Suffolk Free Press
The front page:
The top of the front page includes information of the newspaper issue. This includes the date, price, social media links and the website URL. Below this is the masthead
. This could be included to identify the newspaper, and when the issue was released.
The main news story on the front page focuses on a murder. Four columns of the news story are included. The story starts with the author's name and his contact details, to show who wrote the article. To the right of this is a second article with an image of a child at an event, along with a caption of 'Smiles all round'.
The front page also includes references to pages, for individual features on the newspaper - such as reader letters on pages 12 to 13. This section uses the blue and black colour scheme of the masthead.
On the bottom is an advert for a clothing store in Sudbury, Suffolk. This has been included, because the target audience of the newspaper is for residents of Sudbury.
Below the masthead, two headlines are included of articles which are included in the newspaper, with two images.
Page 2:
This second pages begins to show two starting articles, and details of what is set to be included in the newspaper. A contents list shows what is in the newspaper, details of how to get in touch with the newspaper (to place an advert, order a subscription, or order an image). A large advert for a window/door building company takes up a quarter of the page, and a banner advertises a subscription with that newspaper.
The colours used for the headers are blue. Black is used for the newspaper contact details, and for the article included.
This shows that this is heavily focused on introducing the newspaper, and is a theme that recurs throughout previous and future editions of that newspaper. A singular news article is included.
An article takes up the bottom right of the page.
Halstead Gazette
The Front Page:
The top of the front page includes the masthead, two small adverts, and information on the newspaper issue (date, slogan, website URL and price). This introduces the newspaper, and uses the colour scheme of the masthead - dark red and black. However, the adverts use the colour schemes of their companies.
Below this, there is three headlines of articles that will be focused in the newspaper - a school knife incident, a campaign, and a baby who is saved.
A main article is an exclusive article that focuses on the development of where homes will be built. The headline is in a large, bold font that uses two colours - red and black (match the masthead colour scheme). On the right of this is a single column that introduces the article. This article continues inside.
Two more articles occupy the bottom of the front page, which use the colour schemes of their respective companies.
Page 2:
This page also introduces the newspaper, having a contents list, contact links, and information of the editors involved. These three features are in a single column on the far left.
The remainder of the page is dedicated to four different, and contrasting articles. The top article focuses on vandalism at a skate park, the main article focuses on the closure of a business, while the bottom two articles focus on a hospital office closure and a resident told to trim a hedge.
The middle article is the only article on the page that includes a sub-header, and the article author, while the picture includes a caption. This could be because this is a highly important article for readers to understand.
The page header includes the page number (top left), and details of the newspaper issue (issue date, website and newspaper title, in the top right).
East Anglian Daily Times:
The Front Page:
The front page of the EADT starts off with a headline of a news article which is inside the newspaper - something which is not seen on the other two newspapers that I have researched. The headline is written in a dark blue font - a colour which is repeated throughout the newspaper.
This then follows up with the newspaper's masthead, and details of the newspaper issue (website, slogan, price, date, and issue number).
Below this is a large image related to a newspaper headline (story inside the paper) and details of newspaper 'pullout supplements'. These pullout supplements are sections within the newspaper that are dedicated to a certain part of the newspaper - both dedicated to local sport - which can be taken out for a reader to look at separately.
This is followed by an article, beginning with a header, and sub-header. Four columns are dedicated to this article, with details of the author seen at the start. The article concludes, by telling the reader that the news story can be found in full, inside the paper. Both the large image and the headline link to each other.
An advert is seen in the bottom of the newspaper for a local funeral directors service.
Page 2:
This page is much different to the previous newspapers I previously researched.
This entire page (and the following pages) focuses on a singular news article. The article focuses on a cycling event that took place throughout the region, during the time this issue was published. The page includes a single column for the news story, while the remainder of the page includes four large images that related to the story. Captions are included below the photos to comment on what the image shows, and who captured the images.
This news story featured on this page relates to the story on the front page, and continues throughout further pages of the newspaper.
COMPARISON OF PAPERS - Front Page
The structure of these three newspapers are very similar, in that the masthead is at the top, a singular main article is included, and adverts are located in similar positions.
With the main articles, they both included a headline, sub-header, and do not have an image. However, less information is included on the Halstead Gazette, to draw people to read on inside. The Halstead Gazette has a starting paragraph in the article, which is in bold to draw the reader's attention. This is not included on the Free Press. Both articles end on the page, to say the story continues inside.
The headline on the Gazette paper stands out more to me, because the headline uses red and black font - something that is not seen regularly. This is because the article is exclusive to the newspaper, and they want to draw people's attention to this article.
COMPARISON OF PAPERS - Page 2
An obvious difference of the two different papers, is that the Halstead Gazette includes more stories. This could be because the newspaper want to include more articles, to get people to draw more of an interest to this starting page. While both papers include contact details of their respected papers, this is much more clear on the Suffolk Free Press, because they have spaced it out to make it look tidier.
While articles have been included on this page, they are quite short and are not related to the front page.
Halstead Gazette - Fri 24 July 2015. Suffolk Free Press - Thu 23 July 2015. East Anglian Daily Times - Thu 18 June 2015
