all taken up by readers of The Sun and Daily Mail. This concluded that it was wise to pursue what I was already going to do in the first place and go for a broadsheet styled local newspaper following most of the traditional conventions and codes.

THE USE OF FONTS

Common headline fonts include:

Utopia Display Caslon Miller Display Kis Escrow Display Mercury Display Chronicle Display ITC Franklin Interslate

Common body fonts include:

Utopia Regular Miller Text Benton Modern Sentinel Quiosco

No more than 3 different fonts will be used throughout my newspaper.

THE USE OF COLOUR

I have realised that the colour Red is used a widely as part of many newspapers. Some newspapers use it as the masthead (THE SUN) whereas local newspapers usually use it as topic dividers and arrows showing you where the main text start. Red is a bright colour which represents all things intense and passionate. Its emotive symbolism include shame, fire, danger and aggression. The colour Black is used mainly as it stands out against the white coloured background which makes the text much easier to read. However the colour black also symbolised mystery, death and in western cultures as part of fashion it is highly seen as trendy by the youth.