Newspaper Analysis

Layout

The layout used in this article from the Frome Standard's Website is very common among blogs and online news websites. With a picture and the main body text on the left margin of the page, and all adverts and additional content being place on top, right and bottom of the article. Although the article itself is quite short, it is still broken up into one or two sentence piece, making it easier to reader.

Font

What I found interesting was that not only was the same font used throughout the article, but also consistently throughout the entire webpage. That even includes sponsored adverts. The font used is a sans serif font, giving the website a clean and modern look and feel.

Design
It has a very simple design, with all the text just being left justified and fairly unformatted.

Background
This article highlights the news of a local bed and breakfast being featured in a popular television show 'Three in a Bed', about B&B owners who go and stay in other B&B's and review them.

Layout

The layout used in this article from the Bath Chronicle is a very simple, easy-to-read set of columns. With the use of a large picture in the middle, and the main body text on the left centre of visual interest (CVI). There is also a smaller picture in the bottom right corner.

Font

The font used is a simple serif font. This is used all throughout the article. I believe this is used because they are typically easier to read for print.

Design
It has a very simple blocky design. In my opinion, it's a bit boring and could do this a little sprucing up. For some people, this might be too difficult and much read.

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As we can see from these two articles, one print and one digital, a lot has changed. The digital layout (for the Bath Chronicle's website) is very simple and spaced out. This is because it is harder to read space text on a phone/computer screen, and can hurt your eyes after prolonged use, as opposed to print where it's a lot easier and more comfortable.

As each article has it's own page, this allows customised adverts to be placed alongside it. Whereas on print they are not customised to each reader, and are spotted throughout the publication.

Demographic Target

Who My Target Demographic Is:

Young persons, aged 14 to 25 in the Bath area. These are persons who are well educated and live at home or who are not yet home owners. The readership has a equal proportion of males to females. The social class has a majority of ABC1's, high income households. Hence they have the spending power and financial freedom. Additionally these persons are technologically savvy.

They regularly consume media content which is relevant to them. Content about their passions, hobbies, worries and fears. Material that will improve their lifestyle, that they will feel compelled to buy.

Households consist of young and older singles and couples. The people living here are in general qualified to a very high level and the typical employment type is classified as professional or white and blue collar. Unemployment stands at 12% higher than the national average, and the industry sector is defined as consisting of the service industry, for example tourism, retail, transport/distribution and catering or intellectual services, for example IT, scientific research, education and consulting.

(Information from PewSocialTrends.com)

Needs of the Bath Chronicle

Link to Lynn's Presentation

Link to Video 1

Link to Video 2

Link to Video 3

It's my belief that more and more youths are becoming disinterested in newspapers as a media outlet, and as it is still their main source of income, the Bath Chronicle need to find a way to get young people interested in it. That being said, they do have their fair share of young readers, but according to the Editor in Chief of the Bath Chronicle, it seems that they are only reading the Chronicle because it's available in their households. So when they inevitably leave home they stop buying the paper. So their real problem isn't attracting young readers, but keeping them.

It is imperative that the Bath Chronicle resolves this problem because just like many companies that didn’t focus on carrying on their brand recognition with the younger generation, or try to attract and retain the up-and-coming demographic, it will be to it's detriment. Brand recognition is so crucial today. If young persons don't know about your brand, then they're not going to go out and buy it. Nor can you rely on them to search for it. So you have to advertise the product to them specifically.

Retain Their Young Audience
The Bath Chronicle does in fact appeal to large audience of young people. This is evident from their massive social networking footprint. Raking up over 1.4 million website hits a month, 6.3 thousand FaceBook likes, and 16.4 thousand twitter followers. With these numbers rapidly growing by each day. But the Chronicle's needs lie with their main print publication, their newspaper. Though it reaches a far larger audience than any other news paper in the south west of England, with a weekly reach of 152,195 (as depicted in the picture below).

The paper is mostly bought by consumers over 36 years old. Granted, because the newspaper is in these households which typically have young person in it, it does get read by them but when these young persons move out they don't continue buying the paper. So the Chronicle needs to employ a strategy that retains that audience. Something that is interesting and relevant to them, that will keep them coming back each thursday for more.

Have An Easy-To-Use Website
This is also a very important aspect to the Chronicle's survival through this technological revolution. Personally, I completely judge a company by their website, and I know a lot of people do too. For many new consumers the first thing they see is the website, which is why it's first impression is so important. If the website is slow, 'lags' a lot and is glitchy, has a poor aesthetic appeal or is cheap, tacky and inundated with adverts, it's a major turn off for the user. From my experience with them website, these are all things I have noticed.

Needs of the Bath Chronicle
To pay the staff's wages
To pay their office rent
To cover their overheads
To please their advertisers
To remain relevant
To connect with their audience

Goals of the Bath Chronicle in Relation to the Youth
Young people today increasingly want shorter, snappier, more immersive ways to connect and consume media. The Chronicle needs to be able to give them what they want. Use what young persons today are using to connect, and use that to engage with them.

The targeted demographic are persons aged 14-25 who live at home or who are not yet home owners. As I see it, their needs are first, content which is relevant to them. Content about their passions, hobbies, worries and fears. Material that will improve their lifestyle, that they will feel compelled to buy.

Secondly, they need to be able to interact with the Chronicle, to get their views and opinions heard and seen. This is important as this generation is one of the most opinionated ones, that with the advent of social networks like Twitter and FaceBook where persons can freely and instantly get 'published'.

Lastly, they need simple, quick and informative entertainment. These days the most popular videos on the internet are just 3 minutes or less, and can be an informative tutorial, or just a comedy sketch, but it needs to be entertaining.