The Shropshire Star is published in seven editions which are published daily throughout the week Monday to Saturday. The paper is distributed to different regions in the Midlands throughout the day, the paper is published in these locations: Midday, Powys, Oswestry, North Shropshire, South/Bridgnorth, Shrewsbury and Last, which primarily serves the Telford area.
What is the cover price - or is it a free paper?
The cover price for the Shropshire Star is 42p. However if you have the Shropshire Star delivered to you door for six days a week you will pay a reduced price on the cover price.
Where/How is it sold?
The Shropshire Star is sold in many news agents around Shropshire, Telford and Oswestry.
Which Edition is it?
The Shropshire star is a county edition paper it gives the news from all around Shropshire. There are three editions of the paper a county, border (Welsh border) and south.
Who is the owner? How many other papers do they own?
The Shropshire star is owned by the Midland news association, they also own the Shrewsbury Chronicle and the Halesowen Chronicle along with many more papers.
What is the circulation? What is the readership?
The average readership is mainly adults which is 223,000 (54%) which means that the Shropshire star s a popular magazine for most people, seeing it is sold to over half the overall readership.
Describe the format and print quality
The format of the text in the Shropshire star is in 'justified' spacing which is common for most newspapers. The font used for the paper is a basic san-serif font which is used in the majority of the paper because in the close spacing on the paper it is easy to read. The reason why justified is used to space out the text on the paper is because it makes the column look neat and simple to read. The print quality for the Shropshire star is great the paper is crispy so it dose not rip while turning a page, the print quality for the paper is expected from all papers the ink dose not run when your fingers rub against it.
Describe the proportion of advertisement, both Display and Classified
there are not as many advertisement as you would expect to be in a paper in the Shropshire star there are a few pages in the back of the paper for advertisements and about 2 others mixed into the others with full page advertisements.
Calculate the proportion of a) International news b) National news c) Local news
The proportion of the news in the Shropshire star is split up into International, National and Local and is split into by International 10%, National 20% and Local 80 %
What type of local news are included?
The local news that is included is anything ranging from local school sports teams to international news.
What sort of news values operate throughout?
The news values in the shropshire star are split between: Relevant, Immediacy (news stories that happened the day of publishing appearing in the newspaper) , Interest, Drama and Entertainment, the news values are what make up the Shropshire Star are what make up any newspaper each newspaper has a mix of the specific news values. the types of news that are reported are, Emergencies, Crime, Local/National Government, Pressure Groups, Industry, Health, Human Interest, Personalities and Sport.
How are photographs used?
Photographs are used to grab the readers attention to the stories that are most popular in the world, an example of this is on the front page of the 3/03/12 edition. The pictures are used to grab peoples attention to the story about Prince Harry touring england. The pictures are colourful and vibrant showing natural aspects of Prince Harry.
Look at the language (vocabulary, syntax and mode of address) - what does that say about the target audience and how dose it reflect the style of the paper?
The language used in the Shropshire Star gives me the impression that the target audience for the paper is the working class.
How are various social groups represented? Young people; ethnic minorities; the elderly for example? Explain how the representation is constructed. How dose it reflect the audience?
As a whole the social groups are not represented poorly in the Shropshire Star they do not target a certain social group, the Shropshire Star dose not show any biased views to any social group and never give an un-accurate statement.
What other elements make up this paper, eg letters page? Account for the inclusion of each.
The other elements that made up the Shropshire Star are, the classifieds where people in shropshire can put there own advertisement in the paper for people to view so the readership can see what people are selling and promoting. Horoscopes are also involved in the paper because most people enjoy reading their futures. Also included sports news for the majority of people who like to read about there sports teams. Lastly there is a TV guide showing the days TV listings from 4pm to 1am.
What is the competition for this paper - discuss all media. What are the relative benefits of each competitor and how are they met by your paper.
The competition for the Shropshire Star is mainly the Sun and the daily express are the main competition for the Shropshire star because the are both daily newspapers that have a large readership. Each of the papers have a large readership which comes from the aspects of each paper the sun is mainly a sports paper and the Daily Express is a news paper giving more than just local news. the main competition for the Shropshire Star is TV and radio news.
Do they have a website? If so describe the content.
The Shropshire Star website contains most the stories including sports, weather, adverts, videos, pictures and blogs.
Outline any digital versions of the Star
The only digital version i know of is the Shropshire Star app for iPod and iPad.
Can you get the news from the Star in any other format?
On the Shropshire Star website you can download an app for your iPod or iPad where you pay £1.59 per week and you get six days of the paper downloaded but the first week is free which gives you 6 papers.
Do the owners own any other media, eg radio/TV
MNA (Midlands News Association) own the Shropshire Star they used to operate a radio station in Shrewsbury and Worcestershire but as of December 2011 they were taken down, the stations were called The Severn and The Wyre.
