Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

I have conducted some primary market research to collect information on what kind of newspaper the majority of people like to read. In order to complete my survey, 12 participants were sent an email to complete the questions, and the results were collected online. The website that was used is called Survey Monkey. As it is easier to fill out my questionnaire online, I now have all the data returned and can now analyse make a valid judgement on which would be the best source of newspaper to create for my coursework. The questions were based on the participants preferred choice for an ideal newspaper to suit them. The questions focused on colour scheme, genre and also images, as well as some personal questions about the participants.

For my first question, I asked the participants whether they were male or female. This was to get a balanced judgement of who liked to read newspapers more. Looking at the results, I can see that the majority of the readers are female, with a 72.73% response and only 27.27% for male. For my newspaper, I will aim to focus the newspaper for both genders. However, as more females have said responded, I will include a separate part of my newspaper that will attract the female readers, for example, a celebrity gossip section. This section could focus on soaps or other well known TV programmes that most people in the area would watch. However, as I want to try and attract the most possible readers, I will focus on a broader subject such as TV shows like the X factor or even The Voice. This will attract both genders of the audience and will also give my newspaper a variety of articles to appeal to the readers.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

For my second question, I asked the participants what age they were. This was to get an idea of what age group I should aim my newspaper for. Looking at the results from this question, I can see that the majority were aimed between 16-21 years. 66.67% were aged 16-21 which is what I will aim my newspaper to attract; however, 25% were also aged over 40 years old. I will bare this in mind as they will be a target audience for my newspaper as well. There is a mixture of genders and ages that I need to bare in mind when making my newspaper. It will need to appeal to all ages, but in particular ages 16-21. Most of the participants were younger, but I will take into account the older participants as they tend to read more newspaper. The articles they will read will be more serious as the younger participants may want to read about celebrity gossip or even local stories and job that might be going in their local area.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

For question 3, I asked the 12 participants whether they were employed and if so what their job was. I asked this question because I wanted to know whether they would be reading the newspaper at work, or whether they were unemployed and read the newspapers at home. Looking at the results, 66.67% of the people are employed. The jobs which they work varied from teachers, waitresses, project manager and retail. These jobs require a lot of work, but when they are not working, they might read newspapers. For the 33.33% that are unemployed, they still read newspapers and may get the local newspaper delivered. For my newspaper, I am going to include articles that will meet the interest of employed and unemployed audiences. I will also include advertisements for local jobs that will be available at local businesses in the area.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

In terms of question number 4, I asked the audience is they were in any sort of education. The responses came back with a high 75% saying yes, they are in education. This could include people who are students at a college, or who are teaching at a college or university. The 25% who said they are not in education could be people who were working as a waitress or project manager. There are 9 people who are in education; this means that they could possibly read newspapers in class or when they have spare time to catch up on the latest news. For my newspaper, I am going to include some advertisement which informs people who are in education of volunteering or extra-curricular work in the local area which could help them with the exams that could take place. For the people who are not in education, this could focus on them as well because they might have children in education that could benefit from this. This is important because I need to attract as many readers as a possibly can, this will mean including articles that will have an impact on both younger and older audiences.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

To start focusing on the main product, in question 5, I asked the audience how often they read newspapers. There can be a balanced judgement made looking at the results. 2 people read it every day, 2 people read it every week and 6 people will either read it once a month or not very often. This gives me a clear idea that people will only read the newspaper if it has something that could affect them or something that has recently happened in the local area. In order to attract all the audience, I need to make my newspaper as interesting and direct to the audience as possible. I will make my newspaper available to the audience every week, this is because majority of people don’t read it every day and it would a chance to collect a lot of articles in a week to then give to the audience. I can assume the majority of people who do not read it very often are adults who are in college or university. For my newspaper, I will make this newspaper available in colleges every week that will include stories of the local area which the students will be aware of to try and get them to read newspapers more often than once a month. The main focus of the newspaper will be to help the audience get into a habit of ready newspaper more often as they are usually unaware that most articles could affect them. In order to achieve this, I need to make sure that my articles are interesting and also interactive with the audience.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

To decide on a genre for my local newspaper, I asked the responding participants what they would find most interesting when reading a newspaper. The results represent the genre that has had the majority of the responses. 6 people responded saying they would find reading about celebrity gossip most interesting, this could be assumed that the 8 females that have taken the questionnaire would like to see some variety in a local newspaper. The second most popular was crime/politics, with 3 people responding to each. If I am to aim my newspaper at younger people and people aged over 40, I am going to have included both so that they are interested throughout the whole newspaper and that I can attract as many readers as possible. The political side to the newspaper would include articles about local authorities and MPs that are in the local areas. For the younger audience, it would include articles about well known places that they would know or that may have an effect on them. This could include local shops, transport links that they might use or even local jobs or businesses that might be shutting down. The aim of the newspaper will be to include as many articles that will involve the reader and persuade them to respond to the newspaper as much as possible.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

For question 7, I asked the participants if they would rather read a tabloid or a broadsheet. As you can see, the majority of responses said they would rather read a tabloid. There for, my final piece would be a tabloid and fit the category of a tabloid newspaper. This would mean keeping to the conventional codes of a tabloid newspaper, which tend to be less political and more local to areas. When as papers like The Times would be passed upon a more international scale and focus on more serious cases that you would see on the television or hear on the radio. For my newspaper, I would focus my articles on a more local basis, and I would include issues that would effect a local community in Manchester, I would also include issues about more crime relate drama rather than politics.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

Looking at question 8, I asked the respondents how much they would pay for their newspaper. Looking at the results, 72% said they would pay between 10-50p. For my newspaper, I would set the price in the frame so that is suited my audience. Anything more would be considered suitable for a broadsheet with more international stories. If I were to set my price higher than 50p then my audience wouldn’t be interested. Alternatively, my newspaper would be delivered to homes and would not have to pay as most of its content would be local issues in Manchester and would have rivalry with bigger issues like the Manchester Evening News.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

For this question, I wanted a more detailed response from the participants; I asked them what colour they would expect in a professional newspaper. The majority of responses focus on primary colours such as black, white and red. Some said black, white and blue, but for my newspaper I am going to have black, white and red. These colours create an interesting contrast and will make the newspaper look interesting and eye catching. These colours are usually used in other newspapers that I have been analysing to get ideas and inspiration from. The majority believe that they would like to see black, white and a primary colour. I asked them to write this response because I wanted to see what their honest answer might be, and it gave them the chance to explain which colours would look best. For example “black, white and a primary/secondary colour” the detailed response gave me the opportunity to narrow it down to a few colours, and helped me to understand what the audiences really wanted to see.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis

For my final question, I asked the audience if they find photographs interesting in a newspaper. The whole of the participants responded with yes. Therefore, in my newspaper, I am going to use photographs for each of my article and for some of the advertisement to make the newspaper as interesting as possible for the audience. These images might include locations, people or buildings. It will all depend on what articles I choose to have in my newspaper. If the majority said they would like to read about crime, then I am going to have images that would suit that audience. For example, if the article was about a thief, then I would use an image of the thief so that the audience were aware of who the suspect is. I will take into account the use of the Guttenberg principle and the rule of thirds so that the images look as professional and sophisticated as possible for the audience.

Alix KellyA2 MediaMarket Research Analysis