Newspaper article 3

Race for Life Dates Announced
THE Race For Life dates have been announced. Earlier than last year, Southend-On-Sea will be the first this year on the 8th of May. To find out when and where your nearest Race for Life is happening, and to find out how to take part, visit www.raceforlife.org.

Newspaper Article 2

Braintree introduces free parking

According to numerous store managers, sales had been at a low during the week due to them having to pay to park. Customers gradually became weekend shoppers so that they could park for free. But now, the council are planning on bringing in free parking to the town centre during the week.

Newspaper Article 1

TEEN HAVING TRIPLETS

SEVENTEEN YEAR-OLD Martyna Broad, Braintree, has always achieved well. Just a few months into her A levels, she fell pregnant. With triplets. Martyna was previously studying four A-levels, but due to the news of her pregnancy, she has already dropped out from one, and is worried that she might have to drop out of Sixth Form all together.
Martyna’s situation appears to no longer to be a rare occurrence. Teens in the U.K, Essex in particular are falling pregnant. It seems that they are either not interested in contraception, or is just doesn’t cross their mind. A total of 41,325 women under 18 fell pregnant in 2008, and it’s on the up. Of these teens, 49% of them had abortions, but it seems that they’re turning off from the idea of abortion, and on to the idea of raising a family. Martyna said “I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing that I had an abortion”. Despite government pledges to lower the pregnancy rate in teenagers, it doesn’t seem to be having much effect.
Martyna is the second in her family to have a child under the age of 18. Her mum had her older sister at the age of sixteen. She also said that a friend of hers has already had an abortion and two girls in her year group had to drop out of Sixth Form because they fell pregnant.
Martyna considers herself to be “one of the lucky ones” as she has her boyfriend of seven months by her side and is ready to support her and their triplets. She said that she has also received tremendous support from her family and her friends.
An increasing number of teen mums have become single teen mums. It would seem that men, or boys, do not carry the same feeling of responsibility for their child that a woman does. It’s estimated a whopping 54% of teen mums become single mums with in the first sixteen months of pregnancy and having the child.
Martyna is four months into her pregnancy, and has been advised by her GP and many of her teachers, even the head of year to leave and debate taking a part time course at a local college after she has had her triplets. Despite this, Martyna is putting in all of her effort while she can and she believes that she will be able to pass her exams in the summer, but knows university is out of the question.

Out of the three photographs above, I have chosen to use the third. I feel that the first looks slightly comedic, and I don't think that this kind of photograph would appear in a newspaper. It was a difficult choice between the 2nd and 3rd, but I feel that the second doesn't highlight her pregnancy as much as the third does, I also think that even though Martyna is not looking at the camera in either of them, the third looks better because we can see her face from the side aswell as her whole body, whereas in the second she is looking down and the reader can not see any part of her face.
I chose to take a medium shot of Martyna for this story because I felt that having a profile shot would be unnecessary as the story is focused on her pregnancy. A long shot would have also not put enough emphasis on the fact that she is pregnant. It would display too much background and the reader may be more attracted by what's happening around her.

Sports Page Articles

Jaw Break in Girls Hockey

A VIOLENT hockey match between Essex and Suffolk girls ended in termoil after seventeen year old Rebecca Spencer had her jaw broken.
The Essex defender attempted to protect the empty goal after the goal keeper was knocked down.
Rebecca dived out infront of the goal when a Suffolk attacker hit the ball toward the goal with great force, and Rebecca's jaw took a brutal break to the jaw.
Despite this knock back, Essex won against the Suffolk girls with a 4 - 2 defeat.
Out of the four photographs that I took at a friend's hockey match, I chose to use the first for the story, and the other three for my sport's page slide show.
Chelmsford College Introduce Football Academy

CHELMSFORD COLLEGE, after spending £600,000 on a new astro-turf pitch, have introduced a football academy. The group of sixteen and seventeen-year olds below are the start of what could be a bright future for the college.

I chose to write a story about a football academy because I would easily be able to take photographs of the football academy that are a part of our sixth form. I felt that I should change the name of the sixth form college though, because otherwise, the stories may seem too specific in one area, so I chose to base the college in a large and well known part of Essex, Chelmsford.
Out of the two photographs below, I will use the first because the boys kneeling are more centred, this makes it look like a more professional photograph.

Chelmsford City Looking For New Manager

CHELMSFORD CITY are searching for a new manager since Glenn Pennyfather resigned from his position for unreported reasons. City chairman, Mansell Wallace said: "We're looking for some one who fits into our policy of bringing in new, young and talented players."If you are interested in applying for the role, visit www.chelmsfordcityfootballclub.co.uk for contact and application details.

Essex Lad has Sights Set On Rugby Glory

A YOUNGSTER who came through one of the region’s most established youth sections has spoken of his delight after he was named in the England Under-20s squad for the forthcoming 6 nations.

Website Article 6

I am also using the following article on the first page of my newspaper.

University Create Stress Through Out Essex

ON AVERAGE, university fees are around £3000, and they're on the increase. Luckily, students going to university this year have to pay this much, where as next years students are going to have to pay around triple. Despite being one of the lucky ones, eightteen year old Sandra Ashbeck from Basildon struggles to find the money to enable her to this once in a life time chance.
Sandra has been accepted by Plymouth University, as long as she achieves three B grades in her A levels. Getting these grades isn't a problem for her, it's just financing her time at university that she is stuggling to come to terms with.
Sandra and her family need to find £3280 so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming a university student. "I've always looked forward to going to university, I've always assumed that grades would be a problem, not money. I don't want my parents to struggle to help me, and I really never wanted to have a student loan, but it doesn't look like I have much choice" Julie, Sandra's mum, told us that her husband and father of Sandra was made redundant a few years ago, and was then out of work. Regrettably, they had to use the money that they had saved up to send Sandra to university so that they could support the family.

This is the photograph that I will be using on my website for this story. Beneath the photograph, I will say that the photograph was donated, by the University of Essex. I have seen photographs that were not taken by the newspaper that they are displayed in or on the website, that say, usually as a caption, that the photograph was donated.
I won't be using this image in the newspaper.

Website Article 5

Cheap Thief Makes Profit

TWENTY-TWO year old, Matt Johnston was believed to be a trusted employee of Colchester's Burtons store.
After nineteen months of working there, his story was unveiled as he was caught stealing money from the till.
Matt had been gathering various amounts of money through out his time of working at Burtons. He had mounted up a £480 sum.
His case was taken to court, and despite been found guilty, he was fined £80 and then free to go.
A few weeks after, Matt became an employee at Sainburys.

I will also be using this on the second page of my newspaper.

Website Article 4

Mother and Infant Die In Blaze

MOTHER AND INFANT daughter have died after an explosion in their home. Police believe that it was due to a gas leak.
The infant was confirmed dead on the scene, emercency services said.
The mother was taken to Addenbrooks Hospital and was being treated for her burns after the explosion. After 3 hours of treatment, she was confirmed dead.
Three ambulances and two fire engines arrived at the scene on Goddard Way, Saffron Waldon, within minutes.
"Despite the ambulance, hospital and fire staff's best efforts, sadly, we were not able to save either mother or child." The spokesperson said.

Initially, I had also put this story on the second page of my newspaper, but then decided that if this story was to be reported in the newspaper, it wouldn't be a small section on the second page, it would be a main headliner, on the front page.

Website Article 3

Primary Prepare for Progressing Pupils

KINGSMOOR PRIMARY School has always been small in numbers. As of September this year, Kingsmoor Primary School in Harlown are preparing to introduce their largest year group to date. On average, each year group has around nine students in it, and now staff are getting ready for a substantial seventeen four-year-olds beginning their school life. Every academic year as of September, class sizes will be expanding and each year group will be divided into their own class, where as now, there are two year groups in each class. Staff are preparing to interview possible candidates who will be teaching the growing pupils.


I felt that it would be fairly easy to create a realistic article about a primary school, and I would be able to take a variety of photographs because my mum works in a primary school.
After talking to her about being able to take photographs of children in her primary school, I realised I had hit a bit of a brick wall, as I would not be able to take photographs of any child with out the permission of their parents, and it seemed like a lot of effort, that could be wasted if I am not successful in getting any permission, as I am only a student using photos for a media project, I may not be reliable in their opinion. So I have decided to take a photograph of an entrance of my sixth form. It was built around a year ago, so it looks and is farily modern. Therefore I would be able to say that this is a new extention to the school, therefore it is evident that the school are getting ready for progress and an
increasing number of pupils joining.



Out of the three photographs above, I have chosen to use the first because it would be easier to arrange onto my website page than the portrait photograph. I also chose this one over the second because it was more focused on the extention, and it would be easier to crop out the piece of rubbish that is on the ground.

Website Article 2

Hedingham Omnibuses Coming to a Stop

HEDINGHAM OMNIBUSES as of the 30th of June are discontinuing the Halstead to Colchester route. It is said that there are not enough riders to keep this route going through out the rest of the year. Regular bus users are distraught at this news.
Through out the last eight months the bus fare has gradually increased from £3.80 for an adult to travel to Colchester from Halstead to an unacceptable £6.50. This seemed to discourage people from travelling this route, resulting in less riders which seems to have caused this.
Mrs Potts uses the service at least twice a week, she is a volunteer worker in British Heart Foundation.
"This means I can no longer help out at work, volunteering at the British Heart Foundation isn't just something for me to do a few days a week, it means something to me. My husband passed away three years ago from heart disease. I want to do my part to stop people from suffering the way that I did"Mrs Potts, among more than eighty others have signed a petition to have the bus route continued.

This article will also appear on the second page of my newspaper.

Website Article 1

Essex Couple Prepare to Build School in Kenya

This article is going to be the most recent on my website, do it will be the first article the readers/viewers can see. I am also going to use this story on the first page. I am going to be using this story to replace my initial idea of having a story about teenage pregnancy because I found this article more interesting to read, and on the first pages of the newspapers that I have studied, they usually don't have the most dramatic and interesting stories on the front page: they are spread out through the whole newspaper. So I am having this article and my article about university fees on my home page, then there is a wider age group shown on the front page rather than both based on teens.

CHELMSFORD COUPLE Jade Woodley and Stuart King with help from their friends prepare to travel to the Mwala district of Kenya to help build a primary school and help educate the children of the Kanyongo village until the school is

finally finished.
Jade told us, "we're really hoping that we can influence others to follow in our footsteps and help children who are so much less fortunate than the children here, who are able to receive education without concern"
Stuart added " We'd really like to thank everyone who helped us raise the £4218 that will be helping us get out there and getting the materials to build this school in Kanyongo"
Jade, Stuart and friends have matched the raised funds with their own earnings, doubling the total to a tremendous £8436.

For this story, I have used two teachers in my school to fit the role of 'twenty-somethings' who are going to Kenya to build a school. I chose to use teachers because they would fit the role better, as they already teach and this conveys a reason for them to actually want to go to a under-developed country to build and teach.

I have decided to use the second photograph because of how you can see Rory's shirt untucked, along with the top of his head being cut off verys slightly on the first. You can also see cables to the left side of the photograph. I will be cropping the photograph before I use it, so that they photo is more focused on them, rather than where they are.

Article ideas

For which ever of the following stories that I choose to use on my website, I will use a couple of them in my actual newspaper as well, for example in the small stories consisting of just a column or so, or the article on the second page. The following article ideas that I have thought of are a mixture of stories that I can create and stories that are real, and that I can research into. Through out this post, I am going to think about which type of story would be better in the way that they interest the readers, how realistic they sound and are and whether one will be too difficult to carry out successfully.

My initial local story ideas:

1.Plans to destroy run down homes & rebuild them stronger

2.Plans to build a park for the children of a village with very few facilities

3. Couple travel the world to raise money for (cancer research, building shelters in a 3rd world country)

4. 6th Form prepare to provide more space for their growing number

5. local shop been running for decades shuts down due to lack of customers - recession double dip is definitely taking place

6.6th form raise money by having a 'pyjama day' for Essex air ambulance

7. speaking to students and parents about their struggle in affording to go to university

8.bus services stopping
9. Three Essex Councils merging together on services, it can save them £100million a year.
10. Olympic costs - some of the olympic competitions are taking place in Essex - Raleigh & Brentwood. Cycling& mountain biking
11. A burglary/theft

12. University Fees

13. Car crash

14. House fire
15. Parking prices in a town
16. Something related to a primary school
17. A burglary or theft
Expanded details and ideas for the stories above:

1. For this, I would have to be able to find a run down area in area with houses that look very poorly kept, with out traveling a fair distance, I would not be able to gather photographs for this story, but I could write the article with out photographs being present, which I have seen on many other local newspaper's websites, for example the Halstead Gazette.

2. For this story, I could take a photo of a grassy area in a small village, but this would not be very interesting to look at from the readers point of view, so similarly to my first idea, I could write the article without the use of photographs to show the reader where the park is going to be built, or I could take a photograph of the village sign or some village children who are looking forward to their new park being built. I could even use photographs of the village itself, for example picturesque houses or the village church etc.

3. This would probably be the easiest story to create. I would only really need to take a photograph of the supposed couple who are planning to travel to raise money for a specific charity, for example Cancer Research UK. Despite this story being created from scratch, I could ask friends or relatives for reasons why they might do something like this for charity, therefore getting some realistic reasons and perspectives.

4. This story would also be fairly simple to create. I would be able to take photographs of parts of my school & be able to write about how the 6th form is growing as is the need for more facilities. But on the other hand, photographs might not actually be very interesting from the readers point of view unless it includes a decent amount of visual information about the 6th form and what is going to change. To create a more interesting feel to the photographs, there would probably have to be more than one photograph, and this is rarely seen on newspaper websites as it may be giving out too much unnecessary information that the readers may not actually be interested in.

5. This article may be harder to create than the others that I have thought of, this is because of the fact I would need to find a shop that either looks old(or is old) or that is shutting down, or perhaps even both. And this would be extremely hard to come across. But this would a be good story to have on the website as it links very well with the economic crisis and the recession going into the so called 'double-dip' therefore being an up-to-date story that would be interesting to a larger range of readers than the other ideas for articles that I have come up with.

6. This story would be very easy to complete successfully, as my 6th form are raising money for Essex Air Ambulance next month, therefore I could actually interview one of the people who came up with the idea and photographs would be very easy to take. Through out research into local newspaper's websites, I have found that some of the articles and stories actually contain small interviews with people who are involved in the story,(for example, The Suffolk Free Press.)

My 6th form has now had it's pyjama day, we have raised £128.24, and I have taken photographs of groups of peers to use on the website, and newspaper if I decide to use this story on both newspaper and website, but I will only use one photograph on the website, and possibly more on the newspaper, I will go into more detail later on in the post.

7. This story would also be fairly simple to write as I could interview many or just one family to have their point put across about the doubling or even quadrupling payment for university in the next couple of years, similarly to the story 5 above, I would be able to link it to an up-to-date event in nowadays money crisis. For a photograph, I could take one of a university near by or just the family of who I have interviewed.

8. For this story, I could simply take photographs of a bus from a specific company and use that along with a supposed interview with some one who uses this bus service frequently. To make this story realistic, I could talk to a relative or friend about what they would do if a bus service they use frequently were to stop running.

9. For this story, as it is true, I can easily carry out research into the details and the story will be realistic and of interest of possible readers. I will be able to talk to people (i.e. adults & tax payers) to get a mature and real perspective of the people that this council merge will effect.

10. For this story, I have family friends from within the Raleigh and Brentwood who I could talk to and interview. I would be able to talk about where it would be taking place and I would easily be able to take photographs of this aswell, for both the website and the newspaper if I decide to use it in the newspaper aswell.

11. For this story, I have heard a story about a friend's mum's collegue that they had been steeling money from the till at Boots, and then got fined £80 at court, and was free to go. Soon after, he then got a job in Tescos in the same town.

12. As university fees are affecting a lot of my friends, I would be able to talk to them about how it is affecting them and how they are going to deal with this. I would easily be able to interview them and have a fairly realistic article.

13. Car crashes are a fairly frequent occurance. This means that I would be able to achieve photographs and evidence that would be simple to link to this type of story.

14. House fires are occasionally reported, they're not extremely common, but they are common enough to become an article that people would read constantly in a newspaper.
15. This would be a good idea for a small article that could appear on both a page on my website and either the front page, or the 2nd page of my newspaper. But probably the 2nd page. If I were to need to take a photograph, this would also be easy to get around as I could go to the town that I based my story on and take a photograph of a car park.
16. People who read newspapers, most often have children, or even grandchildren. Therefore creating a story about a primary school would perhaps attract this audience. I would also be able to take a photograph of either the school my mum works in, or my school/sixth form.
17. Burglaries and thefts are not that rare. Therefore I would be able to find other articles about thefts and easily be inspired by them and therefore create my own story about a theft.

Looking at Newspaper Articles

The Halstead Gazette
The articles on the home page of the Halstead Gazette are briefly described so that people will click on the links that read 'more stories like this'
The stories on the Halstead Gazette 'News' home page are all linked to their own individual pages. The only thing that they say about each story is their title. It also displays the date and time of when the article was wrote. There is also an option to 'Have your say', it is a link to the bottom of the page where the reader registers to become a member of the 'Have your say' section (shown in the image A below.) It also gives the oppurtunity for readers to print the article, email it to a friend, share it and see what others have commented about the article, and for the reader to comment on it (shown in image B below). On every article on the website that I have studied, there is also a search bar where the reader can type in something that they want to search for across the whole site (shown in image C below). These small stories are hyperlinked pages from the 'News' home page.



Article 1.
"A taste of South Africa was brought to a children’s nursery which held its first of many international days this week. Children at Puddleducks nursery, Halstead, enjoyed South African food, music and colours today as they said goodbye to one of their friends, who is visiting the country for an extended break."

This story like many of the others is extremely short, but it gives away the whole event and lets the reader know exactly what happens in such a short story. This may attract readers to read the stories on the website rather than the stories in the actual newspaper. The title of the story is 'South African fun comes to nursery' - This title tells the reader what the story is about, in a fairly blunt manner, so the reader now knows if it's something they're interested in.

Article 2.

'A MOTHER-of-two who raised £7,000 after swimming a mile of the River Thames has thanked people for their support.
Claire White, of Chapel Hill, Halstead, completed the swim earlier this year with her friend Sarah Pollard from Braintree.
Having collected all the sponsorship money, half will be given to Farleigh Hospice and half to Cancer Research UK. '

This story, similar to the previous, is short, mounting up to only 57 words. It gives the reader all of the basic information about the event of 'Claire White' raising money for Cancer Research UK. This story, like the previous, only has a small amount of detail because it will not attract a vast amount of attention and readers as other articles that are put onto the home page of the website have a lot more detail to them because readers will be more interested in news that affects a larger area of the county/town therefore affecting more readers. This story is titled 'Halstead woman reaches her fundraising target', this tells the reader where exactly the news story is based and what it is about

Summary of the research from The Halstead Gazette

Overall, the articles on the Halstead Gazette Website are fairly brief, but the main details of each story that I have found are included and the reader knows the basics of each story without having to read the complete article which is sometimes printed onto the actual newspaper. I have decided that I am going to use a similar idea to this with my website and newspaper (using a story from the newspaper in a short and less detailed form on the website). The types of stories that are on the website are all related and would only affect a small area and amount of readers (the brief stories only - links from the 'News' page)


The Suffolk Free Press

The articles on the Suffolk Free Press offers similar options to what the Halstead Gazette does, initially on the home page, a few of the articles are listed (some with photos linked to them). Each article is also briefly described, and each story has its own page. On the page of each article, the stories are explained in a lot more depth that the articles on the Halstead Gazette wesbite. On the home page, the stories are seperated into different areas: 'News', 'Sport', 'Lifestyle' and 'Community' (shown in images A-D below). The orange icon next to each word links to a seperate news feed listing the same stories as the ones listed on the home page and more that are not listed on the home page - but are still seperated into their own sections (News, Sport etc). Each story also has the time and date written in between the title and the actual story.

Article 1.
A SUDBURY dog-walker said she was disgusted by litter louts who threw lager cans and plastic bags into the River Stour.
Michelle Richardson, who lives in Great Waldingfield, found rubbish scattered around the river bank and in the water, while she and her boyfriend were out walking their dog on Saturday afternoon on the town’s meadows.
They came across the remains of a campfire and plastic bags and cans near the Quay Theatre.
She said: “It looked like there had been some kind of party and everyone had just left all the rubbish behind.
“There were cans in the river and what looked like little plastic bags – I think the rubbish bin must have been tipped up and stuff thrown in.
“We saw some swans and they came up to us but they were having to dodge around all the rubbish in the water.
“I was worried they might try to eat some of the plastic and get hurt.”
Michelle reported the mess to Sudbury Town Council, which sent out its community wardens on Monday.
She added: “Apparently Monday is clean-up day – it happens most weekends when the sun it out and there’s a party of some sort on the meadow with drinks and a barbecue.
“I think it’s just pure ignorance and is inconsiderate towards families, children and wildlife.”

This story is a lot longer than any that I have read on the Halstead Gazette website, it has quotes from an interview that has been taken out and it gives the reader a point of view from the person who the story is focused on, in this case a dog walker from Sudbury. This story also gives a greater mass of details for the reader to comprehend and understand. The title of this story is 'Litter louts anger walker', therefore giving the reader the topic of the article (litter problems) and now the reader can tell by the title if it would be of their interest.


Article 2.
IN a small village school – with a total of 65 children – you might expect the odd set of twins to turn up on the register from time to time ... but what are the odds of having five sets of twins at the school all at the same time?
Stoke-by-Nayland Primary School headteacher Jane Le Grice said parents and staff are amused and amazed by the fact that they have 10 children who are twins – six of them are six-year-old twins.
“We think it is quite incredible to have so many twins here when we are only quite a small village school,” she said.
“I have worked here for 19 years, the last two-and-a-half as headteacher, and I have only known the odd set or two come through the school. Not as many as this at the same time.”
The twins range in age from three to six years old. All sets are identical apart from one, although staff still have a difficult time – given that they all wear the same uniform – to tell them apart.
The children are Layla and Zara Bambury, aged three in nursery, Carys and Sasha Preece, aged five in reception class, Frankie and Kara Day, aged six and in Year 1, and Joshua and George Dye and Matthew and James Bayley, all aged six and all in Year 2.
Mrs Le Grice taught one of the twins’ mother. She said: “That’s just par for the course when you are a teacher – you tend to see the next generation.
“I am not sure why we have so many twins here, and what the odds are for having so many when we are such a tiny school, but we are very glad to have them.”

Similar to the previous article on the Suffolk Free Press website, this one is fairly detailed an includes quotes from an interview that was taken out on someone that the story is written about ( A teacher at the school). The title of this story is Twins leave teachers seeing double, this shows that the story is related with education and the reader is now aware whether the story would interestn them or not. There is a photograph relating to the story on the home page next to the link. Shown in the image below. This furthers the knowledge of what the story is about and shows five sets of twins, which is an unusual sight in itself, so the readers are further interested in the story.

Questionnaire - What do you expect to see on the front page and the second page of a local newspaper?

What do you expect to see on the front page and the second page of a local newspaper?

Front page:

Would you expect to see more than one advert on the front page of a local newspaper?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Sometimes


2. On the front page of a local newspaper, would you favour to see a photograph taking up more of the page than the article?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Sometimes

3. Would you expect to see coloured print on the front page of a local newspaper?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Partly

4. How would you expect the name of the paper to be presented?
(e.g. font, colour, format, size)

……………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………….

5. Which of the following titles would be best suited to a newspaper based over the whole of Essex?

[ ] ‘The Essex Heart’
[ ] ‘The Essex Moon’
[ ] ‘The Essex Times’
[ ] ‘The Essex Free Press’


6. Are you more likely to read a front page article if the title is short and catchy or descriptive?

[ ] Short & catchy [ ] Descriptive [ ] Depends on the story

7. How many miniature stories would you expect to see on a front page of a local newspaper?
[ ] One [ ] Two [ ] Three or more



8. Would you expect to see any other photograph on the front page?

[ ] Yes (If so, tick below) [ ] No

[ ] Adverts
[ ] Miniature stories



9. Are you more likely to read through the whole newspaper if the front page is well set out and includes an article of your interest?

[ ] Yes [ ] No





Second page:

Would you expect to see more news articles on the second page rather than the first?

If yes, roughly how many?
[ ] 2 [ ]3/4 [ ]5/6 [ ]6+


Would you expect to see more photographs on the second page of a newspaper than the first?

[ ] Yes [ ] No
[ ] It depends ……………………………………………………………


Would you expect to see coloured print on the second page?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Partly


Tick as many of the following that you expect to see any of the following information on the second page of a local newspaper?

[ ] Weather forecast [ ] Contact information

[ ] Advertisements [ ] Other………………………………...






Would you expect to read more detailed stories on the second page rather than the front page?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ]It depends …………………………………

How many miniature stories would you expect to read on the second page of a local newspaper?

[ ] 1 or 2 [ ] 3 or 4 [ ] 5 or 6 [ ] 6+


I have collected half of my results in the table below:

Initial Ideas for my Newspaper

NEEDS A LATER DATE

To create the first two pages of a local newspaper, I am going to use Microsoft Office Publisher. I chose to use this because I am familiar with it and I know how to use it at an advantage for creating a newspaper. Publisher offers me lay outs that would benefit a newspaper; e.g. using columns to create the format of the text that a real newspaper would use.

Here is the prices of the newspapers that I have looked at:
Suffolk Free Press
East Anglian Daily Times
The Sun - 30p
The Guardian - £1
Halstead Gazette
Haverhill Weekly News

I have decided to make my newspaper 50p as it's an average price, and it's a rounded number which is easy to find the right amount of change for.





Name of Paper

For the name of my paper, I wanted to decide on something that would associate the paper with the whole of Essex, not just one particular area in the county. I chose to base my newspaper in Essex as research would me a lot more possible to complete with more detail and confidence that what I say and write about would be closest to the truth, rather than a near by county or place.
I also chose to base my newspaper over the whole of the county rather than just a particular place of it as it would give me alot more possibility of being able to write about bigger and perhaps more drastic stories, rather than basing my newspaper in a small local towns which tend to have smaller, and perhaps considered less interesting stories.

After recieving the results of the questionnaire, I have decided to call my newspaper The Essex Heart. I chose the word 'heart' as it is warm and I feel welcoming to readers. It's denotational meaning also creates an interesting effect, a heart is a main organ of the human body, the body would not function without a heart. This connotates a newspaper that is an important part of Essex or any other county if I were to change my mind.


Aritlces
I have decided to use two articles on the front page of my newspaper. They will also appear on my website, but in brief.
I am going to write a story about university fees, and a story about a couple building a school in Kenya.
The stories on my second page will consist of:
Cheap Thief Makes Profit
Teen Having Triplets
Race for Life Dates Announced
Braintree Introduces Free Parking
Mother and Infant Die in Blaze
(read articles in their own posts)


Adverts

I am going to create adverts on the front page and inside page for local businesses of Essex. The local business advert will be of my dad's pest and hygeine control business - 'Advantage Environmental'. His business is based through out the whole of Essex, therefore being very well suited for the newspaper.

For the second page of my newspaper, I will be using two more adverts, one is for a wedding photographer and the other for a local Essex based Motoring company.

Photographs

On the front page of my newspaper, I will have a large photograph that links to the main first page article. This will be a photograph of the pregnant teenager.


Below, I have printscreened the process of making the first two pages of my newspaper:

Creating My Poster

After looking at other posters that advertise other newspapers, this has made me realise that I need to think of a slogan/statement for the news paper. All of the newspaper posters have a slogan that is catchy and each of these slogans and statements are completely individual from each other, so I need to think of something completely unique that matches up with the name of the paper and sounds like it is suited to be a newspaper slogan.
Here are some of the ideas that I have come up with for the slogan/statement for my newspaper poster:
- "It's the Heart of Essex"
- It's a part of your Heart
- Be a part of our Heart
- Be a part, of the Essex Heart
- Discover the Heart of Essex
- Keeping Essex alive
- Our Heart is your heart


After attempting to fill a page with the name of the paper and it's slogan. I realised I'm definately going to need a photograph.
Here are some of the ideas that I have come up with for the photographs:
1. I could create a large red heart out of card/paper and have various different people holding this i.e. all different ages, sizes and class's etc.
2. I could take individual photographs of different people (like above) but in their comfort zones.
(for the two ideas above, I would use the slogan 'Our Heart is your heart')


Below are the photographs that I have taken for my poster. I have decided to do idea 1, of having people hold a heart, but instead of 9 photographs, I will take 4 and arrange them into the same shape in the centre of the poster.
The first two photographs below are of friends at sixthform. I felt that I would need to convey a wide target audience, so I would use a wider variation of ages rather than anything else. Out of the first two, I will be using the second photograph because they look a lot more comfortable in the photograph.

The photograph above is of my parents, I felt that if I were to use more couples rather than groups of people then it would emphasize the use of the heart and the name of the paper.
I decided to take another photograph of a couple, but of a different age. Out of the two below, I will be using the first photograph as the flash created a brighter photograph and it's more clear.
Below, I have taken a photograph of my grandparents. I felt that it would broaden the target audience of my newspaper and this would be conveyed on the poster.

Stage 1 - Cutting the images out
Below, I am cutting around the people in the photograph, this is so that all of the images can be put together onto my poster. I have done this on GIMP using the paintbrush tool.


Once I had drawn around the people in each of my photographs, I had to get rid of the background. I did this using the Bucket Fill tool, shown below.


After clearing the background, this is how my photographs turned out.
Stage 2 - Putting the poster together
I chose to create my poster on an A4 template, this would mean that it could become an advert in a magazine for example.

Once I added each photograph, I had to scale them down because they were far too big and took up too much space each.


After experimenting with possible lay outs for my poster, I decided that having them in a box, 2x2 looks far too plain and simple. So I have decided to rotate them 2 x 2 at 17 degrees.
After putting the photographs together, I added the text. (shown on the two printscreens below)

I decided that if I were to stick to mainly black and red in the poster, then it would stick with the theme I have chosen for my newspaper and it's website. I also chose to keep 'heart' in the same font as the masthead because it links it all together.
This was my final poster. Until I realised that it doesn't actually look complete. I felt that the background of the poster was far too white, so I added some red to the poster, which resulted in my final poster, shown in the Finalised Poster post.

Researching Posters

In this post, I am going to look at posters that in one way or another advertise a specific newspaper.
All of the posters that I could find online are posters for national newspapers that are sold country wide.

This poster advertises '6 new sections' of the newspaper 'The Times'. It displays both what is it offers readers, therefore establishing a target market; it has 'The Saturday Review', a magazine (this one has a photograph of Amy Winehouse - this could be representing a music magazine), a magazine for the weekend and only what I can assume to be a sports magazine as it has a page of a photograph of a cricket player. The Times has a fairly well known slogan: "Only In The Times"; this tells readers that The Times is an individual newspaper, and the only newspaper that offers these 6 new sections. It also has the times logo in white in the top right corner, so the readers know that 'The Saturday' is part of The Times.

This poster is advertises The Daily Telegraph. The name of the paper is written in a fairly medieval font. Its slogan is 'It pays to think big.' with three pictures with small but strong statements about three incredibly famous personalities (John Lennon, Andy Warhol and Bill Clinton) it what their parents jobs were, this shows the readers and audience that they can have faith and hope in themselves and what they want to achieve; giving readers confidence and faith in the newspaper. The photographs are bright and bold and they stand out from the plain white background and (in comparison) the small black font, the name of the paper is also bolder and larger than the slogan and the small statements beneath each photograph. The photographs are fairly central to the whole poster, which initially draw the attention to the poster, then the attention is drawn to title of the newspaper and it's slogan.

This poster advertises the Sunday Times, it's slogan is 'For all you are.'. The background of the poster is grey and white and the font is inverted white on grey or visa versa. The only colour on the poster is used on the images of the sections that the newspaper includes, these link to the heading of the poster; 'There's a part of you for every part of The Sunday Times.' The reader/audience is now aware that The Sunday Times have a variation of topics in the paper, this interests the readers/audience into the newspaper because they are persuaded to beleive by the heading and the slogan that there is something for them to read that will be of their interest.

This poster is for The Sun newspaper, it is a photograph of a receipt. This receipt has a list of thirteen things that The Sun includes inside. This poster is quite different to the other posters that I have looked at, because it shows a variation of things, from 'Mystic Meg' (horoscopes) to "£9.50 Holidays" aswell as the typical sections like 'Politics'. This poster, also unlike others that I have looked at shows the price of the paper; 30 pence. Because of the receipt being in a list format, the readers are attracted to the top of the list first, therefore reading through the list and finding out what the sun includes, then the font increases in size and it reads 'TOTAL 30P'. This is then followed by the only coloured item on the receipt, which is the logo/name of the paper; 'The Sun'.

Because of the name of the paper being the only coloured item on the whole poster, it emphasizes it's indivuality. After this, the price if repeated, emphasizing to the reader/audience that the paper is cheap, but interesting and of good quality; 'All for just 30p'

This poster, as it states, advertises 'The Times'.
This is a very different poster compared to the others that I have looked at, as it doesn't particularly focus on the paper and the variation that it may include. The photograph is of a shark being caught in a fishing net, and it has become entangled in it. This links to the small paragraph beneath the title of the paper:

"On current forecasts, the world will run out of seafood in 41 years.

Only The Times has an ocean correspondent. If you care about the world we live in, the 70% of it that is covered by water is also covered by us.

Be part of The Times" Having a unique poster like this, gives the newspaper an idea of it being unique and it shows the reader that they have a specialist in topics to do with the sea and topics surrounding it. This leads readers to beleive that 'The Times' may also have specialists in other topics, therefore being a very reliable source of information that is true. It also uses what could be considered as emotional blackmail, by using a photograph of a shark being caught and struggling in a fishing net. It also bluntly reads that the earth will run out of seafood, followed by a short, punchy sentence. The "emotional blackmail" is so subtle that it isn't seen as an annoying nag, like some television adverts are (that advertise similar issues). The poster also includes an interesting fact about the world & the sea, this interests and intreegues readers into what the newspaper can offer them and hints at how much information they could gain from reading. 'The Times' is spread across the fin of the shark, this centres the shark, and then draws us to acknowledge what the poster is about, but the title is also brought to the main focus of the poster because it is so bold and in white, capital font. Lastly, the final sentence on the poster reads 'Be part of The Times.'; this is a short punchy sentence that has some form of persuasive technique that makes the reader feel a part of 'The Times', even though they have only been told that they should be and they have only come across a small piece of information.

This poster is for the Guardian newspaper's website. It's a fairly simple design. A plain white background with multi-coloured wiggled lines that are attatched to simple grey computer mice attatched to the ends. 'theguardian' is written in the format of one word, 'Guardian' is written in bold, navy compared to 'the' and '.co.uk' in a pale grey colour. This is at the top right corner and the other text and information is linked to a pink cable. The text at the bottom says:
'Listening to lots of different views
rather than just one
means you can decide for yourself
instead of just being told what to think.
Don't you agree?
You don't have to ofcourse.'
This involves the reader with the use of 'you', twice along with the rhetorical question. It is also in a fairly conversational tone, this is some what comfortable and relaxing. The text is also in various colours. The image of the corded computer mice is almost in a spherical shape. With one cord trailing off on it's own. This draws the attention straight to the text. The poster states a message about there being various views in the stories/website, this is also highlighted by the various colours, especially on the text. This also shows the readers that there is no specific aim of the paper; it has stories for "everyone".

This poster is also for The Guardian website. It has many similar attributes as the poster above. The name of the website is set out in the same way, and it still has the multi-coloured corded computer mice. All the cords are initially joint to the slogan at the bottom. The mice are spread out, but they all end up in the direction of 'theguardian.co.uk', therefore drawing attention to the name of the paper/website. This method is also used to draw attention to the slogan; 'Listen to many. Decide for yourself.' Similarly to the poster above, the reader is involved by the word 'yourself'. This slogan is also telling the reader that there is a variation of ideas and articles. Therefore again, catering for "everyone's" needs.

This poster, on the left, is again a poster for The Guardian's website. Unlike the other two posters, this one does not use the multi-coloured corded mice. Instead, it has 'opinion' and 'fact' repeated in a curved line in a variation of colours. The way that these words are set out and curved into a V shape, puts more emphasis on the small paragraph of text and 'theguardian.co.uk'. The small paragraph reads:
'Opinions are not facts.
What happened
and how you feel about it
are two different things.
And people should know
which is which. '
As with the other Guardian posters, with a few words on each line, the new line adds a break inbetween them. This adds emphasis to each line.
The use of the large font reading 'opinion' and 'fact' shows the reader that they have both, and it allows the reader to be a part of the stories if they want to.

Through out researching into posters for newspapers, I have struggled to use any posters that are created for a local newspaper by searching online. So to try and help my research, I am going to try and find posters for newspapers around where I live, for example in shops, newsagents, post offices and other places where newspapers are sold or even where they are written, for example, on the high street in Haverhill, there is a building designated for 'The Haverhill Echo', as does Halstead, with 'The Halstead Gazette'.

These are the conventions that I have found through out these posters.

• 1 main image
• Not alot of text
• Eyecatching
• Involves the newspaper website
• The general tone is serious
• Features the name of the newspaper with its logo
• The advert tells you what is unique about the newspaper
• They aren't gender or age specific
• They include prounouns to involve the audience
• 'Value for money' is a technique used to sell the newspaper

Initial Poster Ideas

In this post, I am going to explore my ideas for the poster for my newspaper.

Idea 1
For my first idea for my newspaper poster, I could design and create a poster to advertise the subscription for my newspaper.
For this, I would need to:
- Work out on average how much a yearly subscription of a newspaper and decide on a discount percentage
- Decide on the exact price of my newspaper
- Choose the size of the paper of which I will print the subscription advert on
- Decide whether to use headlines from the news paper over 'the past' or to use the front page of the newspaper that I will create. Therefore I will have to create my newspaper before I create my poster.
- If I am to use a printscreen or what could be considered the front page or any page of the newspaper, I will need to create atleast the front page of my newspaper before I create the subscription poster.
-I have now worked out that for all 52 weeks of the year, to buy a 40p newspaper every week, it would cost £20.80. To advertise the subscription further, I could offer a discount of 20%, resulting in a price of £16.64 for the year.

Idea 2
For this idea, I could create a poster that advertises what the new local newspaper is about. For this I would need to:
- Decide what size the advert would be printed on.
- Decide whether to include headlines or stories.
- Look into other adverts for newspapers and see how they would advertise the paper
- Decide what, if any, photographs I would use
- Choose an appropriate and understandable font

Creating My Website

Initially, I had started to use Piczo.com to design and create my website, but after it becoming apparent to me that Piczo.com is too unprofessional for the standards that I want to create a website for my newspaper, I am now using Moonfruit.com as I can create a website with the professional standards that I want and that can create a professional outlook like those I have researched. In creating my website, I had to choose what layout I wanted to use for the home page (I can change the layout for my hyperlinked pages when I create them). So I chose the 'Blank Page' option so that I could create the page exactly how I want it to look like.

In choosing the name of my website , I have chosen 'TheEssexHeart.moonfruit.com', as it is the chosen name of my paper.

When creating the menu bar of links at the top, I added the name of every page that I have chosen to display on the homepage of my website. I have chosen (other than the homepage itself) to have 'Local News', 'National News', 'Sport', 'Leisure', 'Your Voice', 'Contact Us', 'Jobs', 'Vehicles' and 'Login Register'. The two pages that I am going to create hyperlinks to are 'Local News' and 'Sport'. I have chosen these two pages because I feel that I will be able to use a wide range of skills in what I create through out the pages, for example on the 'Local News' page, I will be able to display photographs along with their stories, and I will also be able to write interviews with people and create a suiting layout for the page so that the information and the photographs are well set out and in the best positiion for a reader to understand the articles on the page. This is what the menu bar looks like at the top of the homepage and how I created it:

The printscreens above and below are after I had created all ten of the pages and displayed them on the menu bar, present on every page in exactly the same position.

In this printscreen below, I am editing the links in the menu bar at the top of the page so that when a page is selected or hovered over with the mouse, the writing turns black and the background of the button turns white, and when the page is not selected or hovered over with the mouse, the button is pale grey and the writing it dark grey.


This printscreen is proof of the hover/select method working on the menu bar:

On other websites, I have come across advertisements in the corners of the page, similar to this, When my Dad started up his business, I created this advert for his website. He bought the rights to these photographs, so I have uploaded this to my website as an advertisement. This is on the home page's top left corner, shown below: I have also hyper-linked this advert to the website of 'Advantage Environmental', as all of the adverts on the websites that I have looked at link to the page that they are advertising.

When writing the stories up on the website, I chose different font for the title text and the body/actual article font. I did this to establish a clear difference between the article and it's title. For the title font, I chose 'Rockwell Light' as it is a bold font that stands out amongst the 'Ariel' font that I used for the article text. I chose 'Ariel' because it's simple and easy to read.

Looking through other local newspaper's websites, for example the suffolk Free Press', on the home page was a search bar where you can search what ever you want, probably used for searching for articles. This was a search bar for the search engine Google. I have also included a google search bar on the home page and the two hyper-linked pages. I feel that this enhances the professional outlook of my website, and I feel it has now become more realistic and up to date. A search bar would also allow the reader to view stories that are actually up to date for the time, and showing them other points of view about a specific article that they may want to know more information about.

To add the Google Search bar there is a choice of 'smart widgets' in the tool bar that the website offers.

This is what the search bar looks like:

I was able to shrink it so that it fits into the space I want it to go: just beneath the menu bar, to the right.

I have added a section on the home page that allows viewers/readers to see photos that (supposed) readers have sent in. I have also added information that viewers/readers would be able to send their photos in (via text or e-mail) and when looking at other news paper websites, they tended to have emails that were @nqe. After researching into what nqe was, I discovered that it stands for News Quest Essex, a company that is the leading newspaper publisher in Essex. I now realise that this would be an ideal e-mail add
ress to use for my website. I have decided to use teh@nqe.uk, the 'teh' standing for The Essex Heart. The number that I have chosen to use for texts is simply a 5 digit 87766. The websites that I have found with similar text message numbers are the Halstead Gazette with the number of 80360.

The next 3 images are images that I have created for my website (I used a program called GIMP to create them):

1. This image is for a page that would show the houses that are for sale in Essex. I chose to use the same font for this image as I have for the name of the paper. I have also decided to use a different colour for all of the images that would be a link to another page. This way they are easily identified by an individual colour.

2. This image would be a link to a page that had a list of events that are/were coming up in the current month. I felt that an icon of a balloon would be fairly appropriate as it covers a wide range of events that could be held.
3. This image would link to a page where jobs are listed under alphabeticalised areas in Essex.I chose to create a simple icon that links to the colour of the page. I felt that this would be appropriate for the page.

The three images below are adverts that I have created for my website (all created on GIMP):

The printscreen above shows my images uploaded onto my website (shown on homepage, sports page and local news) Looking at other newspaper websites, images like the ones I have created above also have text on them. So I thought it would look more realistic if I were to write over the top of these image. So I created a long rectangular box for them to go into, so that it shows they are all linked together and then I added a small see through grey box over the top of each image and wrote in italics what each image was about. I feel that all of the lines that I added to the images involve the reader more than just having the image. I chose to write them in a way that almost insists that the reader clicks on the images to 'Find your perfect home.'

I initially only had these images on my home page. But I felt that it would be better advertised if I were to add them to all three of the pages that I created. I was also inspired to do this by websites that I had looked at. I feel that the constant reminder on all of the pages of these three oppurtunities would encourage reader to click on the link and look through what the website offers.

On the websites that I have seen, they often advertise some form of job, usually a job searcher website. Therefore, I decided to create an advert for a job site. I came across totaljobs.com, and decided to create an advert for it. I printscreened the name of the website from it's homepage. I then pasted and cropped this into GIMP. I then filled the botom with the same colour as the rest of the the name and added & rotated the other text.

For the advert above, I used a photograph that I took at my cousins wedding in July. I cropped this photo and added the text. I was inspired to make this advert because of other adverts for events like wedding fairs being advertised on websites. Both of the adverts above appear on my homepage, and the total jobs advert also appears on my local news page.

Similarly to how I created the total jobs advert, I printscreened the name of the company from it's homepage then pasted it into GIMP and added the rest of the text. I have seen numerous websites advertised like this on newspaper websites, aswell as many other websites, so I felt it wouldn't ruin the realistic feel of the website to create an advert that advertised a website like find a property.com.

At the bottom of all of the websites I looked at were small buttons with links to the most important pages. I decided to do this on my website so that it was as close to a newspaper website as I could get. Above I have printscreened what I had to do to create these buttons, and below is the result of how I present the buttons at the bottom of all my webpages. In the printscreen below, I have also added social book marks. On various websites, not just newspaper websites, I have come across these bookmarks that allow the reader to 'follow' them on Facebook or Twitter for example. I felt that this would broaden the target audience as it tends to be younger people who use

The same image that shows what I had to select to create the link buttons also shows the option of making a HTML snippet. I used three HTML snippets on my home page. I found a useful websites where I could get various HTMLs. I got my date HTML from a website called timeanddate.com, there were various different clocks that I could use, but I felt it would look more proffessional and suit the style of my website more if I had the date in written format. I decided to put this just beneath 'The Essex Heart' on my menu bar, so it appears on every page. Shown below:

I also felt that it would be a good idea if I were to create a section dedicated to the weather forecast of the next few days. I had seen this on the BBC website and decided that it would look more professional if I weer to add this weather forecast. I got the HTML link from the Met office. I felt that the met office would show a reliable weather forecast. The down side to this HMTL link was that I could only choose one area. I therefore chose Colchester, as it is a fairly big area in Essex. If this box is clicked on, the reader is re-directed to the met office website

The third HTML code that I used was for a marquee. On other websites that I have come across, in particular news websites, they have a constanlty updated marquee beneath the 'Latest headlines' title. I couldn't find any marquees that enabled me to change what was written, so I have to have the same sentence going round the whole time. I decided to make the marquee about top stories of the month. I have shown this in the printscreen below.

Below, I have shown how I created the HTML boxes:

I had to copy and paste the link into the setup box, then apply it and then stretching the stripey HTML edit box so that it was the right size. To view the HTML I had to 'view my page'

Behind a lot of the things I'm adding to my website, I'll put a box behind them so that they stand out. The shapes can be added using the tool box, shown below. There are a variation of shapes to use, but for the most proffessional effect I am going to use just the square and the rounded square. Even thought it says that they are squares, it is possible to change to a rectangle so in most cases I will.

I have now added the shapes to the background of the items that I wanted to. The printscreen beneath is from the sports page. I have decided to add the dark grey rounded behind the photographs on this page and then behind the stories with out photographs I chose to have a lighter grey box so that is was obvious that the photographs didn't match that story: I feel that it individualised one story from the other.

On my website, I decided to stick to two main fonts: Ariel and Rockwell Light. I chose to use Ariel for the body text because it is easy to use. I stuck to a reasonable sized font through out my stories. I chose to have Rockwell Light as my Title font because it stood out from the rest of the text and it is also easy to read.

On all of the newspaper websites that I looked at there was a section dedicated to the most read and most commented/popular stories. I created this below. To make it stand out, I wrote 'most read' in capitals. To allow myself to have more stories, I made the text box too small so that the reader would have to scroll to look through all of the headlines, and less space is being used.

I felt that it would show more creativity if I added photographs to the webpage that weren't necessarily related to the articles surrounding them. The Suffolk Free Press inspired me to do this. They had an image slideshow of images that readers had sent in.
there are many options below on how to display photographs. I chose the slide show one because it looks more professional and suitable for a newspaper website as the others are for more creative and artistic purposes.

This is what I have done:

To add images I have to go through the same process shown above. 'Add image' and then apply. I have added my own photographs that I have taken in the past. I will add more so that the empty boxes beneath the biggest photograph are filled. I have chosen to apply 'April 2011' above this because I felt that if I base the website in April, it will be closer to the marking date. Above this I have written Your photos of Essex. this draws readers in because of the large font, and the use of 'you'.

Looking at E-mailing photos in, I felt that I had to make it obvious in how to mail photographs in to the newspaper so that we could publish them on the website. I created my e-mail address teh@nqe.co.uk. I chose this because teh is an abreviation of The Essex Heart. And looking at other email addresses were 'nqe'. I reserached into this and discovered that nqe stood for News Quest Essex. Here is what their website says about who they are:

"Newsquest (Essex) Ltd is the leading publisher of regional newspapers in Essex - publishing a total of sixteen newspapers including daily, paid and free weekly titles. In addition to newspapers we also publish a whole host of other publications from targeted monthly lifestyle magazines to other community led products."

I felt to create a realistic email address, rather than using something like hotmail, I could use this. I also added this 'Contact Us' box. This allows the reader to easily send a question or any information to the newspaper.

This is how I upload photographs:

Initially I have to upload photos to this file box, I then add them to the page or the slide show.

Above, is the articles on my homepage. I felt that I should have made these articles stand out than all of the others, So I gave all three photographs and put both photograph and text into a rounded square. All of the stories that I looked at on other websites that I looked at had the date and time shown just above or below the article. I chose to add this above the headline, in a smaller italic font so that attention was drawn to the headline still rather than the time and date that it was updated or written. I chose that there was not enough room to write the whole story on the home page of the website, so I wrote the beginning, just how I have seen on other websites and then beneath this, a link that says 'read more...' This makes sure that the reader knows that that is not the whole story, and they do not have very much information to read before they know whether they'll be interested in the story.

Initially, I had started to use Piczo.com to design and create my website, but after it becoming apparent to me that Piczo.com is too unprofessional for the standards that I want to create a website for my newspaper, I am now using Moonfruit.com as I can create a website with the professional standards that I want and that can create a professional outlook like those I have researched. In creating my website, I had to choose what layout I wanted to use for the home page (I can change the layout for my hyperlinked pages when I create them). So I chose the 'Blank Page' option so that I could create the page exactly how I want it to look like.