Convetions of a newspaper front cover

After researching via the Internet as well as looking at formats of newspaper front covers such as "The evening Ecko", i have found out the characteristics of a front cover of a local newspaper. my newspaper will have some of the following things;

• a Masthead (title)
• the date
• the price of the newspaper
• a main headline
• a image that links to the headline
• one or two more headlines
• generally a barcode
• columns of text

The newspaper industry is threatened by two developements; technology in the form of the internet and television and "freebie" local newspapers that undermine the community stronghold of the local paper. With this the public are beginning to realise that you can recieve news for free.

The UK Newspaper Market
UK newspapers are in decline, with most papaers experiencing either a fall in circulation or as a result of majaor strategies such as a "flattening out" of sales. The contributing factors being the internet, rolling 24 hour news, blogs and video journalism, and there is a widespread migration to online newspapers as a response. Othe than technology there are two other events which equally have a significant impact on the sales of newspapers: firstly, supermarkets and petrol stations sell newspapers reducing the amount of newspaper delivery from a local newsagent. A customer only picks up a newspaper only when out and about, it could be a different paper each day and in some days no papaer at all. Secondly, there is now a distribution of free newspapers on public transport and around city centres, which with the internet combine the expectation among the readership that news should be free.