Liam Keenan

Results from market research

I have constructed a primary research questionnaire to gain information about content and preferred styles of newspapers. I have asked questions that are relevant to the newspaper I wish to construct which will allow me to gain a greater insight into what the target audience want to see in my paper. Most of the questions I have asked give me useful statistics based around my ideas.

My survey results allocated that the people I asked on my survey were predominantly male. I only handed the survey to two females to complete. My paper is aimed at the male gender primarily.

After gathering together the results from this question I found out that the majority of the people I asked to complete the survey were teenagers aged 13-18. This is the age group my newspaper will be aimed at so I plan to use informal language and large photographs to attract this age group.

What age are you?

13-18 19-2437-42

What gender are you?

MaleFemale

Liam Keenan

My survey results show that most of my target audience will be students. It also shows that more of the people I asked were unemployed and didn’t have jobs so therefore the price of my paper will be affected like that. A weekly newspaper would be better for this audience as they will have disposable pocket money and more than likely live with their parents. I will also include club nights and events news to inform my audience and attract them to the newspaper.

My results show that 50% of the people I asked preferred to read the Manchester evening news than the other local papers I included. This paper includes local news such as crime etc. I aim to make my paper similar to this. The Metro is the least favourite of local papers probably because it’s free and includes transport news. Most students won’t have the money to afford cars so the traffic news won’t apply to them but they will read this for public transport news such as trains and buses. The Salford advertiser is a more informal paper for locals. I plan to include aspects of this in my product.

What is your current occupation status?

EmployedUnemployedsudent

Which local tabloid newspaper would you prefer to read?

M.E.NSalford AdvertiserThe Metro

Liam Keenan

My results allocate that 50% of my audience would pay the full 50p for a daily newspaper so I could charge more for a weekly release but I’m going to lower it to 45p to guarantee purchases. 40p was also a popular price so I have decided I will use the middle price of 45p.

The colour scheme is very important for a newspaper as it can connote many different things and attract a variety of audiences. The conventional black and white colour scheme was most popular amongst the people I asked so I plan to use this for my newspaper but I’m also going to use some red for stories about danger, local crime, tragedies and death to attract the consumer’s eye. Blue would also attract a male audience so I may use this for some stories.

How much would you be willing to pay for a daily newspaper?

3035404550

What colours would you prefer to see on the paper?

redblueblack and whiteyellow

Would you prefer the style of the paper to be more formal or in-

formal?formalinformal

Liam Keenan

My results show that out of the ten people I asked on my survey 5 would prefer an informal style and 5 wanted more formal language included in the paper. These equal results tell me that I need to use both to widen my audience I plan to use a more informal tone to attract my targeted audience of male teenagers as they would relate to the language. I will use some formality for specific stories that would apply to an older audience such as holiday offers, traffic news and weather updates etc.

The majority of my audience would rather my local newspaper delivered weekly than daily so I am going to make it a weekly release though a small minority preferred it to be delivered daily but most of these were employed and older than my primary audience of 13 to 18 year olds. Teenagers with limited pocket money would definitely be able to afford a weekly paper.

My survey results allocated that most people that read newspapers are most interested in stories about local crime above all. I will include a crime story on my front page. The majority of people I asked were males so sport stories were quite popular. My target audience is primarily males so I plan to include some

What stories would you prefer to read about in your newspaper?

sportlocal interest storiesadvertisementsTV guidecrime

Do you prefer your local news de-livered weekly or daily?

weeklydaily

Liam Keenan

sport stories in my paper such as football and rugby news. Local interest stories were also popular linking in with the crime. The TV guide was least popular as this would be directed at an older age group so I’m not sure if I should include this or not.

The people who filled out my survey would have rather seen more text than photographs throughout my paper. This was strange because I thought a younger audience would have preferred to look at more pictures and briefly skim through the text to gain an idea of the story. I plan to still use large photographs but an abundance of text for the older generation to widen the demographics of my newspaper.

Overall my market research has given me a much greater insight into what I need to include in my own production to attract my primary target audience and keep them interested in the paper. Audiences could use my text for a number of different purposes according to Blumler and Katz’ gratifications theory. My coursework will attract the target audience through means of diversion because whilst they read the stories and look at the photos in the paper they can escape daily routines and everyday problems by relaxing and reading about local news. They could respond in terms of their own personal identity and put themselves in the position of the people involved in the tragedies or aspire to be like the celebrity icons included. The audience could also respond in terms of their own surveillance to gain information useful for living such as holiday offers and adverts. They could also read up on traffic news or check the TV and gig guide to find out what’s on. In terms of personal relationships they could substitute some of the stories for daily life such as father and son relationships or family related stories for example. According to

would you rather have more photographs than text in your newspaper?

Photographstext

Liam Keenan

Stuart Halls encoding/decoding model I have encoded my text so it can be decoded by my audience, creating a preferred reading by using informal language and pictures or stories about teenagers. I could use more photos than text and large headlines to draw and attract the consumers, so that they will be anchored positively and use the text for diversion. The masthead will be bold and Sans Serif following the usual style of a tabloid newspaper and as a media producer I will be encoding it using a conventional house style and font. They will identify with this as it is a newspaper for local people and they will relate themselves to the community.