Front Cover Analysis

The front cover of any newspaper is imperative for a variety of reasons:

1. It is the first element of the newspaper that the target audience sees; therefore it has to grasp their attention, outline the main elements and components of the paper and highlight the content and style containesd.
2. It has to sell copies in order for the media outlet to be profitable, thus it must cover the world's news to a sufficient standard but also contain lighter reading for the audience - this must be evident on the front page.
3. The paper needs to be the preferred pick of the audience from other papers; hence, the design and layout of the front page is important to selling the newspaper. A neat, concise and clear layout is evident along with eye catching and entertaining images for the audience to digest and relate to.

The front cover has to instantly engage with the target audience; as the paper has such a broad audience there is a variety of topics and interests to cover. The scandal/main piece of breaking news dominates the front page - this highlights the world news; however, the picture based front cover uses a shocking or interesting image to draw attention and lead the readers to buy the paper.

Furthermore, the front page includes further features such as 'The Sun' logo, which dominates around a sixth of the page - this is then aligned with some sort of offer or feature for the audience to enage with. Features used vary from coups offers, discounts in shops, price reductions and vouchers to be redeemed. In addition to this, depending on the main article topic there is a small snippet of another headline article; possibly referring to sport or politics. 

These feature have a continuous theme of fonts, size and image use in order to maintain a constant theme. In order to recreate this style and layout formula I intend to have one large image dominating the front cover (approximately 80% of the page is image based) of a female celebrity 'caught out' in some sort of drug usage or alcohol abuse. In addition to this, I will layer a large headline over the image with a small, white textbox containing a snippet of the story. To fill the page down the left hand side of the page (similar to the paper on the right) I will have a long vertical preview of an article in the paper relating to a harder-hitting topic such as world politics or warfare. To finalise the page alongside the logo there will be some sort of redeemable voucher or coupon avaliable to the audience. This entices the audience into purchasing the paper and along with the shocking first image dominating the page this ties the paper together and adds a furtehr incentive to purchase. Ultimately, I intend to reproduce these elements of the paper in relation to a female celebrity drug/alcohol/sex scandal. This will reflect the codes and conventions of The Sun and enable muy production piece to have a relevant impact upon the target audience.