Shropshire Star Analysis

The Shropshire Star is a regional newspaper published 6 days a week (Monday - Saturday) with a cover price, currently 42p. The Shropshire Star is sold at newsagents, garages, supermarkets and other convenience stores - it can also be delivered as part of a deal with newsagents. The date of the newspaper The newspaper edition I am analysing is Friday 24th February's County edition. In the UK, there are over 1,200 regional and local newspaper and associated with the papers are 1,600 websites. Local press is one of the most popular forms of news, read by over 33 million people a week, with around 42 million unique users reading and relying upon their local newspaper websites a month. On average, 6,000 newspapers are purchased per minute. The Shropshire Star has been a pioneer of many new techniques and technologies in the past, pioneering colour, being one of the first local newspapers to go online, and the first newspapers to publish a colour photograph that was taken on the same day. With a boom in the advance of online technology in the past year, The Shropshire Star has spread online with digital formats of the newspaper, releasing a new version of it's websites and branching out into social networking with pages on Facebook and Twitter. The Shropshire Star also runs podcasts.

The owners of Shropshire Star are MNA (Midlands News Association), who also publish several other newspapers and have branched out into other media. MNA used to own local radios; Telford FM, The Severn and The Wyre until they were purchased by UTV as part of a cost cutting drive. These stations have been merged together with The Wolf, already owned by UTV, to form a new network of radio stations across the West Midlands known as "Signal 107", an extension of their Signal brand for South Cheshire. In total, MNA own 21 other newspapers across the country, including Market Drayton Advertiser, North Shropshire Chronicle and Telford Journal.

The Shropshire Star currently has a circulation of over 55 thousand, with the hotspots for sales in Telford (over 17000 daily), Shrewsbury (over 8000 daily) and Oswestry (over 3000 daily). Some areas have a higher household penetration (readership to household ratio) than other areas, for example, 30% of Shrewsbury Rural read The Shropshire Star, whereas only 20.59% of the households read the paper in Oswestry, depsite more sales.

The paper is slightly larger than a tabloid format, for example, The Sun, but substantially less than a broadsheet, such as The Guardian. It has a layout similar to that of a tabloid with Sans Serif fonts for headlines and titles. The majority of the paper is also printed in colour, which is something that may appeal when it comes to sales and advertising. The paper's format follos typical conventions of tabloid papers with plugs to entice readers to view more in the paper, advertising competitions, etc. and using columns for text. The text is also aligned to be justified, making the paper look slightly neater and less relaxed.

In terms of content for news, I would say that an advertisement to news ratio currently stands at 60% news, 40% advertising. The paper features full page spreads and classifieds which, in some editions, take a substantial amount of spread on the newspaper. As there are more county editions now, there is less local news to each area, so I would guess that out of the 60% news, 20% is international news, with another 20% of that national, and 60% local news. Typically, the local news is advertisements of events and occurrences that have happened in Shropshire. Photographs are usually used in The Shropshire Star as a means of advertising local news and events too and are taken by staff of the paper, whereas photographs for more national sections of the newspaper are usually purchased from outside companies, such as The Press Association. Unlike tabloids, pictures are not used as a means of insulting or demeaning celebrities or national figures, but instead used to back up honest and trustworthy news which is something The Shropshire Star is renowned for.

Content that excludes news in The Shropshire Star relies heavily upon local interest to. A feature known as 'Pictures from the Past' features a picture of a local area or event from the past often sent in by readers to enforce the symbiotic relationship between the paper and the editor. Another local feature of the paper is the radio listings for the local and national stations that broadcast in that area for stations such as Beacon/Free, BRMB, BBC Shropshire, Radio 1, and the stations the parent company used to own, The Severn & The Wyre. By promoting locality once more, it supports the unique selling point of the paper.

The content of The Shropshire Star is local rich, with advertisements primarily of local companies, schools, colleges, charities and events. The news tends to be light hearted, and what's considered 'good news', representing it's demographic and area in a positive light. Local media is considered to be important not only in MNA but to companies across the UK as a unique selling point. Over 30,000 people are employed in local media and 10,000 of those people are journalists. The Shropshire Star until recently had eight editions, which included North Shropshire, South Shropshire, late and early editions, etc. which helped to keep the paper local and true to it's area. Due to cost cutting drives, MNA axed many editions and as a result only has three. Local media (especially newspapers), is one of the most trusted mediums in the UK as the content typically supports the community it's targeting as a unique selling point, especially for the Shropshire Star. By having the values of the local community at heart helps to support the idea that The Shropshire Star is to be trusted. If it lost it's local values and bought in more national news and took political sides, it's likely that The Shropshire Star would loose audience and readership figures.

Photographs are usually used in The Shropshire Star to promote local events, news and competitions and are usually taken by in-house photographers for MNA media, however, when reporting on the national news, pap-shots purchased from the UK Press Association are usually included. This process is widely used not only in local media, but online media for sites such as Digital Spy, who employ freelance photographers and journalists. The Shropshire Star has heavily influenced national press and media through their use of photographs, being the first newspaper to publish a colour picture taken on the same day - a technique that is used without thought in the industry today.

The Shropshire Star uses a friendly mode of address that is direct and appealing to readers, especially for a local paper. The paper uses phrases such as "call your paper" and "here to help" to reinforce the idea of the locality behind the publication. The paper addresses content using simple syntax and vocabulary so that the publication can be read by a wider demographic, with an audience from different classes, ages and reading skills. Whilst having such simple language, the paper excels going into detail with such simple vocabulary, allowing readers to grasp the whole context around a feature. This once again backs up the local idea and the 'nice' feel of the paper, almost as if it's 'looking out for you'. The wide audience is reflected again in the number of supplements and features for different audiences. The Shropshire Star contains features and pull-outs for cars, schools, educations and properties, etc. so that the appeal to a wide demographic is maintained. The Shropshire Star uses language and content from the audience to represent the voice of the reader and community - such content includes local letters, classifieds, announcements (deaths, birthdays, anniversaries), and stories from the readership to once again back up the idea that the paper is looking out for the audience. Language is manipulated to make the community it's targeting seem caring and as if it's a pleasant environment. To show off the point that the publication is caring and looks out for it's community, The Shropshire Star contains a high percentage of light hearted, and often good, news - represented through it's use of language too. The paper is seen as pro-animal and child-centred, a likely appeal to mothers and children alike. The paper cleverly structures it's syntax and vocabulary in articles to seem independent of political bias - by taking sides with the mass community ideas, it once again supports the unique selling point that The Shropshire Star has to offer; locality. The Shropshire Star represents social groups such as ethnic minorities and the elderly in a positive light with news segments that congratulate couples on reaching 100 or victory over racial abuse.

The Shropshire Star is in competition with several different types of media in the Midlands area. It's challenged with the network of Midlands radio stations, Free Radio (previously Beacon, BRMB, Wyvern and Mercia), the stations it sold to UTV Media, The Severn & The Wyre (now Signal 107), local television such as BBC Midlands Today and ITV's Central Tonight, websites for the area (including their own as it's one of the fastest growing in the UK), other print media such as local papers (Market Drayton Advertiser), and national media, including print (Independant, The Sun), terrestrial and digital television and audio (podcasts, Radio 1, etc). The Shropshire Star appears to promote it's rivals with television and radio schedules in the paper, almost a sign of independence of the paper and how it doesn't care for it's competition - by appearing uncompetitive with it's rivals, the reputation of the paper is kept in tact.

The Shropshire Star has a website where limited version of their paper content are available. The majority of content is locally based, but the national stories are often cut down due to the sheer fact it can be found elsewhere. In terms of online access, The Shropshire Star also produces an interactive edition in an application for iPod, iPad and iPhone. Content is also published on their Twitter and Facebook page, suggesting that they're connecting with a younger audience.