I have found that the stories have to be put into a heirachy, of what will be most important and attractive to the reader, what will sell most papers of course, and what will jump out the the reader/audience most when they first see the front page and what will make them want to buy the paper. Stories which are about people that the readers will probably know, then immediately they will be drawn to the paper and want to read about the story itself, which will mean that they will need to buy the paper which will increase sales, so these techniques are effective.
For my own newspaper, i have taken all the ideas that i have seen and analysed, and i will incorporate them into my own product, while still keeping my newspaper original. For my ancillary texts, which are a newspaper poster and a newspaper radio advertisement. I have also researched into existing posters and radio advertisements, and i have taken into account how they are designed and the content in them, while still i will keep my products original.
The first ideas i have had for my own stories to go in my newspaper are-
A story involving a young child who is known by a lot of people and well respected parents, involved in a road accident. This kind of story always draws people in to buy a newspaper, as people will feel empathy for the child and his parents, and will be affected more especially if they knew anyone involved personally, which is quite likely as it is a local newspaper.
For sections in my local newspaper, I will definetly include a section on local sport, as without doubt there will be a lot of interest in local sport, from especially men, who tend to be more interested in more sporting things for example football. The achievements of local sportsmen/women will be of great interest to local residents, as this will make locals feel proud of their acheivements, as they could have known them personally, and just the fact that they originate from the local area will make people feel more proud of where they live themselves.
I will also include a section on local advertisements from local businesses, which while it will not particuarly attract more readers, it is a good chance for local businesses to promote themselves as readers will come across their adverts and hopefully for the business, they will decide to take interest into their product and of course eventually buy something/become involved. Also a smaller section on more wider range news, national news would be a good thing to include. Again this would attract more readers, as if there is more national news to go with local interest, then i believe that this would attract more widespread readers, as if some people are not very interested in local events and news, then the more national news will attract them to buy this as well.
I will also include a section on showbiz, as this will attract a wider audience, most likely to be female, as generally showbiz news, which includes a lot of gossip, relationship rumous, and feuds e.t.c, and this will get more readers to buy my newspaper, and it is a widens my target audience, as my newspaper will include sections which are more geared to the male audience for example sport news (and generally these sections are very appealing to the male audience rather than the female audience (this goes with the traditonal stereotype, which is often true.
Also i will include an opportunity for readers to write in expressing their views on a certain subject, which is good as it gives more of a personal touch to the newspaper and it's quite attractive for the readers as they can have their own say and opinion on things, which will again attract more readers in my opinion. These sections in my newspaper attract and reach out to a wide audience, and my newspaper will be very diverse which will help in reaching out to more people and this in turn will increase sales/profit, and the popularity of my newspaper, and word of mouth will help also, if the people who read it really like it, then they will hopefully mention it to their friend who may consume another newspaper, and they can then switch newspaper loyalty.
I have decided that for my main headline and main news story, i have decided with a story about a young child, who has been involved in a tragic and fatal accident, which is a complete accident, and has happened while she was with her parents but while chasing after the dog she fell into the river, and the parents were walking up ahead and didn't notice until it was too late. This is a good idea i feel, as i can see this attracting a lot of readers and also from a lot of people who don't read newspapers on the whole, as there is a good chance they will be affected in someway, and even if they are not, they will feel extra empathy I feel as the story is local and affects the local area directly and they may have a friend who has been more severly affected by what has happened.
I have also decided that for my newspaper name, i am going to call it 'The Daily Shot', as i feel that this is sharp, direct, and very much to the point, and i am confident that my audience will feel the same as i do, and i think that the name is apporpriate. The only problem could be that people may only associate this with sport, football especially, but while of course sport will be included in my newspaper, i do not want to cut my target audience down (as without trying to be too stereotypical more men will be interested in football/sport than men and this cold affect the sales/popularity of my newspaper but i am still confident then people will still be attracted to buying this) but i am confident that this will not harm the chances of people wanting to buy my newspaper.
I have alsobeen developing my final product, and here are some of the stages that i ahve/am going through to get to the finished product:
This is how i am designing how to layout my newspaper front cover
