The Future of Newspapers

The future of newspapers has been widely debated as the industry has faced down soaring newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen—especially in the United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001. Revenue has plunged while competition from internet media has squeezed older print publishers. The debate has become more urgent lately, as a deepening recession has shaved profits, and as once-explosive growth in newspaper web revenues has leveled off, forestalling what the industry hoped would become an important source of revenue. At issue is whether the newspaper industry faces a cyclical trough, or whether new technology has rendered obsolete newspapers in their traditional format.


An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical.
Going online created more opportunities for newspapers, such as competing with broadcast journalism in presenting breaking news in a more timely manner. The credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the close relationships they have with advertisers, are also seen by many in the newspaper industry as strengthening their chances of survival. The movement away from the printing process can also help decrease costs. Professional journalists have some advantages over blogs, as editors are normally aware of the potential for legal problems. Online newspapers are much like hard-copy newspapers and have the same legal boundaries, such as laws regarding libel, privacy and copyright, also apply to online publications in most countries, like in the UK. Also in the UK the Data Protection Act applies to online newspapers and news pages. But the distinction was not very clear to the public in the UK as to what was a blog or forum site and what was an online newspaper. In 2007, a ruling was passed to formally regulate UK based online newspapers, news audio, and news video websites covering the responsibilities expected of them and to clear up what is, and what isn't, an online publication.

News reporters are being taught to shoot video and to write in the succinct manner necessary for the Internet news pages. Many are learning how to implement blogs and the ruling by the UK's PCC should help this development of the internet. Journalism students in schools around the world are being taught about the "convergence" of all media and the need to have knowledge and skills involving print, broadcast and web. Some newspapers have attempted to integrate the internet into every aspect of their operations, i.e., reporters writing stories for both print and online, and classified advertisements appearing in both media; others operate websites that are more distinct from the printed newspaper. The Newspaper National Network LP is an online advertising sales partnership of the Newspaper Association of America and 25 major newspaper companies.

Narrative Theroy

In lessons we have been learning about Narrative theroys. I think narrative theroy are interesting, we can decide if we agree with the theroys and if are work fits them, and if this is a good or bad thing.
Here is a bit about the different narrative theroys.

Tzvetan Trodorov's Narrative Theroy

A bit about the guy:

- He was born March 1st 1939 in Sofia

- He is a Franco-Bulgarian philospher

- He has lived in France since 1963

- He has written books and essays about literary theroy, thought history and culture theroy

- Has published a total of 21 books

- He has been a visiting professor at several universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Berkeley

His theroy:

- Tzventan Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theroy while also allowing a more complex interpetation of film text with his theroy of Equilibrium and Disequilibruim

- Todorov's theroy was the equilibrium and disequibruim theroy. This theroy explains that stories have certain sections

- Equilibrium = beginning, meeting the character in their own world.

- Disturbance = things change, a problem occurs the we were introduced to changes, or there is a problem with the characters.

- Resolution = The problem is solved, and a different equillibruim is restored.

Example of his theroy being put in place:

His theroy is shown in Sweeney Todd

- Equillibrium = Main character has a happy family and life, he is getting married and has a child.
- Disturbance = Judges come and take his away from his family and ruin his life. The maincharacter then come back for revenge with a new name trying to kill the judge.

- Resolution = Judge is killed but the so is the mail character but he is reunited with his love after death while his daughter is free to live her life with her love.

How Todorovs Narrative theroy could link to my work:

- Most Newpapers stories seem to follow the Equillibruim theroy, although are at different stage of the theroy, - some stories may not have reached a new Equillibruim but casn be continuing stories in newpaper. Some stories may not finish by following this narrative theroy as there is not always a new Equillibruim to be me found

- I need to make sure if i use this narrative theroy i keep my storylines realistic.

Vladimir Propp

A bit about the guy:

-Born on 17th april 1895 and died 22nd august 1970 - aged 75.

His Theroy:

-Propp came up with the narrative theory from the russian folk tales.

- He extended the Russian Formalist approach to narratology (the study of narrative structure).

- Where, in the Formalist approach, sentence structures had been broken down into analysable elements - morphemes - Propp used this method by analogy to analyse folk tales.

- By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units - narratemes - Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures.

-By analysing types of characters & action, Propp was able to arrive at the conclusion that there were thirty-one generic narratemes in the Russian folk tale.

- While not all are present, he found that all the tales he analysed displayed the functions in unvarying sequence.

- After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence:

• A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);
• An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'go to this place');
• The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);
• The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find them 　　　　　　children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);
• The villain gains information about the victim;
• The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);
• Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;
• Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);
• Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);
• Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;
• Hero leaves home;
• Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving 　　　magical agent or helper (donor)
• Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);
• Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
• Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search
• Hero and villain join in direct combat;
• Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
• Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
• Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revivied, captive freed);
• Hero returns;
• Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
• Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, her transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life
• Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;
• False hero presents unfounded claims;
• Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance,other tasks);
• Task is resolved;
• Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
• False hero or villain is exposed;
• Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
• Villain is punished;
• Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted)

- These narrative functionare also spread between the main characters. - Propp also decided that a narrative needed to have:-

• The villain, who struggles with the hero
• the donor,
• who prepares and/or provides hero with magical agent
• the helper, who assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigures the hero
• the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain
• the dispatcher, who sends the hero off
• the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds at end
• the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess)

Roland Barthes

A bit about the guy

- Roland Barthes was born on 12 November 1915

- Born in the town of Cherbourg in Normandy.

- He was the son of naval officer Louis Barthes, who was killed in a battle in the North Sea before his son was one year old.

- His mother, Henriette Barthes, and his aunt and grandmother raised him in the village of Urt and the city of Bayonne.

- When Barthes was eleven, his family moved to Paris and it was there that he would grow to manhood (though his attachment to his provincial roots would remain strong throughout his life).
- Barthes showed great promise as a student and spent the period from 1935 to 1939 at the Sorbonne, earning a license in classical letters.

- He died 25 March 1980

His theroy

- Barthes agrues that the 'author' no longer exist, and because of ideas such as surrealism and the insights offered by modern thought, anything created is just a compilation of previous ideas and conventions drawn from previous texts.

- This theroy basically says instead of the author of a media text being the one controlling the meaning, it is the reader of the text that interprets it in a way which is relevant to their past experiences and knowledge of convention

- Roland Barthes describes a text as "galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can reach, they are indeterminable . . . ; the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language"

- What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads, which need unravelling so we can separate out the colours.

- Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings.

- We can start by looking at narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experiences and create one meaning for the text

- You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle by pulling a different thread if you like and create an entirely different meaning, and so on.

- Texts can be 'Open', ie unravelled in a lot of different ways

- A text can also be 'Closed' and there is only one obvious thread to pull on.

- Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try to unravel meaning are called narative codes and they could be categoried in the following five ways:

• Action/proiarectic code and enigma codes (ie questions and answers)
• Symbols and signs
• Point of culture reference
• Simple description/reproduction

We've been given a sheet on right and left politics which i found very useful:-

I found this sheet very useful as it helped me to clarify the difference between left and right wing politics, which I've never completely understood.

I will now be able to refer to politics in work and I can either make me work fit left or right side of politics, which i think is an important aspect as both politics and newspapers are an important part of today society so there will need to be links and newspapers usually have a lot to do with politics.

Google docs

I have created a google doc account so it is easier for me to access my documents and put my documents on my blog..
I will test this later today, hopefully this will be successful so i will i have a easier way to share my documents.

Website for Bus Poster

My teacher has given me a link to a website which he found which he thinks will be useful to me as i have decided to do bus advertisements as my poster. It is a website for a company which create bus advertisements, which has different dimensions for bus advertisements so I can use these to decide size and scale I wish to work with. I will use these different scales to try some flat plans. This is a link to the website: http://www.psvmedia.co.uk/options.


I think it will be a good idea to do some different kind of flat plans to see what works best, and to try to be more creative in my flat plans, so i think as well as using the dementions of buses from the website to creative had drawn flat plans, i think i would be a good idea to also use digital technology to create some flat plans.
I have taken photos of buses with poster and advertisments one, (both side and back views), I will work with on pages with the macs to remove the poster from the picture of the bus, and i can now create flat plans with on the photo of the bus. I could do this several ways, (and I am most likely to try more than one way) I am thinking of doing this usings either pages, photoshop, or by hand drawing.

Bus posters :)

After thinking about it for a while i have decided the most suitable form for my poster would be for it to be on a local bus. I think this the best idea because:-

• I would reach more people as the bus is moving
• I could choose the which bus route my poster would be on, and look at stereotypicially people would will see the advert and therefore whos most likely to read my newspaper. So I'd have more control in attract my target audience
• I can choose where on the bus the poster is and also the size and scale I need to work with.

Poster?

Because I've noticed that Newspaper posters are uncommon I've been trying to to think of a more interesting format for a poster so that it is more interesting and more likely to do a better job in advertising my product, and attract a larger audience.
Some idea for more interesting newspaper adverts:-

• Billboard adverts - likely to attract lots of attention because on a large scale, i would have to find out size and work to scale, where the billboard is would depend on who notices it and therefore who reads the newspaper so i'd need to insure the billboard was in the right place, and obviously would have to be placed somewhere the local community would reconignse it
• Bus adverts (bus stops and on buses) - Also large so would attract attention, would need to find shapes and size so would have to work to scale, where on the bus it is placed would be a factor to consider as it can be in different place on the bus which would effect the size and scale i work with, The bus route would effect people who see the advert and therefore who read my newspaper, on buses seem more appropriate are moving and therefore the advert will be shown to a large scale of people

The article which me and Jaynie complete and sent to the 'Gazette' got publish, although changes were made, and the article was only small...


This is what got published & what i thought about it:-

• The Headline "Right On Track" got used instead of the headlines we suggested. I think Right on track works because its showing young people are on the right track unlike what how some people stereotype young people to cause trouble. I also think its more to the point than the headlines we suggested, which we more play on word (which creatively could be seen as a good thing, but it depends on the readership as certain audiences would prefer straight to the point headline), this headline also doesn't explain much about the storyline so it makes readers want to read more to see what the story is about
• Only one picture was used. A picture of the Jeff Thomas helping a student. I think this picture was shown because it shows the students were learning from this and that the scientist had time to help the students individually, so the readers can see it was benefiting the students.
• The article only used a small section of the pages, this shows that there was more important news within the community, but readers also get to see young people are on the right track
• A quote has been added to the article, i think this is done because it shows readers how the teachers feel about the scientist visiting the school.
• There is a grammar mistake, the speak marks of aren't closed.
• The story has been cut down, only the most important points are in the article.

Video - The decline of Local Newspapers
As my brief states i must make a new local newspaper, i have also researched into the decline of local newspaper so that i can try to challenge conventions creating a popular local newspaper.

The Newspaper Decline

Jeff Javis - Newspaper decline?

This is a video i found on youtube about the decline of newspapers. From looking at this i have decided it would be a good idea to aim my newspaper to a new audience.

Website I got sent a link to

I have looked on the website link which I got sent in my reply the email I sent.
After searching the website I noticed there are media packs for some local newspapers containing information on the newspapers audience.

There are media sheets for

• The Thornbuy Gazette - http://www.nqmarketinghub.co.uk/gloucestershire/mediapacks/newspapers/Gazette%20Series.pdf


• The Gloucestershire Independent - http://www.newsquestgloucestershire.co.uk/newspapers/gloucestershire_independent.html


• Stroud News & Journal - http://www.nqmarketinghub.co.uk/gloucestershire/mediapacks/newspapers/Stroud%20News%20&%20Journal.pdf

From looking at the these media packs and the website I have decided i will try to get hold of these newspapers do analyse them, and I will look at the media pack and any other information on these newspapers.

Replies to Email...

I have just checked my email and I have recieve two replies from the email I eariler sent.

The from the Derby Telegraph saying:
"Good Morning,

I think you would benefit more from some assistance from the marketing department..

Would you like me to forward your email on??

Regards"

I have replied to this email asking for my email to be forwarded, and I will continue checking my inbox for more replies


My second email was from Sue Richings from another local newpapers saying:
"Hi Chloe

We wish you every success in completing your coursework. If you go to www.newsquestgloucestershire.co.uk there is lots of information about our newspaper titles and you should be able to get some good ideas from this site.

Good Luck

Kind Regards
Sue Richings
Advertising Controller"

Contact Newpaper Advertisers for advice

As I am finding it difficult to decide the most successful way to advertise and newspaper and create a poster as I feel these are uncommon and have not been able to find any poster on newspapers to analysed therefore I have emailed several local newspapers and their advertisers to ask for advice

Email I sent:-
" I am completing my A2 media coursework, and i have choose to do a question based on local newspapers.As part of my project i need to create a poster advertising the newspaper and i haven't seen many adverts for newspapers, so i was wondering if it would be possible for you to help me, I'd like to know how you'd go about advertising a local paper, where you think would be the most successful place to advertise for newspapers, and anything else you think would be useful to me. Please get back to me
Many thanks
Chloe Hayfield."

Planning and Writting Article for the Gazette

Me and Jaynie are both completing the newspaper question for are coursework and we found out there was a forensic scientist visiting a year 11 lesson and as Marlwood is a science college, we thought this was a good opportunity to use this to practice writing a article for a local newspaper.

1. Beginning this we need photographs to go along side the article. So we visited the lesson and took a few photos which we thought would be appropriate for the newspaper
2. We then interviewed the teacher at the end of the lesson, asking questions on how the lesson went, the background of the scientist and how the students felt, try to get as much vital information as possible
3. We then took my notes from the interview used these to help me write a short newspaper story, we tried to stick to newspaper conventions whilst doing so, and tried to keep my story factual
4. We selected my favourite photos, and cropped a few to improve the composition of some photos
5. We then made sure we double checked the story we wrote earlier, correcting any mistakes, and making some improvements.
6. We tired to think of a few headlines which could be used with the story
7. Finally we emailed the story, a few headline ideas and my favourite photos to the local newspaper "The Gazette", and asked in my email to receive feedback, especially if the story doesn't get published.

What I sent into local newspaper:-

Ideas for headlines:-

• Marlwood Crimebusters.
• Hands on at Science College
• Science College pupils are dab hands
  

Story I write and sent to local newspaper:-

Malrwood is a specialist science college and as part of the work of a science college, practitioners from the worlds of science and maths will be visiting the school to work with the students. Other work planned includes an actuary, opticians, nuclear power engineers and estate agents.

On Friday 16 October 2009, Jeff Thomas, visited Marlwood Year 11 21st Century Science group. They are studying how science can be used with various jobs such as forensic scientists, where they specialise in collecting finger-prints at crime scenes.

Jeff Thomas is experience in this line of expertise’s and talked to the enthusiastic pupils about how the police use and collect data and evidence from crime scenes. The pupils got to show off their won knowledge and skills by finding their own fingerprints on glass. The students from class X3 also found out exciting and interesting facts such as how scientists can finger print a cows nose.

The students learnt about Jeff Thomas history and experience in this industry, he began his carer as a PC and had moved on to training others to analysis finger prints, he even gets to travel to different countries to gain experience, and work with different people and in other cultures which students seemed interested in hearing about.

Overall this seemed like an interesting day for both Year 11 Marlwood Science class X3 and for Jeff Thomas, as they learnt from each other. The students enjoyed getting to meet somebody who is experienced and has knowledge of 21st Century science which they are studying.

How successful I think this was?
Although I still haven't heard if my article will be published yet, I think it makes sense to for me to look at how this task went, and any improvements I could make if I were to complete a similar task again.

What went well?

• I found it simpler that I expected to turn my notes from the interview into a short newspaper story.
• The interview I held with the teacher who held the lesson went well as I feel I asked all the right question to find the vital information I needed

What I could improve?

• I think I should have spent more time in the lesson observing, then I would have got a better idea of the atmosphere of the lesson
• Although
• some of my photos were successful I think I could have taken a few more photos, so giving me a bigger range of picture to choose from
• When I held the interview with the teacher I felt I needed to write down notes quicker, so i wasted less time
• I found thinking of headlines difficult, so I think it would be useful for me to analyse newspaper headlines, to help see what works.

Research Plan

What?	Why	When	How?
Complete mind map of what I'd expect from local newspaper which is also showing my intention, so that I can spread my thought & ideas	This will help me to gather my ideas, and thought together, which will help me in my next steps.	Early October when beginning the coursework	Start with newspapers in the middle of an a3 page and write down ideas, hopefully ideas should develop from my other ideas. I will then scan this on to my blog and analyse what I have written down
Read a section on newspapers from book "We the media" by Dan Gillmor.	This will help me gain knowledge of the media and newspaper industry.	Mid October	I will read this section of the book and make note on what I think are key fact, to make sure I keep these in mind when doing my research and creating my product.
Analise newspaper content of from several newspapers.	This will help me see what kind of stories are in newspapers and what are more most popular to help me decide what to write in my newspaper	Mid October	I will complete tally charts showing the contents of ac range of different newspaper and compare the results. Once i have done this i will scan it into my blog
Complete a close newspaper analysis look at picture, stories, language and layout	This will make conventions of newspapers clearer to me, so i can decide if i think it best to follow these conventions and this will help me see what will and won't be effective in my newspaper	Mid October	I will choose a few key stories in from a local newspaper and analyse key point, both factually and opinionated. Then scan this into my blog
Questionnaires	If I get potential audiences to answer questionnaires on what they look for in a newspaper i will be able to see what is popular with target audience and how i can attract a large audience	Mid October	I will write questionnaires, with relevant questions to ask my target audience and then compare the results.
Write an article and take photos which could be used in local newspapers, and send these in, to see if the story get published and whats changed.	This will help me to identify if something I have written is suitable for newspapers and discovery where I am going wrong, also this gives more experience in working with real life newspapers.	Mid October	I will find something suitable to write about for a local newspaper, and take photos of. I will select the best photos, and hold an interview if suitable finding out as much as I can about what my story is on. I will then turn my notes into what I think is a suitable story for a local newspaper and then send this to a newspaper to see if it gets published and if it doesn't I will ask for feedback on why not.
Email advertisers of real life local newspaper to find out more about how they advertise there newspaper a I feel poster for newspapers are uncommon.	As I need to create a poster for my newspaper and I feel these as uncommon I think it would be useful to see how somebody in the industry would go about doing these as I think its going to be difficult for me to find a poster for a newspaper to analyse.	Mid October	Find email addresses of several advertisers from local newspaper from websites, and email several asking for any advice, etc. If I get replies I will compare what different people say, and think about how am I going to take this advise on board.

Key Questions

In what ways will my media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

Uses:-

• Uses of language needs to create a link between storylines and genre in real life newspapers.

Develop:-

• I would like to develop the layout of tradition newspapers, creating an exciting layout which makes the newspaper stand out more, attracting new audiences

Things to consider? (problematics, thesis, questions)

1. Is it possible to have exciting news which is kept local and realistic?
2. How to use the layout, photographs and picture to make the newspaper seem interesting and stand out whilest keeping the conventions of traditional newspapers?
3. Is it possible to extend to traditional newpaper audience, instead changing conventions to attract new audiences without loosing oringnal audiences?

Timeline

I need to ensure I stick to all deadlines, therefore I have created a timeline, which I intend to stick to, so that I am organised, my work is completed to the best it can possibly be and so that I do not need to rush in order to complete work within the given deadlines.

I have also added a to do list to this blog, so that when complete i task i can cross it off, which will also help me assure I'm up to date and make it clear what I need to do

October '09

• Decide on which preliminary tasks to do.
• Decide on most relevant and useful research to do
• Complete a mind map to plan and spread my thoughts
• Complete current newspaper research - language, layout, photo/picture and story research
• Audience research - decide who my newspaper would be aimed at? and how would be the best way to approach the audience?

November '09

• Draft several versions of the story for my newspaper pages and decide which story/stories to use
• Decide on appropriate picture/photo to use along side story I have chosen
• Do a photo shoot
• Analysis which photos would be best to use for the newspaper
• Create several flat plans to decide the layout of my newspaper pages
• Use pages to create a few newspaper pages, using my favourite flat plans
• Ask potential audience there opinions on my newspaper pages
• Analysis the new paper pages i have created, deciding on which is most appropriate for my final draft, bearing in mind the audience responses
• Add final changes to final newspaper pages.

Begining my research...

I need to decide what research I would need to do, which would help me create a success product.


I need to decide what stories would be most successful in newspaper, and how to present them, and the research i do next will be key into me deciding this, so i need to make sure i do relevent and detail research.


Here's a mind have created a mindmap of my ideas and theroys when it comes to newspapers, and creating my newspaper.

General Newspaper Research

A newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the personal opinions of writers. Supplementary sections may contain advertising, comics, and coupons.

A wide variety of material has been published in newspapers, including editorial opinions, criticism, obituaries; entertainment features such as crosswords, sudoku and horoscopes; weather news and forecasts; advice, gossip, food and other columns; critical reviews of movies, plays and restaurants; classified ads; display ads, editorial cartoons and comic strips.

The Definaition of 'News Papers'

Newspapers are typically expected to meet four criteria:

* Publicity: Its contents are reasonably accessible to the public.
* Periodicity: It is published at regular intervals.
* Currency: Its information is up to date.
* Universality: It covers a range of topics.

The Impact of television and Internet

By the late 1990s the availability of news via 24-hour television channels and then the Internet posed an ongoing challenge to the business model of most newspapers in developed countries. Many newspapers around the world launched online editions in an attempt to follow or stay ahead of their audience.

However, in the rest of the world, cheaper printing and distribution, increased literacy, the growing middle class and other factors have more than compensated for the emergence of electronic media and newspapers continue to grow.


Categories

While most newspapers are aimed at a broad spectrum of readers, usually geographically defined, some focus on groups of readers defined more by their interests than their location: for example, there are daily and weekly business newspapers and sports newspapers. More specialist still are some weekly newspapers, usually free and distributed within limited areas; these may serve communities as specific as certain immigrant populations, or the local gay community.

Daily: A daily newspaper is issued every day, sometimes with the exception of Sundays and some national holidays. Saturday and, where they exist, Sunday editions of daily newspapers tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and advertising inserts, and cost more. Typically, the majority of these newspapers’ staff work Monday to Friday, so the Sunday and Monday editions largely depend on content done in advance or content that is syndicated. Most daily newspapers are published in the morning. Afternoon or evening papers are aimed more at commuters and office workers.

Weekly: Weekly newspapers are common and tend to be smaller than daily papers. In some cases, there also are newspapers that are published twice or three times a week. In the United States, such newspapers are generally still classified as weeklies.

National: Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country: a national newspaper, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city or region. In the United Kingdom, there are numerous national newspapers, including The Independent, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Express and The Daily Mirror. In the United States and Canada, there are few national newspapers. Almost every market has one or two newspapers that dominate the area. Certain newspapers, notably The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in the US, and The Globe and Mail and The National Post in Canada are available throughout the country. In India, where Internet penetration is too low when compared to other developed countries, newspapers like Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times are the only source of information for rural and urban people. Large metropolitan newspapers have also expanded distribution networks and with effort can be found outside their normal area.

International: There is also a small group of newspapers which may be characterised as international newspapers. Some have always had that focus, while others are repackaged national newspapers or "international editions" of national-scale or large metropolitan newspapers. Often these international editions are scaled down to remove articles that might not interest the wider range of readers. As English has become the international language of business and technology, many newspapers formerly published only in non-English languages have also developed English-language editions. In places as varied as Jerusalem and Mumbai, newspapers are printed to a local and international English-speaking public. The advent of the Internet has also allowed the non-English newspapers to put out a scaled-down English version to give their newspaper a global outreach.

Online: Virtually all printed newspapers have online editions, But as some publishers find their print-based models increasingly unsustainable, Web-based "newspapers" have also started to appear, such as the Southport Reporter in the UK and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer which stopped publishing in print after 149 years in March 2009 and went online only.

Format

Most modern newspapers are in one of three sizes:

* Broadsheets: 600 mm by 380 mm (23½ by 15 inches), generally associated with more intellectual newspapers, although a trend towards "compact" newspapers is changing this.
* Tabloids: half the size of broadsheets at 380 mm by 300 mm (15 by 11¾ inches), and often perceived as sensationalist in contrast to broadsheets. Examples: The Sun, The National Enquirer, The National Ledger, The Star Magazine, New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Globe.
* "Microdaily" is infrequently used to refer to a tabloid-sized free daily newspaper that offers lower ad rates than its broadsheet competitors. The content of a microdaily can range from intense local news coverage to a combination of local and national stories.
* Berliner or Midi: 470 mm by 315 mm (18½ by 12¼ inches) used by European papers such as Le Monde in France, La Stampa in Italy, El Pais in Spain and, since 12 September 2005, The Guardian in the United Kingdom.

Newspapers are usually printed on inexpensive, off-white paper known as newsprint. Since the 1980s, the newspaper industry has largely moved away from lower-quality letterpress printing to higher-quality, four-color process, offset printing. In addition, desktop computers, word processing software, graphics software, digital cameras and digital prepress and typesetting technologies have revolutionized the newspaper production process. These technologies have enabled newspapers to publish color photographs and graphics, as well as innovative layouts and better design.

To help their titles stand out on newsstands, some newspapers are printed on coloured newsprint. For example, the Financial Times is printed on a distinctive salmon pink paper, and Sheffield’s weekly sports publication derives its name, the Green ’Un, from the traditional colour of its paper. The Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is also printed on pink paper while L'Équipe (formerly L’Auto) is printed on yellow paper. Both of these promoted major cycling races and their newsprint colours were reflected in the colours of the jerseys used to denote the race leader; for example the leader in the Giro d'Italia wears a pink jersey.

Circulation

The number of copies distributed, either on an average day or on particular days (typically Sunday), is called the newspaper’s circulation and is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not necessarily the same as copies sold, since some copies or newspapers are distributed without cost. Readership figures may be higher than circulation figures because many copies are read by more than one person, although this is offset by the number of copies distributed but not read (especially for those distributed free). According to the Guinness Book of Records, the daily circulation of the Soviet newspaper Trud exceeded 21,500,000 in 1990, while the Soviet weekly Argumenty i Fakty boasted the circulation of 33,500,000 in 1991.In the United Kingdom, The Sun is the top seller, with around 2.98 million copies distributed daily (late 2008).

A common measure of a newspaper’s health is market penetration, expressed as a percentage of households that receive a copy of the newspaper against the total number of households in the paper’s market area. In the 1920s, on a national basis in the U.S., daily newspapers achieved market penetration of 123 percent (meaning the average U.S. household received 1.23 newspapers). As other media began to compete with newspapers, and as printing became easier and less expensive giving rise to a greater diversity of publications, market penetration began to decline. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, however, that market penetration dipped below 100 percent. By 2000, it was 53 percent. Many paid-for newspapers offer a variety of subscription plans. For example, someone might want only a Sunday paper, or perhaps only Sunday and Saturday, or maybe only a workweek subscription, or perhaps a daily subscription. Most newspapers provide some or all of their content on the Internet, either at no cost or for a fee. In some cases, free access is available only for a matter of days or weeks, after which readers must register and provide personal data. In other cases, free archives are provided.



Advertising
A newspaper typically generates 70-80% of its revenue from advertising, and the remainder from sales and subscriptions. The portion of the newspaper that is not advertising is called editorial content, editorial matter, or simply editorial, although the last term is also used to refer specifically to those articles in which the newspaper and its guest writers express their opinions. Newspapers have been hurt by the decline of many traditional advertisers. Department stores and supermarkets could be relied upon in the past to buy pages of newspaper advertisements, but due to industry consolidation are much less likely to do so now. Also newspapers are seeing traditional advertisers shift to new media platforms. The classified category is shifting to sites including craigslist, employment websites, and auto sites. National advertisers are shifting to many types of digital content including websites, rich media platforms, and mobile.

For my media A2 coursework I choose to do brief 8 :-

The first two pages of a local newspaper, together with two of the three following options:

• a poster for the newspaper
• a radio advertisement for the newspaper
• two hyperlinked pages from the papers website

I choose this brief because I think my magazine print AS coursework has helped me prepare for a print brief, I think newspaper are important in the society we live in, so I think its a good idea to learn how to work with the conventions of a newspaper. I also am an English student, so I feel my writing and English skills will show through here. It will be useful when i come to writing an interesting, and well written story which would attract audiences and cause success if this were a newspaper in the real world.

From the three bullet point options I have chosen to do:

• a poster for the newspaper
• two hyperlinked pages from the papers website

I have chosen these two options because I think a poster would be fun to create, I think my experience from my AS coursework will help me to achieve a successful poster, and I feel my creative skills would be useful here. I choose the website option because I'd like the experience with learning to create websites, I feel this would be an interesting and strong aspect to add to my project. Also I have access to the right technology to create these media products, whereas I would find it more difficult to access the technology to create a radio advertisement.