Portbury Hundred Closed

Portbury Hundred Closed

Hundreds of family members, held back for hours by a dangerous incident that caused the Portbury Hundred to close early on in the week due to freak weather.  After a day of constant heavy rain, a collision between two cars took place on Portisheads main way of entrance and exit. As the Portbury Hundred is one of four escapes to Bristol, it was obvious that at rush hour the road would be packed. However, no one could depend on the evenings traffic. The accident happened at 7o'clock in the evening, peak time for traffic. It had been stormy weather through out the day, when a red fiat, carrying one passenger hit straight on into a white honda. The accident caused so much chaos that the police had to shut the road throughout the night, so that they could clean up the damage and have the road clear by the following morning. The passengers in both cars, were moderately injured and are now at Frenchay Hospital recovering physically and mentally.

This is the first draft of my second story for my front page. In my lesson I will try to edit it in to my actual page to see if it fits. If not I will have to shorten it so that it is more suitable for my newspaper.  

Changing My Story

I first decided to have my second cover story as "Battery Point To Be Closed" so that it is slightly linked to my main cover story for conventionality, however I began to believe that this would make it too focused on Battery Point and this would disrupt the balance in stories, as my inside page is also about Two Teens Stuck In Mud. In conclusion to this thought, I have decided to change the second story on my cover, so that it doesn't link at all to the main cover story.

Recently the weather in the South West has been dramatic, especially surrounding Bristol. It has been a mixture of weather, including flooding. The Portbury Hundred is one of four ways in which Portishead citizens and tourists can come and go into the small town, when bad weather occurs it usually gets flooded and dangerous traffic begins. I think that this would be a suitable story for my second story as the readers can truly relate to the flooding as it is the main road getting from Portishead, into Bristol. My new second story will be called Portbury Hundred To Be Closed, although there isn't really a difference in the headline, apart from the location of the closure, I still think that this is appropriate headline as it is easy to understand and is direct as it tells the important information straight away.
For this story I also don't need to get a picture as it is just a short side story not the cover story. By not placing a photo with it, I think I have made certain that this will not distract my readers from the main cover story.

Battery Point To Be Closed

Battery Point To Be Closed, will be my second cover story, which will have less coverage as it isn't as much of a big story as Two Teens Stuck In Mud. To reassure that this will happen, I have place the second story on the right side of the page, whilst keeping the main cover story on the left third, which our eyes are naturally first drawn to as we read from left to right. Although I have given both stories similar amount of space on the front page, my cover story does go into more detail on to page two.
Battery Point To Be Closed will be linked to my main cover story as Battery Point in Portishead, is where the accident of the two teens happened and it is conventional as newspapers such as Evening Post also do this.

Planning my logo

I have adopted the same idea as Daily Post and Echo, of having a logo to represent my area of which I sell my newspaper to. Most newspapers have used a image which is significant to their location, such as Daily Post has a ship as its logo. This is because S.S Great Britain is a positively well known attraction in Bristol, which they are very proud of. It is also easily recognised by the community and universal, for tourists. This is similar to Echo, as it is sold in Liverpool and they use the lion which is also on their football team. This implies that the newspaper backs up their football team and is very supportive, which could relate to the Liverpool football fans, which love to read their local newspapers.

In my past post on my logo, I have written that I am going to incorporate the letters "PP" with a historical image, mainly because my masthead is "Portishead Post" so it can easily be recognised and linked together.
I have considered to use the same font as my masthead for the logo lettering, as you can see the image to the right, this is a mock up of what the lettering will look like.

The historical images I have considered to use are the Suspension bridge or the statue in Portishead Marina.
I didn't want to use the same idea as Daily Post, by using the S.S Great Britain, as I believe this will be making my newspaper too similar to it, which would cause my newspaper to have hardly any differentiation.

I have choose the suspension bridge as one of my choices for my logo image because it is very historical and applies very much to the whole Bristol community, not just Portishead. To get anywhere you would have to go along the bridge, so it is an important part of Bristol. It carries cars, lorries and motorbikes, it also has a cycle lane on the outside of the bridge, with a safety path. It opened in 1864 and is still going strong 147 years later, with a total of around 8,800 cars a day.







The image to the right is a picture of the statue which is on the Marina in Portishead, it is a recognised attraction, because of its location is also well-known and very often visited. The sculpture was built at the same time as when the restaurants, such as Bottleinos where created.





I have decided to use the marina statue because I think it appeals to my audience as they are Portishead citizens, whilst the Suspension bridge could appeal to a wider audience, such as the whole of Bristol. This would not work for my newspaper as I am only selling it in Portishead, not Bristol so by choosing the marina sculpture I know that I will be able to attract my main audience, being the Portishead community.

Two Teens Stuck In Mud: Updated

Second Draft:

Two Teens Stuck In Mud

Rescued by the local police and fire brigade, two teens got themselves into a sticky situation. Both boys, which cannot be named for legal reasons have been saved after indulging in too much alcohol and deciding to take a trip into the muddy Bristol Channel, near Battery Point.

P.C Knowland, aged 49, was the first officer on scene, who told us that "when I asked for their explanation on what was going on it was apparent that a heavy amount of alcohol had been consumed as we couldn't easily understand them and they slurred their words." When P.C Knowland and other officers tried to figure out a way in which they could pull the boys out, it quickly came apparent that they needed help.

The fire-fighters where able to drag the boys from the thick mess simply by using man strength and the hose from the trusty fire engine. "We were called to the scene but by the time we had got there it was clear that they needed further assistance, and this is when we knew we had to take action." Said the head fire fighter, Paul Mcgreedy. 

"If the youths were sober, we probably could have got them out much sooner and with less hassle."As the two boys did cause a lot of commotion that night, we do know that they're save with their friends and family now.

What all started out as a summer evening trip down to the local lake grounds of Portishead turned into a dangerous accident which could have been fatal, because of the effects of drinking alcohol.

 P.C Knowland told us that "It started out as a group of five youths, enjoying their evening with a few bottles of wine, until two of the members decided to carry on drinking so bought some supermarket vodka, which lead us to believe this is how they became more reckless and intoxicated then the other three."

Once P.C Knowland and the rest of the team had released the teens from the mud, covered in muck, still slightly intoxicated and in shock, the boys returned to their friends and family on the sea wall and hosed themselves off.

 The parents said: "We thank the local police and fire brigade for saving our children and getting them back to us safely, they wont be going out unsupervised until they're 20." 

Two Teens Stuck In Mud

Firstly, I have decided to change my headline from "Two Local Teens Stuck In The Mud" to simply, "Two Teens Stuck In Mud" as I believe by keeping it shorts it will keep the attention of the reader. I also think that this is more of a catchy headline then my first thought.

Two Teens Stuck In Mud

The Story:

In the early hours of the evening this summer, a few youths decided to take advantage of the heat and take a trip down to the local lake grounds of Portishead. Although the park was created for little children and families, the juveniles didn't go to play on the swings and slide, they wanted to get up to mischief, hangout and drink alcoholic beverages. As it began to get later and the amount of alcohol decreased, the teens thought that it would be a fun idea to take a giddy walk along the stony beach.

A group of five clumped together, falling and laughing as they stumbled towards the beach stairs. Wanting just to make a small fire and sit around it, three of them stayed. Whilst two of the boys decided to play a game of manhood and ran towards the sea, ignoring all urgent signs, which they would have acknowledged if sober. Expecting the beach to be full of sand and sea the two fell straight into the thick mud. By the time they had hit the mud, their drunken bodies where too numb to realise that the stiff muck had locked around their thighs. Suddenly one felt that they where getting dragged behind and that it was rising to their stomachs. Now, not being able to move their intoxicated minds realised what they had gotten themselves into and they began to panic.
The rest of the group where evoked when they finally heard the slurred yells from the dark and started to walk towards the voices. At first they did not know that it was their two lost members until they shouted their names and that they where stuck. The two boys could feel themselves getting pulled slowly by the mud, although it would be best not to be distressed they became to struggle. It wasn't long after 11pm when the three others alerted the police as the two male teenagers called out in the darkness. Although the shouts where unclear it was obvious that they were afraid and unable to get back to safety, as a large crowd of other teens gathered.
P.C Knowland was the officer which answered the call at 11:10pm from a nervous sixteen year old girl, claiming that two of her friends had gone into the mud on Portishead sea front. The group of three stayed waiting for P.C Knowland to arrive with other members of the team. At 11:15pm, P.C Knowland started to interrogate the youths on how this incident happened. This is when it first came apparent that alcohol had been consumed, as they weren't easily understood and their explanations of what had happened so far where not clear.
 The other police officer gave her attention to the two boys in the mud. She asked them a series of questions, including their names, who to contact and skimming how they got there. It was obvious to the female police officer that the boys where frightened and intoxicated, this is when she first thought it would probably be the best idea to get reinforcements to try to get the boys out and to safety. The police decided to call in the local fire brigade. Although there was not a lot of equipment used to detach the teens from the mud, the fire-fighters where able to drag the boys from the thick mess by simply using man strength and the hose from the fire truck. Once out of the death trap covered in mud, still slightly intoxicated and in shock the boys returned to their friends and family on the sea wall and hosed off.


Soon after reading other newspapers I found that the start begins with the end. In my newspaper story I have written it more in a novel structure, as though I am writing a story rather then telling important news. In my next media lesson I will have to change around the layout of my story so it sounds more like a newspaper rather then a novel.

Slogan For Front Page

For my newspaper I decided to cut my masthead in half, on two different lines, then to have my logo on the left side on level with "Post". However, I then found that it made my masthead look unequal. To prevent this I thought that putting a slogan on the opposite side of my masthead to the logo will help balance it out.
The Evening Posts slogan is, "Tomorrow News Today" Implies that the newspaper has got the most up to date news which you can get now, it also makes it feel as though they have got it from the future which makes it feel magic and has a source of power.

Ideas for my slogan:

• "Presenting the best news"
• "Reporting local news"
• "The daily dairy of Portishead"
• "News you can use"
• "Where local news comes first"
• "News to the community" 

Out of all of the above, I have chose "News you can use" as I like that it has a rhyme which makes it more fun and welcoming to the reader.