This document analyzes and compares the design elements of three regional newspapers: the Birmingham Post, Shropshire Star, and Telford Journal. It examines the logos, fonts, layouts, pictures and content of the front covers and inside pages. The author prefers the Birmingham Post logo but finds its tabloid layout and sensationalist content to be of poorer quality compared to the broadsheet-style Shropshire Star and Telford Journal. While all three papers rely heavily on advertisements, the author views the Post as lowest in writing quality and highest in bias, sensationalism and advertising relative to the other two regional broadsheets.

1. REGIONAL
NEWSPAPER
DESIGN
ANALYSIS

2. LOGOS
Colour: Regional papers to
use bright or pastel colours
as a background for their
logos, large, block white
text as the paper name,
with smaller coloured text
as part of the regional
name. There are often slight
drop shadows on the white
portion of the text. The
Birmingham Post logo is
quite different to the other
two logos, as it only has a
single colour for text.
The effect of this is that all 3
papers are visually distinct
at a distance before the
reader has been able to
discern what the logo
actually says, which is
attractive to both regular
readers and new ones
alike.
Fonts: Both the Shropshire star and the
Telford Journal use an emboldened sans
serif font for the large text, and, but differ
slightly in the locality font, with the
Shropshire star using a smaller serif font
rather than the Journals' font. The
Birmingham Post opts for a large, serif
font that would take up the entire top row
rather than more horizontally.
The effect of the Telford Journal and
Shropshire star fonts is that the papers
are easily recognisable as more tabloid
than broadsheet based, as the design is
shared with some tabloids such as The
Sun. The Birmingham post establishes
itself as more intelligent and thoughtful
broadsheet through it’s logo dessin.
Layout: Both the Shropshire
Star and the Telford Journal
and Shropshire Star use a
similar layout with the region in
smaller text above the paper’s
name, I don’t think this is a
good design choice, because
for example in a shop the
“Telford” or “Shropshire text
may not be readable from
across the shop, meaning they
may lose out on potential
customers.
My Thoughts: I much prefer
the Birmingham Post logo. I
find the colour much more
appealing as it does not have
the harshness of the Telford
Journal, nor the ugly yellows of
the Shropshire Star. I prefer the
font, as I find serifs more
representative of a ‘quality’
newspaper, as well as the
layout giving equal prominence
to both aspects of the logo is
better design.

3. COVER
Layout: Contrary to what I
originally thought of the
Birmingham Post, it is
actually a tabloid with a
rather cramped layout;
Almost 1/3rd of the vertical
space is adverts, with 50% of
the remaining space being
pictures. There is no actual
writing content on the front-
page at all, just straplines.
The Telford and Shropshire
more similar to eachother
than the Post. In the
Shropshire star, there is a
top-down hierarchy with the
main story at the top with
lesser stories below.
Contrarily, the Telford Journal
has headlines in the middle
with lesser stories expanding
outwardly. I prefer the
Shropshire Star’s to the other
2, it is a simple top-down
design and has a good
amount of content on the
front page, unlike the others
My thoughts: I think the
Birmingham Post’s is awful, so I
will not address it more here. In
all I prefer the Shropshire star,
as the layout makes more sense
in my mind, with the edges
reserved for advertisements and
content towards the centre. The
Telford Journals is odd and in
my opinion confusing with it’s
layout, so I prefer the Shropshire
star, although I still believe the
Birmingham Post’s logo is better,
as are it’s headlines. The Post
has too many pictures for me,
and not enough text compared
to the other two.
Fonts: Although the text is too small to
see here, all papers use a similar serif
font for the main body text, the main
difference is in the headlines. Both the
Telford Journal and Shropshire star
use exactly the same for headlines: A
large, blocky bold sans serif text which
creates a sense of urgency and
sensationalism, whereas the Post’s
fonts are a semibold serif font which is
more civilised or intelligent paper,
contrary to actual content. I prefer te
posts.
Pictures: The post has a massive
reliance on pictures, with almost all the
page being pictures. The other two
papers do not, with the pictures
supplementing stories which I prefer.

4. INSIDE PAGE
Layout: All of these papers use vastly different
layouts. The Birmingham post, which is the top-
right uses an almost magazine-esque style, with
an image taking up the top 1/3rd, then a title then
the text below it. This top-down hierarchy means
the reading experience for the reader is less
complex and more enjoyable.
The Shropshire star which is the top-
left is similar to it’s front page, it has a large title
page with a main story, with surrounding stories
being small columns. This design is useful for
presenting a large amount of information quickly,
but in my opinion the design is cluttered and
unappealing. The Telford Journal(bottom) is like a
cross between the other two. It has 2 main
stories, each with an attached picture.
My Thoughts: In this case I prefer the
Birmingham post, as in my opinion the design is
more concise and modern than the cluttered
design of the other 2 papers. In practice I will
likely go for something closer to the Telford
Journal however, as the Birmingham Post is not
similar enough to a traditional newspaper to be
accurate to my brief.

5. CONTENT
My Thoughts: I will always prefer
broadsheet journalism to tabloid
journalism. I have a strong dislike
of tabloids, and as such prefer
broadsheets. In this case I prefer
the Telford Journal, as it’s stories
are more interesting in my view,
but this does not matter as much
as the actual style of content
itself.
Tabloids: The Birmingham post
is a tabloid, as the headlines are
sensational “3m stock for £1” is
an inflammatory headline
designed to have the reader buy
the paper just for that story, rather
than actual insightful content in
the form of proper journalism.
Tabloids are marked by
inflammatory headlines, low
reading age and strong bias.
Broadsheets: The Shropshire Star and Telford Journal both seem to
be broadsheets, compared to the Post. This type of paper is often less
biased than tabloids, and contain a higher reading level and more
investigative journalism. They are still biased and often contain non-
stories, as a daily paper may not have enough content to fill all of it’s
pages. Broadsheets often have more writing on a page than Tabloids,
as you can see with the two papers that are not the post.
All: All papers have significant ad space, which is how these papers
help keep the cost of the papers low. The amount of ad space
changes on depending on the style of paper, for example tabloids
have more significant ad space than broadsheets, which make more
room for writing, again identifying the change in quality.