This document summarizes the results of a market research questionnaire conducted to inform the development of a new local newspaper. Key findings include: - The target audience should be males and females aged 25-40, as this age group is most active in reading local newspapers. - While tabloids are popular with younger readers, a broadsheet format with some informal, tabloid-style elements would appeal more broadly. - Articles on local/international news are most interesting, especially to older readers who currently read local papers. - The newspaper should be priced around 40p, as most respondents said they would pay between 30-50p.

1. Market Research Report
The purpose of my questionnaire was to find out information about the target audience of the
newspaper I will conduct. I wanted to gather information on what my newspaper should include
how it should look and what things I would need to make sure I included so it would sell.
How old are you?
I tried to distribute my questionnaire evenly through
10 to 16
different age groups so I would gain unbiased results.
17 to 25 I think as many different ages buy newspapers it
26 to 35 would be beneficial to gain information from all age
36 to 45 groups.
46 to 55
56+
What is your
gender? I tried to ask an equal amount of people from each
gender to get a balanced view on what would be best
to include in my newspaper. Together with the
question on age, I can now come up with a brief idea
of who my target audience should be.
Male
Female
What is your
I wanted to ask a balanced number of employment to
employment? gather results from which I could make a newspaper
which could apply to people on all levels of
Full time employment. I also wanted to know the employment
level to see what type of profession regular
Part time newspaper readers are in as I could use this to adhere
my results to this group of people.
Unemployed

2. What is your
household income? Household income was a question I asked to see
what type of target population I would be
applying my results to. From knowing the
£0,000-
10,000 household income I can gather some
£10,001- information about what these kinds of people
20,000 would want to see in the newspaper.
£20,001-
30,000
£30,001-
40,000
£40,001+
How often do you
buy newspapers? I asked how often people buy newspapers to
decide how often my newspaper would be sold.
Never
This data shows me that most people like to
buy newspapers once a week, with some even
Few times a
buying two or more. This shows me that
year
releasing a weekly newspaper would probably
Once a
be best.
month
Once a
week
2+ a week
Which type of
newspaper do you I asked this question because I wanted to gather
prefer to read? information about which style of newspaper is
more popular. I could also look at this correlated
with other information such as age and gender
to see which type of person I should be
targeting my newspaper to. From this
Broadsheet
information I can see that younger people prefer
Tabloid to read tabloid magazines and these readers are
mostly female.

3. Do you read your
I asked this question as I wanted to see what age
local newspaper? group correlated with reading their local newspaper,
as I will be making a local newspaper I wanted to know
more of what my target audience would be. It showed
that the age groups of 26+ read their local newspapers
Yes whereas the younger group didn’t. It also showed an
equal amount of males/females who read local
No
newspapers.
What is the name of your
local newspaper?
Manchester
By knowing the name of the local newspapers my
Evening News
population know of, I could then identify with the
Salford above question which of these newspapers were read
Advertiser
and not just heard of. From this I can look at the most
Oldham popular, known and actually read newspapers and try
Advertiser to take inspiration from them for my own newspaper.
Manchester The Manchester evening news and the Metro were
Metro the most read.
Manchester
Guardian
How much would
you spend on a This chart shows me that most people would pay 30-
newspaper? 50p for a newspaper but some wouldn’t mind going
higher. This means I can use this information to settle
on a middle price of 40p. This is also an average price
10-20p for a newspaper.
30-50p
60-80p
90p-£1.00
Over a £1.00

4. What type of
article interests
These results from this question help me to decide
you the most? which type of article I want to include in my newspaper.
By correlating these results with the age/gender/who
actually read their local papers I can see that the most
News beneficial subject to write an article on would be
Sport local/international news.
Fashion
Celebrity
This research has helped me decide that my target audience should be both male and females and
of the age group 25+. Mostly I will direct my newspaper towards 25-40 year olds as I have found this
particular age group are more active in buying/reading newspapers – especially local ones. Before I
did my research I was leaning towards creating a tabloid newspaper but due to these results I think
making a broadsheet newspaper but subverting this slightly by including a few tabloid type effects
(such as not so formal language) will be more successful.
Using Bulmer & Katz uses and gratifications theory, I believe through the use of shocking words or
imagery on the front of my newspaper it would surprise/ divert the audience enough to forget about
daily routine and problems. Personal relationships could be identified through the words in the
article – also with personal identity – as the article could be about something the audience agree on
the viewpoint with. This could be either because of personal relationships or because they agree
with the articles opinion. In terms of surveillance, the audience can see advertisements on the front
page of my magazine which may give them information. Also, the images I use may give them
information for example images of females with a certain haircut may make them see that haircut as
in fashion and copy it.