Masthead analysis



I have been analysing newspaper mastheads in order to understand what makes a masthead eye catching and able to draw the audience into buying the newspaper without being too off putting.

The colour scheme for ‘The Sun’ masthead is white text on a red background. This is an alternate colour scheme of the St George’s flag which represents England therefore it could be said that these colours have been selected in order to encourage people to buy the most “patriotic” newspaper that is portrayed as being the most British. These colours are also very eye catching as they stand out whereas other newspapers use just black and white on their masthead. The font used in the masthead is simple and clear to read making it easy to see from afar which will lure people to take a closer look and ultimately make them want to buy the newspaper. The simplicity of the font also reflects a lot about the actual newspaper as like its simple design, the overall vocabulary and articles featured in the newspaper aren’t very complex meaning they will appeal to a wider variety of people. The masthead design is kept in a rectangle with ‘Sun’ being written larger than ‘The’ to connote its importance and so it stands out making it the main focus, for people to know the name of the newspaper. I think that this masthead is well laid out as its kept simple in design yet remains eye catching and appealing.

The colour scheme for ‘The Guardian’ is blue text on a white background. This colour scheme is soft and still eye catching due to the colour on top of the white background. The font used on this masthead is an almost cursive style, the slight overhanging edges of the letters and the fact the whole masthead is in lower case connote that the newspaper is welcoming as it tries not to be brash and bold in order to be eye catching. It contrasts to ‘The Sun’ masthead by having softer colours that contrast each other less reflecting that the newspaper is also not complex and openly encourages a wider variety of people to read it. I think that this masthead is better than that of ‘The Sun’ because it’s a lot less “in your face” as its mellow colour pallet and casual text simply draw the eye yet it remains good to look at.

The colour scheme for the 'Halstead Gazette' is black and red text on a white background. This colour scheme is quite bold and stands out because of the harsh coloured text on a plain white background which, much like 'The Sun' makes it eye catching. The font used on this masthead is all in capitals which represents how the newspaper was meant to be eye catching and attractive people into picking the newspaper up. This masthead shares similar qualities to 'The Sun' as it uses bold colours in order to draw the audience's eye yet it goes one step further by making all its text in capitals so it stands out as much as possible. I would say this is quite a good masthead but I feel the text would look better in lower case.

The colour scheme for the 'Suffolk Free Press' is teal and black text on a white backgroud. Much like the 'Halstead Gazette' and 'The Guardian', the coloured text on a white background is slightly bold due to the colours leaping of the page to catch the eye of the audience however however its soft and mellow colours allow it to remain nice to look at. The font used in this masthead is a stylised one using thick and almost bubbly text to make the title seem nearly child like in design and friendly. 'Free Press' is written in a bigger size than 'Suffolk' as it neatly fits into the gap left between the lower case letters of 'Free Press' in order to symbolise its importance that its a free press which allows the voice of the public to be heard. 

The colour scheme for the 'Haverhill Echo' is red and black text on a white background similar to that of the 'Halstead Gazette'. As with most of the local newspapers this coloured text on a white background is likely to stand out and catch the eye of the audience yet remain ascetically pleasing. This masthead is different from the others as it uses two fonts, one on each of the words. 'Haverhill' is in a simple font with a lot of flat edges in order to keep the word in a rectangular shape so it will neatly fit into the gap left by the lower case letters of 'Echo' which has a smooth almost bubble like font. Although the word 'Echo' is written bigger than the word 'Haverhill' which connotes its more important as the echo of news travels around Haverhill through the newspaper.

The colour scheme for the 'Braintree and Witham Times' is green and black text on a background which is similar to the previous local newspaper mastheads I have analysed. This masthead uses a smart and almost cursive font as the way it is designed make it look like its classic and has been around for a long time. The word 'Times' is in full capitals as if to show its importance and represent it as news of the time. Furthermore, it is also bigger than 'Braintree and Witham' which are written smaller and to the side of 'Times'. This design is kept simple and ascetically pleasing by using subtle colours and keeping the text neat and compact in a rectangular fashion. This masthead is a good one because I think it gets across the idea its a local newspaper with the times and this will attract audiences into buying it.

My research into newspaper mastheads has given me a number of ideas I could incorporate when designing my own local newspaper masthead. From my research, I have found that local newspaper mastheads tend to use a similar colour scheme of having coloured text on a white background to make their mastheads stand out and catch the eye of the audience yet remain ascetically pleasing at the same time. Also, I discovered that the fonts used in local newspaper mastheads are predominantly simple ones that make the text large meaning they are clear and can clearly be read from a distance which again is going to attract the attention of the audience from afar. In conclusion, after researching newspaper mastheads I have gained information that will help me design my own simple masthead that incorporates all of these factors in order to market my local newspaper to the audience as successfully as possible.