Primary Research

For my primary research section in my coursework, I am going to be creating two questionnaires for a part of my research in research and planning section of my coursework, My first questionnaire will gather more quantitative data whereas my second questionnaire i will be collecting qualitative data. I will be going round South Liverpool were I am basing my newspaper and get their opinions on what they would like to see in their local newspaper.

First Questionnaire :


Male Female
Gender  

16-24 25-40 40 +
Age   

Social class

Upper class 

Middle class 

Working class 



Do you read a local newspaper?

Yes 

No 

If yes, what local newspaper do you read?

South Liverpool Mersey mart 

Liverpool Echo 

The Daily post 

Other 

Do you prefer reading your local newspaper or the national newspaper?

Yes 

No 



Results of First Questionnaire:

In a summary I will explain the results of my questionnaires and decide on what I will be including in my own local newspaper. I asked ten different people to participant in both of my questionnaire's. From the first Questionnaire, which was the closed questionnaire with only simple yes or no answers available, I found asked five males and five females, to get a good representative of the population which would increase the validity of the findings. I asked five young adults between the ages of 16-24 I asked three adults above forty and lastly two adults between 25-40. I chose these ages because I wanted to get a varied opinion on what local people would like to see in their local newspaper. All of the participants did read local newspapers. I found that eight 0ut of ten read the Liverpool Echo and two out of ten read the South Liverpool Mersey mart. I found out that on the final questionnaire on the first Questionnaire that five preferred reading national newspapers, four preferred reading local newspapers and one answer was inconclusive. I have now conducted my first questionnaire results into a series of charts and tables in Microsoft excel.

The following bar and pie charts will show the results of the first questionnaire I completed :

Second questionnaire:

Why do you prefer or not prefer Local Newspapers to National Newspapers?




What news in particular attracts you to reading local newspapers?



What Else would you like to see in your local newspaper?




And finally what you like to be removed from your local paper?



Results from second Questionnaire


I found out from my second questionnaire which was more of an open questionnaire were the participant could answer the set questions in more detail and expand on their views. One participant said that he would like to see more 'real news' and no 'government cover ups'. He also wanted me to create my own columns were as the editor I could give my own view and opinion on certain news. Another viewer quoted ' I enjoy reading local news because it offers news which is relevant to me'. She also said she would like to see more success stories of people from Liverpool and more entertaining news which are good stories and interesting to read. She said she would like to see less about recycling and council news.





Evaluation of both Questionnaires


After thoroughly analysing the results of both questionnaires, I have made some important Dickson's on what I will be including in my questionnaire. I found after averaging my scores that 80% of people whom which I asked read the Echo, so this would be a good newspaper to base my newspaper on and use similar attributes which this newspaper uses. From the second questionnaire I have decided that I am going to provide the news which the people want and give them the sort of news which they want to see. I want them to be able to trust me to bring them the news they want to see.

Emailing Newspapers

Now that I have successfully completed both of my Questionnaires, I have moved on to email some Newspapers which could help me with my coursework. I have firstly emailed the highly popular national newspaper ' The Metro '. In my email I have asked the metro

1. What are the most popular stories to include in my Newspapers?

2. What are the target audience for your Local newspaper?

3. What sort of stories do your readers enjoy most?

I have also recently emailed the Liverpool Echo which is the Newspaper which I am using as a base in creating my newspaper and I have asked the following Questions:


1, What are the most popular stories to include on the First page and what is included on the second page?

2, What is the ideal target market for a local newspaper?

3, What shouldn't I include in my local newspaper


Results of Emailing Newspapers


I have waited a number of days but I have not received an email on the metro but I have received an email back off of the Liverpool Echo they said the following :

They said I should include an article which will stand out, from the moment the reader picks up the newspaper, They said the heading should be very large and also short because the reader needs something that eye catching. They said the stories they include on their first page are major incidents in the city, new investment in the city and stories involving youth crime are very popular. They said there target audience is males between the ages of 30-45 because their is sport news in the paper and articles which have more of a connection with men rather than women.

Focus Group :

I held a focus group with members of my A2 Media Coursework Class as we were all doing newspapers for our coursework and these were within the age group of my target audience. I gained an insight into what they are including in there newspapers. I found off one of the participants that he was targeting schools and young people because he felt this was an area not targeted by other Local newspapers and he believed this sort of newspapers would be popular in the comtempoary UK market.

Another student told me he was going to target the older generation because retired people have a lot of free time and a newspaper aimed at them alone would be something which they could enjoy. Stories would include articles on options available for the retired and other news which they would find interesting.

Having contacts who were completing the same course as me helped me progress in creating my newspapers through the ideas we shared.

Secondary Research

I have started my secondary research by looking at the South Liverpool Mersey mart and the Liverpool Echo. I have found that a large base of the news in the Echo is sport because sports such as football are very popular in the city which brings a large group of the customers who read the Echo. Famous faces who are currently visiting the city is an important aspect of the news, for example recently Gordon Brown visiting Liverpool is on the front page of the Echo. Local news such as shocking incidents throughout the city find there way into the paper and lastly there is a certain amount of advertisement in the newspaper.

The Liverpool Echo

The font sizes are also important when creating a newspaper In the Echo the Heading 'Echo' is extremely clear and eye catching. The headline 'we did it' is a very large size of font to show the importance of the heading. The colours are important also because the colour red has connotations associated with Liverpool FC and the colour red dominants the front page
of this newspaper. The image on the from cover is also a vitally important part of the front cover of the newspaper, an iconic figure like Steven Gerrard is used on the Echo because he will attract customers. Important features on the front page are the price, date and contact information such as email address and the website of the newspaper.




















South Liverpool Mersey mart


I have also looked at the South Liverpool Mersey mart which focuses on the more affluent area's of South Liverpool such as Childwall, Aigburth and Woolton etc. This newspaper is a free newspaper which gets delivered to people's homes living in these area's. This Newspaper would be more attractive to someone like me who lives in South Liverpool because it more local news than news articles from the echo which focuses on a wider area than the Mersey mart. The mersey mart includes double page spreads of houses up for sale,new buildings and specified local news.

The South Liverpool Mersey mart has a different front page layout to the Echo. This front page includes more advertisement which covers around a quarter of the front page because this is a free newspaper advertisement is their only way of receiving an income. The Mersey mart targets mothers and having images of children on the front page on the newspaper will attract them to read the newspaper.























Echo Page 2


In the creation of my coursework I will also creating a page 2 in my coursework. I have looked at the second page of the echo and what it includes. Advertisement is more essential in this page than on the front cover in the case of the echo. This 2nd page in particular includes three adverts and a article about sales. It also can sometimes include the main story from the front page. Lastly the second page of the echo usually doesn't include any colour to add a serious nature to the newspaper.























South Liverpool Mersey Mart Page 2

The second page of the South Liverpool Mersey mart is very different to the one in the Echo. The second page of the Mersey mart includes more information on such things as houses up for sale and information on home improvement. Art is also an attractive component of this newspaper. The South Liverpool Mersey mart is a free newspaper and it is important that there is plenty of advertisement inside the newspaper.

Research on layout of Newspapers

Local newspapers such as the Echo use colours which stand out, on their front page. The prodominant colours used are red becasue it is a colour which stands out and catches the readers eye when purchasing a newspaper. Other national newspapers such as the Daily Mirror and the Star use this colour aswell for the same effect. Blue is the other colour used often in the newspaper, the colours red and blue are chosen becasue of the links with the football teams in the city liverpool FC and Everton FC.

The layout of this newspaper which is the Echo is a perfect example of the usual layout of the Echo which is a structured and effective one . At the top of the page their is the tradional Echo heading which is always a large font and easy for the reader to notice. Also their is thei mage of the liverbird which has connotations accoiciated with the city Liverpool. The word Liverpool is also at the top of the page to show people what area the newspaper is sold in. The newspaper also at the heading of the page offers a prize for the reader which is also an attractive proposition for the reader, this is an idea I will use in my own newspaper becasue I belive it is an important element in whether a customer decides to purchase the newspaper. Moving down the Newspaper about a third is sports news which is prodominantly sports news split equallly between Liverpool and Everton FC. This is an important strategy the newspaper uses to attract both sets of fans to buy the newspaper. Then their is an exculsive story about a real life incident before the Main article which stands out the most from the front page this article involves a seroius matter such as a murder or a shocking story becasue these are the sort of stories which attract readers the most. Lastly on the front page covering about one sixth of the page is Advertisement which is an important factor to have becasue of cash recieved through advertising companies.

Proposal

For my A2 Coursework I am going to making the first two pages of a local newspaper. My coursework will also include a Radio advertisement for my newspaper and a poster to promote it further.

Name: Philip John Holian

Title: The South Liverpool Mail

Target Audience: My newspaper is called The South Liverpool Mail and will be targeted at residents in the more affluent areas of south Liverpool including Childwall, Woolton, Allerton and Aigburth. The majority of people living in these areas are middle class so I would be targeting the newspaper at them. The majority of people living in these areas would be approximately social grade B workers, C1 or at the least C2 workers. This has had an impact when deciding on the price of my newspaper which is around 60p because this would not seem a large amount of money for this group in my personal opinion.

I will be targeting mostly male but females could still be interested because of the interesting stories including. the target audience is between the ages of 25-35. The newspaper will target mostly the white British because the majority of people living in the areas stated above are from this ethnic background. Although the newspaper will not discriminate against other ethnic groups but the stories will be targeted for the group stated above. The newspaper will also not discriminate against any ones sexual orientation or cultural beliefs.

Content: The Newspaper will contain a substantial amount of local political news and also local incidents which have occurred and views of the liberal government in Liverpool. There will be plenty of exciting articles and stories as well.The Newspaper would not be predominantly right wing but will edge more to the right which would be the first right wing newspaper in Liverpool. I believe this is a good strategy as Liverpool has had a negative view of conservative since the Thatcher years but as this is a growing community i believe the conservative party will have polices which will more relevent to them, so therefore i will signal my newspapers support for the Tory party.

Style: Colours such as red, white, black and grey will be the colours I will use on my newspaper pages as they have connotations attached to masculinity and as males are my target audience they will feel more comfortable purchasing a newspaper which dosent include feminine colours.

Resources: Digital camera will be essential in taking the snapshots for my newspaper. I will also need to adapt to using Microsoft publisher as it is a software which I haven't used in a while, so re-skilling will be needed.