The Website

Before I started my website I decided I would look around again at real newspaper websites to get an idea of their layout and structure.I wanted my website to look professional but creative at the same time.
At first I looked at Tabloid and Broadsheet websites including 'The Sun', 'The Times', 'The Daily Star' and 'The Daily Mail'.

TABLOID/BROADSHEET:








As you can see the tabloid and broadsheet newspaper websites are very colourful,with photos to go with the stories aswell as text , they all convey a similar layout ,but my favourite one is the sun, its very busy with a lot going on and it just looks more interesting. Because my target audience is young I think it would be a good idea to stick to that sort of bright and bold layout as it would attract their attention more.

Below are examples of local newspaper websites including 'The Echo' 'The Yellow Advertiser' and 'The Metro'. As you can see they are quite boring in comparision to the layouts about,lacking colour and detail. They are simple and the layout they have chosen works but I think to get my website to appeal to my target audience in the correct way i will have to make my website visually more like a tabloid website but not to such an extent. To keep it looking like a local newspaper web page would, i will take into account that there not as busy because there are not that many headlining stories. So I will fit my work to suit a look that meets both tabloid and local newpaper in the middle.

Newspaper Content: 3. Third Page

I decided to go for an intellectual approach for my third page. The first two were very much about whats going on in the world in terms of the media and student life but I thought for a third page I would concerntrate on academic news.
I decided that in my newspaper each week there would be a local students essay competition every week where the winners essay would get published. For the first essay I chose English language as the subject and then wrote an essay with a theme that would fit the newspaper.
This is the photo I chose to use for the advertisment for it, just a picture I took of my english language text book so people would recognise the course:



Here is the final product of my third page of the newspaper:

Newspaper Content: 2. Second Page

For the second page of my newspaper I labelled it ‘the weekly review’. I wanted to have a page not completely based on the local area just to reflect on what was going on the past week, partly like a media/cultural/art/sport page in one.
Since the Oscars has just been , I decided to write a fashion review of the night as fashion is a very big interest of mine so I thought I would be able to create an interesting review and keep it looking like serious journalism at the same time.
I titled the review ‘Women we Love, In outfits we don’t’ I thought it was catchy and would grab a lot of people’s attention as the Oscars is a globally well known event. Going with the fashion aspect of the page I decided to do an advert to encourage students to apply to the fashion b-Tec course at the college. The image I used I set up to look abstract and arty, I covered a toilet in magazines. The photos came out really well and I thought they could of looked like a student on that courses work as that was the desired effect I was going for. I edited the colour range on Photoshop to make it stand out more. Here is the final result:



I then cropped the date out of the bottom and edited the hue/saturation to make the colour stand out more and make the photo look more proffesional, this was the final product:



The third article for the second page I decided to write about the modular exams and summer re-sits that took place in January, as this was local news it was relevant to inform the readers who would mostly be students at University and College what information they needed for this. So I decided this would be a good fit for the weekly review. To mix up the fashion aspect of the newspaper I decided to use a photo I took of one of the Sport/Science student’s who was awaiting his results.
Here is the photo I used:



Here is the final product of my second page:

Newspaper Content: 1. Front Page

On the Cover

I wanted the first pages of my newspaper to be a good representative of what Hot Gossip is all about. I wanted to show that aswell as catering for students and young peoples social life , it also includes their academic life and general news from around the local area and general media coverage too.

I decided that I would have 3 main stories on the front cover to show a dynamic that will run throughout the newspapers 3 pages.

I decided that I would write all the content with a journalistic approach as if I was covering these articles myself. The tone i used to write in is slightly editorial in the way that its quite opinionated but also leaves enough room for the readers to make their own judgements by questionning alot of what I am writing. I chose to do this because I want readers to be able to have a mind of their own and I hope by voicing mine , they will be able to have something to discuss on a higher intellegence level than just an average conversation , between lessons/ lectures or work.
I feel like this newspaper could really benefit the target audience as its so diverse yet keeping in tune with the priorities of their needs and wants.

The front page consists of:
-A main cover story about the New University housing building thats currently under construction. I chose to write about this because it causing alot of controversy around Southend due to its bold exterior. Some say its a fresh piece of architecture and others think its out of place and too bold. I thought that would be a good place to start as its going on now so its recent and everyone is talking about it , therefore a real local newspaper would more than likely do an aricle about it, which makes mine more authentic. To get a good shot of the whole building I walked up to a high floor of a car park and took a photo of it then edited it in photoshop for a better quality.
Here is the result of the final image i used for the front cover:


-My second story I did a cover article , like a report of Mayhem nightclub. I wrote it as if I had been there professionally covering the night and events and used a picture I took from the night on the cover. I thought this would be relavent as the target audience are at a prime age where clubbing and having a social life is a huge part of their lives. So a nightclub report seemed appropriate.It also helped channel the diversity I am aiming for with the newspaper.For example first the builing article about southends culture then an article about its nightlife. I felt like it shaped the front page well as the stories compliment each other in a good way. Often you find one newspaper has a particluar tone and voice e.g 'right wing' 'left wing'...But I want mine to be more of a creative voice than a particular one.
I used a photo I took of friends from the night to create a fun look and feel:


-After the two stories there wasn't much room left in the layout for another big one so I decided to look at other local newspapers for help as to how to fill small spaces. I decided to just write a short segment as a film review on a popular film at the time 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and when there was no room left, i wrote 'continued on page 5'. It helped alot researching other local newspapers before hand as it was easy to make the paper look more professional.
I also like doing a film review on the front page as its not something that is usually dont so if proved my newspaper to be different and risky to take a chance. It made the newspaper able to project the freshness of its style by mixing up the norm of local newspapers.

Here is the final product of my front page.I am really pleased with the way it has turned out and this it now looks professional:

My Newspaper

After researching as much as i can on local newspapers i have started to formulate my own. The first thing I am deciding on is a name for my news paper. I want something young and catchy that reaches the out to the target audience. I belive if the name of my newspaper isnt so formal younger people like myself are more inclined to pick up a copy.
Here are some names I have thought about:

1. The Southend Gossip
2. Southend's Hot Gossip
3. Spread Southends Word
4. The Southend Way

I belive the name to my newspaper is essential because it has to make a statement and make you want to read it. I also think its important the the place 'Southend' is involved in the title because its what the newspapers based on and the origin of the whole thing. Also because its local and involves alot about the college and university aswell as SOuthen town in general, people who are interested in Southend will be more inclined to read it or find a copy, making it more sucessful.

I have decided on calling my newspaper 'Southend's Hot Gossip' I belive this will appeal more to my target audience as i think its the freshest name out of all four and represents what i what my newspaper to portray.
The main name will be just 'Hot Gossip' but i want the word 'Southend' to clearly sit above it just so its not so long winded.

I have chosen this particular title because due to the target audience I want younger words that represent them as a group and used the word 'Gossip' instead of news because it makes it sound much more exclusive and 'must read' than anything.
I belive my target audience will respond to this and hopefully they will notice that its specifically created for them by one of them.

Title: Southend Hot Gossip

I created the look for my title on Adobe Photoshop.I started off with a bright colour because I wanted it to be bold and eye catching. I chose a palete of 4 colours that I thought worked well together of bright pink , yellow black and white.

I played about with various colour schemes but the last one i chose was the one i decided to go with as you can see:









Before chosing the final font for my title I had to experiment with some otheres before hand as you can see below:


There are 4 fonts used on the title, including 'Impact' and 'Times New Roman' which I have used throughout my project. The other two fonts are for my headline only because i wanted them to stay unique and interesting. I also experimented with these before finalising the design however which you can see below.




LAYOUT:
Here are some designs I have experimented with after looking at various newspapers to see which of mine will work best.