NEWSPAPER// Design Sprint day 1: Investigation.

Today we started with day 1 of the design sprint. This day is dedicated to 'Investigation'. Firstly we decided on the topics we wanted to cover and spent 10 minute sessions exploring each topic on rotation. This process allowed us to cover topics of interest and rotate back to the same topic at a later time to cover it again with new knowledge. This was a great way to keep the interest in the research section of our project interesting and to also drive the creative process onward as we were constantly moving forward.

1.Competitors
2.Online potential sources for articles
3.Newspaper layouts
4.Headlines
5.Funding modles
6.Who is the audience?
7.Which stories are popular?
8.Outlets
9.Categories of content online

1.
Most true satirical newspaper do not exist any more. Peaking in popularity in the late Victorian era. Examples of these include 'Punch', 'Diogenes' and 'Fun'.
Many of the more modern magazines tend to be student run and focus on life in campus. An example of this is 'Oxymoron' for Oxford.
The third category contains magazines that have main function that is supported by satire. For example the private eye is 50% investigative journalism and 50% satire. They focus on a primary goal that is supported by a sarcastic or satirical tone of voice.

2.
The Onion- Very focused on American politics and social life so only a few articles could apply for our criteria.

The Daily Mash- A very British version of satire with many in jokes. Mocks the delivery of tabloid papers so can at times be rather low brow. Covers broader subject matters.

The Faking News- Large satirical news site run by one of India's major news sources. Much more similar to The Onion in style, tone of voice and delivery but dealing almost exclusively in Indian news.

News Biscuit- The news before it happens. Another English satire site. Much more edgy than The Daily Mash, keeps up with current affairs but attacks them more directly. Longer articles.

The Framely Examiner- Satirical newspaper aimed at poking fun at provincial English town.

Ironic Times- Restricted to being only funny headlines.

Newsthump- A parody for BBC news website. Tone of voice similar to that of the Onion. Focuses on British life and politics with a few non specific, timeless, articles. Article length is longer than that of its contemporaries.

The Poke- Not as funny, mixes satirical with funny real news. A finer line between reality and satire.


3.
Private Eye
50% Investagative journalism.
50% Humour
£1.50
37 Pages

Yorkshire Post
70p
18 Pages
Huge format.

The Times
£1
"The 20 Best..." Articles.
Large scale ads on every page.
Metro format.

The Guardian
Large use of quotations.
Tall format. Berliner.
Mindful of the way you fold newspapers.
Superior layout design.

Somes ideas that sprung to min during this section included:
-Interactive news articles, involving the reader completing tasks realated to the story.
-Offensive picture join the dots.
-Satirical lotto ads: Live like an MP.
-The 20 best...
-Fake or satirical descriptions of the weather.
-Unrelated pictures describing situations. Pictures of frogs to describe the banking crisis.
-Design of paper involving the way we handle them. Having articles appear above or below the fold.
-National treasure inspired 'Keep Calm and...' section.

4.


5.
We identified 3 main sources of funding that would be viable for the size of our operation. Our preference for this brief is that we would like it to be economically viable, at least in theory. This is something that we will keep in mind for tomorrows stage.
-Ad funded.
-Community funded.
-Subscriptions.

6.
We started this section first thinking that we would be able to highlight the audience of satire itself. This was not possible and it became clear that the audience needs to be those who are already informed of the events that you are being satirical about. For example 'The Faking News' was impossible to understand for us due to our lack of Indian culture. We need to refine what our audience will know in advance of reading our paper.  Therefore newspaper need to provide satire which is relevant for a long time period, and covers broad topics that can be understood by a variety of people. Another important consideration is striking a balance between realism and art within the papers design.

7.
This is closely related to the points made in section 6. The popular stories are those which are best understood by the audience of that specific time and place. For example 10 years ago satire about Blair and Bush would have been very topical and popular, today these would have to be about Obama and Cameron. Currently this is the case, with a heavy emphasis on politics and social media.

8.
The outlets that caught our eyes were usually independent book and magazine shops that had a heavy emphasis on independent publications. These include:
-Village
-Checkthis.com
-Zine Fair.
-Magma
-Extra Bones
-The Old Sweet Shop
-No Guts No Glory
-Lik+Neon
-Bookartshop

9.
The content and topics that we found to be a popular target for satire and serious news online:
-Culture
-Crime
-Media
-World News
-Politics
-Agony Aunts
-Creatives
-Sports
-Health
-Celebrity
-Business
-Television/ Movies
-Internet
-Technology
-Horroscope
-Opinion Poll
-Letters to Editor
-Comic Strips
-Caption It competitions
-Quotes
-Bingo
-Lotto Ads
-National Tressures
-Spot the Difference
-Modern Art
-Additionally we like the idea of including an 'Internet section' were we could create satire of the way the internet would work in a printed format. This could include: URL's, Scroll Bars, Pages you can never reach, Loading icons, a cookies warning, hashtags, image sliders, pop-ups.


Tomorrow we begin day 2 of our design sprint with 4 options to consider going forward:
1) Source content form forums and online, we would curate the paper and aspire to sell it.
2) Ask large satire orgs for content in return for ad space and promotion.
3) Carry out No2 despite being told no and make the publication as a proposition piece only.
4) Write a shorter paper ourselves, with help from contributors.

Options 1,2 and 4 shows an amount of initiative on our part although the quality of the content may suffer, whereas the 3rd option would allow us to focus solely on the design and layout of the publication resulting in a slicker product with reduced personal input.

Plan for Day 2: RAPID IDEA GENERATION.

We will take into consideration what we have learnt today an begin to find solutions to the problems outlines. This will involve rapid idea generation, at the end of the day we should have a table full of possible solutions which we will pick apart and evaluate, picking the best to go forward with.