Primary Research

I composed a questionnaire to try to find out aspects about my intended audience.

Some of the things I found out were:
- that my audience are mostly above the age of 17 but below the age of 50 (but I pretty much knew this already)

- that local newspapers were quite popular, with most people answering the 'which paper(s) do you read' question with The Evening Post. The Times was the most frequently answered reply, although you expect something like this as it's a national paper compared to a regional newspaper like 'The Mercury' or maybe something even smaller like 'Gordano Living'.

- that when asked about which kind of adverts they prefer in a local newspaper, most people tend to like adverts that involve some sort of token that enables them to either buy something or get it at a reduced price. People also like adverts for small local businesses rather than for big businesses as it gives the smaller businesses a chance to get noticed by potential customers, as a lot of people from the nearby area tend to read their local papers.
Here's some examples of big businesses using voucher-style adverts to attract people:

Here's an example of a smaller business that would use their local paper to advertise to their target audience:



- that most people read the paper to be informed on local news and on what's happening in the local area, but also that after that, most people actually read the paper to find out more on sports news, whether it be general news, or sports news refined to their specific area.

- that most people would prefer the front page of their local newspaper to consist of either equal amounts of pictures and text, or for it to have slightly more text than pictures. This is expected as this is standard for most newspapers, both locally and nationally. Although, the text:picture ratio will differ quite substantially depending on which paper you are reading. For example, something like The Sun, which is pretty much a magazine in newspaper form will have a lot of big pictures and not too much text, because of the audience they are trying to appeal to. On the other hand, a newspaper like The Guardian will have a lot more text than pictures, as their readership are usually cleverer and generally have a higher attention span. The Guardian's font will also be smaller in order to fit more text in.

- that most people that I surveyed would prefer to pay less than 20p for a local newspaper, with a few people saying that they would pay between 36p-45p or 46p-60p. No people that I asked said that they would pay any more than 60p for a local newspaper, which is pretty much what I expected, although I had to include the option for 'more than £1' just in case somebody answered with it.