Newspaper name/logo

I am thinking about what the name of my newspaper will be. This is needed to progress through my ancillaries and main task because it is crucial and will feature in all my pages. I want to create something that is likeable and rememberable, something which can form a reputation as a recognised brand, like Metro or Kent On Sunday around Thanet.

I am aiming to intergrate 'Thanet' into the name and have the logo relate, as I want this to be something all members of Thanet can familiarise themselves with and therefore appriciate more, as this paper will be aimed primarily to Thaneterians.

At the moment in terms of the name I am contemplating something simple..

 "ThanetDaily"
 "AroundThanet"
 "The Thanet Issue"

I was a bit undecided on which out of the three I would go for, so I held a vote of my media class. 8, and the majority, went for "AroundThanet".

I agreed because I felt this was the most catchy and had a sense of care and passion for the district because the "Around" has the feel that it comes important to us to report the stories throughout Thanet to the population.

AroundThanet

I am thinking about using this font, Cooper STD Black, in addition to bold effect for the text of my title.

Tag line
I will have a tagline to add to the catchy effect.. I was thinking something unique that will stand out as its own thing so it becomes recognisable and distinguished to the public. I went with "Grab Your News Fix..Exclusive to Thanet". This is effective in my opinion as saying that it is exclusive to the area implies that the newspaper is specially produced with the reader in mind, only specifically distributing news to that area that the reader habitates in therefore having a sense of the content inside will serve a significance to the reader.

Layout of website- focus group opinion

On first thought I realise that I indeed am not highly skilled on the subject of creating websites, and as much as I am greatly interested in going about making my website for my newspaper, I need to talk to my focus group to make sure I am doing the right things, because alonngside my innovativity only comes the knowledge of what a tutorial holds in building this website.

I set about doing a template in order to get a rough idea of where the different features of my website were going to sit on the page.

This design will be replicated throughout the sport page, and the 'Contact Us' page will simply be the sections across the page stating different methods of contacting the newspaper, links to emails and numbers etc. The home page also represents the main news page.

I went to ask what my focus group thought.

Billy: I think the layout does look to be done in a stylish manner, with images fitting in with the articles in their individual sections with great effect, creating ultimately a smooth look and ease of manouvering the website page.

Chloe: In terms of the actual features planned to be intergrated into the page with the view to blend with the layout to create a what seems to be professional structure that will fundamentally reflect the newspaper's style and aims, this template is efficient. The idea of having a search bar that allows the viewer to observe a variety of stories from different areas in Thanet is a great idea, because this firstly benefits the viewer as it is quick and simple, which means no hassle in trying to navigate to the page they are looking for through a series of links, and in turn benefits the newspaper because if the viewer can find out with such ease what is happening in their local area, they will be sure to keep up to date with the progression of the website of the fact that they will be putting more stories out then be persuaded hopefully to pick up the newspaper as a reliable source of news while they are out and about.

Newspaper website research (sports page)

Newspaper website research ('what's on' page)

How to use Wix website builder

Focus group discussion- layout

In order to move forward with the production of my newspaper for my main task, I wanted to get confirmation that what I was doing was appriciated by others and not just something I deemed appealing to the eye. Therefore I went about consulting members of my focus group to see what they thought. 85% of the group overall took a like to the two designs, with the other 15% having a few opinions on how the structure could be altered in order to improve the appearance to a reader.

Jack: I think the front page follows an efficient style, like everything was meant to go together with the other features of the page, therefore making the page overall seem fluent and pleasing to the eye also. In terms of the actual features proposed, I like the promotion for the inside magazine. Of course even though the task will not produce a magazine in reality, it is still effective as it gives that extra bit of content, making the newspaper look busier.

Sophie: Personally I believe that if these features that make up the whole structure on the front page all piece together ulitmately, it will serve as a stylish start to the newspaper. Looking at the two pages on the inside its clear to see that there is a unique structure being formed, with nice seperatrions from articles and other features and not just blocks of image and text, the pages tend to follow a pattern. To include an ad that takes up half of the second inside page is, technically a smart idea in reality because this is an attraction point and conveys to the reader that this ad holds an importance within the page as it takes up so much room. The reader can't not look at it.

Rose: I think having the ad take up so much space is a turning point which could disrupt the professional structure of the pages, therefore the content of the ad needs to be thought about very carefully as the description needs to suit the tone that this newspaper wants to follow. Class etc.

Summaritively I noticed that the primary element the focus group tended to take a dislike to was the ad, and its size especially in relation to the style of the paper. After taking a while to ponder whether this opinion will affect my layout and pursuade me to alter this factor, I came to the conclusion that I myself maintained an appriciation to the ad and its size, as it adds a hint of variation to the house style, therefore seperating it from other competitors within the area.

shot list: newspaper

Front cover
main story- shot of The Goose in Ramsgate (man stabbed outside in early hours)
side story- shot of Margate stadium (Margate win FA Cup)

Inside pages
1st article- shot of turner centre, low angle shot (the turner's financial boom)
2nd article- shot of ccvi common room (A2 level boundaries increase)
next page: shot of Minster cricket ground (Minster cricket team worries)

Two pages of newspaper layout

This is how I am going to lay my inside pages out. Once more I have drawn inspiration from Kent on Sunday as I like how the style reflects a professional outlook making the newspaper collectively a thorough read in addition to elements such as the article content.

Front page layout-Inspiration KOS

This is what my front page will look like in terms of structure and appearance. I have studied Kent on Sunday's approach and have in some way mirrored their style, but will of course add individuality to the final piece.

The layout itself is quite simple, but effectively feeds information through its sofisticated structure. This is in addition to the actual content of the articles, headings and images all of which will give the newspaper a professional look.

Focus group discussion- Newspaper genre

It is time that I had chose which type of newspaper I was to base my own newspaper on. Tabloid that followed a simpler style or a classier more complex type were the options so I asked my focus group which they would prefer in order to get a consensus which I can take into account on what i chose.

75% of the focus group agreed on the more elaborate newspaper style. I asked some of them why this was.

Jack: I prefer it because the layout and style is very professional, more so than a tabloid of a simple style and therefore I think the right target audience would highly appreciate the effort that goes into structure and intellectual opinion in comparison to bold and brash headlines and images with simple articles used by tabloids.

Sophie: More complex style is the better choice because even though the content will not appeal to perhaps a mass audience on the commute like the simpler tabloid does as it is much easier in a small timeframe to gather knowledge on news, the complex style delivers stories much better and its in depth coverage is a winning factor for me.

I have confronted my focus group and received their detailed feedback. After hearing the pros and cons I have decided that I will base my newspaper on the smarter and slightly more complicated style of tabloid, and my work will be in the style of this genre. Personally I would have rather used this anyway because I believe that it comes across as a much more technical paper, with emphasis on style as much as on detailed articles and this fits in well with my ability to produce thorough stories.

Kentish Gazette inside page codes and conventions