Looking at various local papers.

I decided not only to look at Manx local papers but to also look at local papers from various areas from Preston to Wales.  I  chose to look at 4 different local papers.

• Longridge &Ribble Valley News and Advertiser
• Warrington Guardian 
• Caernarfon Denbigh Herald
• Lancashire Evening Post. 

All of these papers play a very important role in the community and although the Manx papers do I am able to see the role more clearly looking at these papers because they cover a much larger population. The population on the Isle of Man is 80 thousand but the population were some of these papers cover is over 100 thousand and that is the main diffence. I plan to look and compare these papers and then i will go into finalizing my idea for my local paper.

Warrington Guardian  

The Masthead of this paper is very modern and it uses the colour of the text which is red to stand out and grab the readers attention. The front cover of this paper looks like this;

November 1 2012

It is a substantial paper with 72 pages for this issue. This is a weekly paper that covers the area of Warrington, it bleeds into Cheshire and sticking closer to the Mersey rather than bleeding into counties closer to Bolton or Greater Manchester. These are the circulation figures for 2010 and they were taken from the NS website 'the voice of the local media'. 

             

 In 2010 the estimated total circulation per issue was 24'541 which is a lot compared to the amount of people who read the local papers here on the island. The paper is owned by the Newsquest Group, who market themselves as 'A UK leader in providing local and regional news, information and more through a network of known and trusted print, online and mobile media brands that reach half of all UK mainland households, from Glasgow in the north to Falmouth in the far south west'. They publish over 200 newspapers, magazines and trade publications and that includes 17 paid for dailies. 

This front cover its self shows that it is a weekend paper, there isn't any 'hard' news such a murder, crime ect it is a picture of the people who won the lottery. 

Based on the time of year there is a poppy on the bottom left corner which is respectful and something that is remembered through a community services. Everything on the front is about community, 'Your Guide To All The Best Firework Displays' shows the interest in the local community and that is what people want from this paper. Advertising in a local paper is really important and this is something that almost keeps the paper going. They charge 65p for this paper but the amount of advertising in it is incredible. I can not find a single double page spread with out advertising. 

These are two articles from inside the paper and everything is based within the specific area that the paper reaches. This paper contains local news, local sport including results, fixtures and league tables, real estate, celebrations, announcements, class-fields  jobs and motors. They also have a very active response page which discusses local news and allows the readers to comment and give their oppinon for people to see. A common theme that I can already see running through all of the papers that I have looked at all ready. 

Caernarfon Denbigh Herald. 

Oct 25th 2012

 This local paper is from the North of Wales. It is the south edition of the Caernarfon Herald, which covers a lot of rural area and very small villages. The population in these types of areas is very small but I think this area may be an exception as it covers Caernarfon, Bangor, Bethesda, Criccieth, Pothmadog, Pwllheli, Ffestiniog, Lleyn, Abersoch, Blaaenau Ffestiniog. Something that is intresting is that if you look on the website the 'Denbigh' part of the title has been completly phased out apart from the masthead of the paper and the masthead that appears on the internet page. This is a paid sheet that costs 82p, the website is http://www.caernarfonherald.co.uk/ .

This is a weekly tabloid that is published on a Thursday every week. It is published by Trinity Mirror which are one of the UK's largest newspaper publishers, it has a portfolio that includes five national newspapers, 130 regional newspapers and over 500 digital products. It has won many awards for this large portfolio.

I found circulation figures using this link http://www.abc.org.uk/Certificates/16720318.pdf which is a certificate that was issues in August 2010 and the data included has be prepared by the publisher. This information expired in September 2011 but it was the most up to date circulation figures I could find and as I am focusing more on comparing the papers with content and various other things the circulation figure are something that I am not very bothered about although they may come in handy when predicting a market for my paper.

 Here are some pictures of some of the articles and adverts that are in the paper. Again there is a massive basis of what is going on in the community and very little national news. Something that I noticed that was really fantastic was that most of the adverts come in English and Welsh I have shown an example below.

 It was a small advert at the bottom of the page but the back of the advert on the right hand side is in English and Welsh which just shows that as a paper they are dedicated to maintaining that link with the community and the sense of Welsh pride and having their own language really does come through as there are many other adverts in the paper and they are also all the Welsh.
There are a variety of articles that are based on community fund raising and schools and lots of other things that are positive things within the community. However on the second page there is a 'hard hitting' story about removing the local hospital near Gwynedd and making the local people travel further to get medical treatment. This is something that is obviously going to effect many members of the local community quite drastically if it is carried ahead. Ironically on this page there is also advertising for 'Barbara Bus Fund Gywnedd' which is a special service for people with wheel chairs to use if they can't get access to public transport or a taxi that accepts wheel chair. There are also many stories about people within the community that make a positive influence 'Young carer comes back to what she really loves' 'Back on crest of a wave'. Places around these 'cute' stories that make you think this community is fantastic there are also small notifications such as 'Roadworks this week' 'Applications for turbines' and 'Neuadd Dwyfor events'. Everything within this paper is designed around the community and it is something that this paper does incredibly well and it is nice to see something that is so community based and something that a lot of the population reads based on the circulation figures from 2010.

This paper contains a lot of advertising for activities that are going on in the local community, Caernrfon Dating, Your Guide (you guide to whats on in North Wales), Christmas Party Time, Half Term - Halloween, Agents Choice 'Real estate' Class fields  Motors, Public Notices, Celebrations, Community News and a memoriam.
 This paper is 72 pages long and from what I have seen this is nothing unsual but what is something that I haven't seen a lot of is the column that is going down the left side of the  front cover that says 'Inside Today' were is draws attention to specific stories on the inside. The advert that is on the front page is something that I am seeing more and more often. I can imagin that the paper would make a substantial amount of money for giving advertising space on the front of the page and selling advertising space is something that the paper makes a lot of money doing.

As I am creating the first 2 pages of a local paper I have chosen to include images of the first two pages on this post so  I will be reminded of them later when I come to design my product.