Journalism Now Article: The features and format of the i newspaper

@TheIPaper
i is a new kind of newspaper, aiming to provide readers with an entertaining and concise daily briefing for just 20p on weekdays and 30p on Saturday
 (Description quoted from their Twitter Page)

The 'i' paper is Britain’s only concise quality newspaper; its format and style is distinct from any other newspaper. The layout presents a very modern and interactive approach, similar to the latest technology of an iPad. The 'i' is divided into six colour co-ordinated sections: news, views, TV, IQ, Business and Sport. Although it is a compact version of ‘The Independent’ newspaper it covers a large scope, supplying the reader with an informative daily briefing. This is extremely useful for those who want to keep up to date with current affairs, despite battling their busy schedules. 

There are many features within the ‘i’ whereby dedicated readers will be able to instantly know where to retrieve information on their interests. This is because the page formatting of every edition of the paper is identical. An exclusive feature to the 'i' is the matrices, such as: ‘The News Matrix’, ‘The Opinion Matrix’, ‘The Business Matrix’ and ‘The Sport Matrix’. These provide the reader with a summary of the day’s current news within that genre, whereby each story is sectioned off into a box format; creating the illusion that you can interact with it and slide them around as though you would with an iPad. It has been advertised on ‘The Independent’ website that the ‘i’ is available for download on the iPad, this shows that they have collaborated with the ‘apple’ market and intentionally created a paper which appears as an interactive representation. In the iPad advertisement the ‘i’ is described as: “Digestible, Portable, Indispensible”, this is an appealing concept for an audience of iPad owners or travellers.

The feature found on page 24 is ‘Panorama - around the world in 10 stories’, this is another unique element to the ‘i’, it brings to light key stories from all over the world. Once again this relates back to the brief and interactive box layout, where the stories are straight to the point. There are other features in the ‘i’ which encourage the use of technology, there is a section titled ‘@i’, which engages with the readers to text, tweet or email in their views with the potentiality of them being published. In addition, the ‘i*spy’ feature which is categorised into two sections: ‘blogosphere’ which provides readers with an insight in to a newsworthy blog post and ‘Twittersphere’ which publishes popular or interesting tweets from MPs, editors, consultants etc. 

There is a clear distinction to the reader between fact and opinion. Compared to other newspapers, the ’i’ gives journalist’s views a grey shaded background. This has a similar resemblance to a speech bubble; reiterating the fact it is their opinion.

The last page of the paper is filled with games and puzzles; this offers an entertaining purpose, and is a light hearted way to end the paper. Conclusively, the ‘i’ is good value for money; it is packed with newsworthy stories. Although it is succinct, sensationalised media is minimal and the regular features keep you informed of news within the public interest. 

"Journalists are like Magpies, constantly looking for new shiny things"

I can now see why "clinic" is an appropriate name, with all us young journo's spread around the room with our heads buried in to our paper waiting in what felt like a doctors surgery. After listening to the Today programme on Radio 4, and taking a trip down to the hospital shop to buy a paper, I am pleased to say I followed Horrie's 8am lecture start instructions and for the first time I felt as though I had my eyes and ears fully open to the news.

This was one of the first lectures that I found directly related to Journalism, as a 'focus group' we discussed Audience and Agenda of each paper:

The Sun - "white man van", working class (Right Wing*)

Daily Mail - Regular men, 40+ middle class (Right Wing)

Independent - Male 30+ (Left wing* - liberal paper, the only paper which didn't have a poppy on, subtly symbolising that they are not telling you what to think - Locke would agree with his strong views on human nature and freedom)

The Times - Older males, upper class profession e.g Business man, Lawyer (Right Wing)

The Telegraph - aka "Tory-Graph" conservative paper, oldest readership (Right Wing)

The Guardian - previously classed as a university paper as many students read it (Left Wing) 

The Mirror - Females audience as many features geared towards fashion (Left Wing)

The Star - youngest readership

*Right Wing - Conservative, Fascism, Rich

*Left Wing - Communism, for the 'people'

To cut a long story short, look out for DFS adverts, the clue is behind advertisements, they are a key to the target audience of the paper. As we established today in our seminar, the difference in the price advertised for DFS adverts differs between each paper as it is targeted towards different readership classes. Evidently, the cheaper prices were published in The Mirror and The Sun ranging from £399-599, compared to the increased price of £899 in The Guardian. 

To be more technical, audiences are broken down in to different classes

A - Upper Middle Class

B - Middle Class

C1 - Lower Middle Class

C2 - Skilled Working Class

D - Working Class

E - Lowest Level 

[Broadsheets are in the ABC1 Bracket, and tabloids are in the C2DE bracket]

Yes, I would like to pass my degree...

Home sweet home: three blissful words. It's always nice to return home when you are greeted with open arms and the kettle is on the boil. Everyone is fussing over their 'baby' of the house, fattening me up with everything in sight. I have missed feeling healthy, drinking actual bottled water, and eating nutritious dinners with real tasting vegetables, rather then Iceland's £1 frozen vegetables. Fresh bed sheets on my sincerely missed double bed means I will definitely be sleeping like a starfish tonight, to take full advantage of leg room! It's hit home, literally, on how tired I am; falling asleep all the time... apart from getting overly excited to go shopping in Tkmaxx. (Any one from home who knows me will know that my sister and I used to practically live there till closing everyday!) I feel as though I have been on holiday this weekend, although I did feel guilty watching TV after Chris' talk on avoiding 'entertainment' shows. But, as it included a bit of Question Time (educational stuff) which was filmed in Winchester Cathedral I figured he would let me off. On the topic of TV, I'll make it clearer for you by explaining Chris's pet talk on how to pass our Degree.

The discussion on how to pass our degree took place during our introduction to the new module of our course: 'Journalism Now'. This entails news clinics where we have each been assigned a newspaper to religiously follow. In my instance I will be reading 'The Independent', (or the 'I') ready to inform the others in seminar group A.

Time to get technical - Newspaper Jargon:
The Standing Head - This is the head of the paper, or in this case the large 'i' in the top left hand corner
Modular - This is the layout of the newspaper, it is divided in to paras and smaller boxed sections
Linear - This is the layout of news on TV, new which follows on one thing after the other
Barkers - These are the features at the top of the newspaper
Leader Article - This is the article which is full of comment
Content - This is categorised by advertising and editorials

Remember- News is events led, Features are production led.

As we have been advised to only summarise on our blogs, I will briefly explain Horrie's top tips:
1. Most importantly, read read read read read read read read read! Newspapers should accompany you everywhere, this will show you how journalism is done as no one can teach you better then reading and analysing it for yourself.
2. Hide the remote, block all forms of TV out, including the BBC news for this term, as you are putting yourself in danger of Obesity. As mentioned earlier, this is an entertainment scheme, we must get used to the idea of educating ourselves through the medium of books, and listening to the radio.
3. Never be late, every second counts.
4. Always meet deadlines without fail. Imagine a line -------- if you cross it you are dead.

I guess if you do not follow these tips you will end up obese and dead - and obviously degreeless. (That will be my last 'witty' comment, as Chris already knows that we are cute, so from here on I will aim to be  informative. Starting with the time, the clocks have gone back an hour tonight, so enjoy your extra hour sleep everyone! Zzzz