Front pages of tabloid newspapers and magazines

After looking at the front pages of tabloid newspapers I have found that many are similar to magazine front pages.

Tabloid newspapers:

Magazine covers:

They are both made up of mostly pictures with a big headline and main story. The mastheads on some are also quite similar, for example The Sun, The Mirror and OK! Magazine. Most also include a sneak peak of exclusive stories that can be found inside the newspaper or magazine.

As I want my newspaper to be aimed at a young audience, I want it to have a magazine type feel to it to attract this market. So I aim to take elements from both tabloid newspapers and gossip magazines when creating my newspaper.

Layout ideas including my chosen masthead

This is my chosen headline on a selection of layout ideas that I have created on Adobe Indesign.

Mastheads

I have looked at the mastheads of various national newspapers:

Most of these national newspaper mastheads arei n red, white and black.

I have also looked at the mastheads of local newspapers:

These local newspaper mastheads are more colourful, including blues and yellow. As my newspaper is a local paper I will incorpate colour in my masthead. These mastheads also allow me to see where the date, and in some cases price and website are situated.


Using Photoshop I have experimented with text to create a masthead for my newspaper.

When creating newspaper layouts on Adobe Indesign I first used a dark purple colour for my masthead. However I feel a light blue is more appropriate for the seaside town of Southend.




I have used the typeface Constantia and increased the vertical scale of it.



On this one I have warped the text 'Southned Local'

On this one I have added a thick blue stroke around the warped text.

On this one I have added a drop shadow to the text. I like this effect as I think it makes it stand out more.

On this one I have kept the shadow around the text and added a gradient overlay to the background rectange.






I have added an outer glow to the text on this one and reversed the gradient of the background rectangle. I like this one the most as I think it looks effective they way the background fades out where the underline of the waped text is. I have therefore chosen this as my masthead.



This is how my chosen masthead will look on one of the newspaper layouts that I have made:

Master Pages

Whilst producing my layout on Indesign I have created Master pages so that certain parts of the layout are repeated on every page.



I set up master pages A, B and C.

A is for the front page as this is a one off page that does not need to be repeated. B and C are for the double spread pages, B is for all the even number pages and C is for all the odd numbers. So whatever is put on these master pages would then be repeated on all the even or all the odd numbered pages throughout the newspaper.

Target Audience & Layouts

Target Audience
As my target audience is 18-30 year olds, I asked a 10 people in this age range what would attract them and make them interested in reading a new local newspaper.
5 people said there should be more mention of local events that are going on that will appeal to their generation. Therefore I will aim to include news on local events such as music gigs, sporting events and different events that are happening at local nightclubs.
6 people said more colour and photographs would attract them into reading it. Therefore I will aim to make my newspaper look more magazine like to appeal to this market.
4 people said offers, vouchers and discounts for local places - I could have a token in each issue that people need to save up to get money off something or a special offer, this would encourage people to buy the newspaper.



Experimenting with ideas for layout
I have created these using Adobe Indesign and then transfered them onto Photoshop to make them smaller images.


The masthead typeface is Constantia


I have added the date on the right hand corner of the masthead and the price and newspaper website centered underneath it. I have also put an exculsive that is inside the paper in a box to grab the readers attention and make them want to buy the newspaper.

I have changed the typeface of the headline from Segoe UI to Trebuchet MS to experiment and see which looked best.

Berliner

The Guardian switched from a broadsheet format to a Berliner format on 12th September 2005. This is slightly bigger than a tabloid newspaper.

Broadsheet format:

Berliner format:

Broadsheet Newspapers

In the UK, one major daily broadsheet is distributed nationwide, and two on a Sunday:

The Daily Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph

The Sunday Times

National Newspapers & Their Target Audience

The Sun
I have scanned the first and second page of The Sun.

Front page:


It has a very big, bold headline compared with amount of actual text for the first part of the article. There are two halves to this front page. The first half being the lead story with a big, bold headline "Going down going down going down", this begins in normal case which underlined to the final two words being in capitals and with a the font size increased. The strapline "King's 18 months for breaking girl's nose" typeface is bold and underlined, this is all in a sans serif typeface. This story has a black background and a white typeface for the headline, making it stand out. The article is then in a white box with the strapline text in a black typeface, a photograph is also to the left.

You can see here that the article is in a bold typeface. The first word "soccer" is in capitals. The author's name is placed above the second column, with the name in capitals and underlined.



The second half has two secondary leads which are exclusive stories that can be found inside the newspaper.

This half is alot more colourful, and looks quite magazine-like. It consists of two photographs of the exclusive stories, each have a small red typeface stating that it is an exclusive and a title that is in a larger blue typeface, all in capitals and tilted. They both have a few small lines of black text to the right of the photographs explaining the story. There is also an advert under these two photographs, showing what comes free inside the paper.














This is the first column of the article on the front page and the little cloumn explaining one of the exclusives. The same typeface is used which is bold and sans serif. This typeface is repeated throughout the newspaper for some articles, however for most articles a non-bold serif typeface is used, shown of page 2 below.

This is the masthead, a red background has been used with a white typeface with is in italics. Looking at this masthead has allowed me to see where the date, price and website have been situated.

The price of the newspaper is on the masthead but there is also this extra cirlce telling the reader the price. Putting it in this blue cirlce with a 3D silver font makes it stand out and could attract more people to buy it as the cheap price is clear to them.







Page 2:


The second page looks very busy. There is the main article with a black background and many other articles around it. It also includes the weather forcast for the UK at the bottom of the page.

The headline uses the same typeface as the headline on the front page, but all in capitals. This also shows the strapline which is in the same typeface, it is underlined and not in capitals. This headline and article also has a black background, the same as the article on the front page. I have found the black background with white font has been used alot throughout the paper. I like this type of layout as I feel it makes the headline stand out more that with a white background and black font.

The main article on the page is made up of three columns, it has a photograph on the left and begins with a standfirst in bold. The name of the reporter is in bold capitals underlined above the second column.

The article at the top of this page is made up of a photgraph which then has a white box with two colums of text inside. The article is in bold, the same typeface used for the article on the front page. After looking at many Sun newspapers I have found they often use this layout for articles, especially for the splash on the front page. I like this type of layout and will consider using something like it for my own newspaper.

These are some of the headlines for the smaller stories on the second page. The all use the same sans serif typeface.

This is the small story on the top right of the page. This typeface is used for all the articles that are not in the bold typeface shown on the front page. It is a serif typeface. Each article also begins with the first word in capitals.

This is an enlarged version of the pugs. The Sun has the page number, then the masthead logo and date in full. This is on the left hand side of the even numbered pages and the right hand side of the odd numbered pages.

I have also looked at another Sun newspaper which has a different layout on the front page.

Front Page:

The main story on this front page consists of a large photograph with the headline in a large white typeface that is underlined. There is a small column of text in the same bold font used on the front page of The Sun newspaper above. The article is then continued inside the paper. This headline is not in capitals, this could be as it is a humourous headline, so the serious feeling that capitals convey is not needed. The credits for the photograph is written up the write hand side of it.

Down the left hand side of this page are two other stories which are then coninued inside the paper. The headlines for these are in the same typeface found in the previous Sun newspaper, used for the smaller stories, as seen on the second page above.

This red serif typeface has been used throughout the paper to title some of the pages. For example:

This also shows how the pugs look on the odd numbered pages.


Page 2:

The main story on this second page consists of a photograph with some statistics in red arrows and blue circles around it. There is then a column of text with a white background to the left of the photograph. It begins with the reporter's names, centred and underlined. Then there is the standfirst in bold. Half way down the article there is a crosshead saying "Problems", it is in a larger font, centred and underlined. The headline is big, bold and capitals with a strapline which is smaller, in lower case and underlined.

The bottom of the page is the same as the other issue of The Sun looked at above, with the weather forecast and a chance to get cash for stories.

There are five smaller stories around this main story "Young 'n Doled". These smaller stories have two different typefaces used for the headlines. The first is bold and in capitals and the second in lower case and not bold.

Target Audience

- More than 3 million copies of The Sun are sold every day

- More than 8 million people read The Sun every day

This makes it thew most popular daily newspaper in the world

The Newspaper Marketing Agency has found that:

61% of readers are between the ages of 15 and 44

58% of readers are male

I think The Sun has more male readers than females due to features such as Page 3 and the large sports section. I want my newspaper to be enjoye dby both males and females so I am going to try to include things that will appeal to both sexes.