Newspapers contain many different types of content.

There are many different

types of news. Then there are editorials, features, articles, etc. in addition to the
text material, there are sizeable amount of visuals also. Newspapers are usually
divided into several segments for accommodating the wide variety of material.
First there is the front page. It is the window to a newspaper. So a lot of
importance is given to designing this page. The other important pages are the
editorial page and the sports pages. The other pages are business pages, pages for
local news, pages for regional news, pages for national news, pages for
international news. With increased emphasis on entertainment, there are leisure and
entertainment pages. Finally, there are the special pages that come daily,
weekly or fortnightly.
Front page of the newspaper
In the past, front-page makeup practice was very traditional. It was old-fashioned
and looked artificial and unattractive. Unfortunately, front-page makeup in the
earlier days was highly inflexible. The reasons behind this were unplanned and
haphazard placement of stories and photos, and non-adherence of any design
principle.
Modern front-page make up is highly functional, well-designed, attractive and very
flexible. The front page is the showcase of a newspaper. Thus it should be easy to
read, attractive and inviting. It should be orderly, and have a distinctive personality
of its own.
One way of getting a well-designed front page is to use the principle of artistic
dominance. Front page, being showcases; carry a lot of important stories, which
compete with each other for attention. This kind of a situation is confusing for the
readers. So the front page has to have a point of dominance. It could be a story,
with accompanying picture, or a group of similar stories clubbed together.
Dominance can be achieved by way of size, shape, and placement, etc.
Some basic guidelines for more readable front page include:
Creation of an open page with lot of white space between columns, between
stories, pictures, etc.
Using a news summary rather than having many small stories on the front
page
Making the bottom half as interesting as the top half by using larger
pictures, boxed stories, etc
Avoiding too many boxes, lines and other attention getting devices (like
asterix marks, screens, etc) that pull the reader’s away from the stories
Using clearer, easy-to-read typefaces
Incorporating a sense of freshness and vitality to the page by making small
changes to the basic format on different days
Creating an elegant but different look by having columns of different widths
Use of simpler nameplate