JR 601. Front pages of two newspapers
I chose to compare a newspaper from Canada, The Chronicle Herald, and a newspaper from Northern Ireland, The Irish Times. The first newspaper has four columns and covers Nova Scotia, a region in northeastern Canada with a population of 913,000. The second newspaper is a broadsheet that targets 1.8 million people in Northern Ireland, a part of the British Commonwealth. Both front pages dated October 28, 2012.
The Irish Times is a diverse newspaper, covering local and international issues. The Chronicle Herald focuses more on local Nova Scotia issues and less on trending international topics, except in the area of entertainment.
The Irish Times’ front page from October 28 highlights one international issue (“Berlusconi sentenced to one year in jail for tax evasion”), one regional issue (“Closure of over 1200 public nursing home beds criticized”) and one local issue (“Mother of autistic boys tracks stolen car through social media”). The most favorable place on the front page is for the Berlusconi article in the top-left, but the nursing beds article is featured alongside a photo, which defines the editors’ priorities. The story on the mother and the stolen car is placed at the bottom of front page, close to the ads. On October 28, The Irish Times came out as a Weekend Edition. The appearance of a political issue on its front page shows the editors’ strong interest in international affairs, since they recommend it for weekend reading.
The Chronicle Herald’s preferences for a main article looks very strange from the point of view of a Boston resident. Half of its front page is devoted to Hol-Con, a comic book and fantasy convention for 6,000 participants in Halifax. It shows the complete interest of the editors in local issues and not in political ones. The only piece of international coverage appears in a small note on the release of the new James Bond movie.
“Sparks fly over NSP audit” is a second big article on the front page that disputes the tensions of choosing a consultant for the audit of a Nova Scotia energy company. Energy issues, in particular about building a new gas terminal, is discussed in another article, “LNG plan gives Goldboro families hope”. The last article on The Chronicle Herald’s front page discusses the fight of the hockey labor union against hockey club owners to improve labor conditions.
Design of newspapers: both newspapers use a lot of graphic content for their front page-each of them has a central photo. In my opinion, The Irish Times has a more sophisticated and professional design, as it also uses cartoons and emphasizes minor headlines in red. The design of The Chronicle Herald is simpler, but it also has great vertical lines to highlight the division of articles.
Ads: The Irish Times has one big 3:6 ad from Vodafone mobile operator and The Chronicle Herald has two different 2:4 ads from a travel agency and a hotel in the bottom of its front page.
