My Newspapers

Due to being bored and not having much to do for a considerable amount of time each and every day, I buy many newspapers.

Daily (National)

The Sun: Yes the most well known tabloid newspaper in Britain, the original, the one everyone buys. The perfect combination of brief readable articles to celebrity gossip as well as the infamous ‘Page 3′ Girl! All of this makes a truly British newspaper? No, it is completely the opposite. The masthead and layout are pleasing to the eye which makes it easier to read.

Daily Express: This is the supposedly more upmarket version of The Sun but is actually a carbon copy, it has the same articles and sometimes the same images! The masthead and design/layout are boring to look at and puts me off reading it but I buy it as a companion prefers it to The Sun.

 

The Daily Telegraph: My favourite National Daily newspaper. Not only is it truly upmarket but provides lengthy article that you can read during the long afternoons while watching Countdown. Not many images but this is a price worth paying so we don’t have to read celebrity rubbish. The layout is hard to follow being a Broadsheet newspaper but Broadsheets are more British than the nasty american Tabloid of the new ‘Belinger’ formats so it is definately worth the inconvienience.

Regional, Daily

West Sussex Gazette: Yes I know I live in Hampshire but as this is a local broadsheet newspaper (a format which we should all be supporting) which covers many parts of the eastern most parts of Hampshire I thought I would give it a go. I also lets me see what people ‘across the border’ are getting up to.

 

The News (or as I still refer to it as – The Portsmouth Evening News): My local daily newspaper. As with all local newspapers across England it is normally full of pets in trouble and old ladies with short white hair scaling down the side of the local council offices. Occasiaonally it has marginally interesting stories such as bus news and building news. It has two editions – The Portsmouth Edition (although the masthead doesn’t mention this) and the Havant and Waterlooville edition. Very colourful which makes it easy to read. Also every thurdays you get a round up of the previous weeks news in a free newspaper called The Journal.

Regional, Weekly

Hampshire Chronicle: Yes the ultimate, the top dog, the superb newspaper. The best stories of the week from all over Hampshire. I only discovered this newspaper while searching Wikipedia, I never realised that the best newspaper in the world was right under my nose all these years! It is an English (my term for Broadsheet) newspaper and has the best combination of Lengthy articles and large images. Although it has some celebrity articles at least they are only related to local celebrities. Proper articles about Post Office closures etc and not Grannies scaling important buildings. Also isn’t that the best masthead you have ever seen? Real News, Real Newspaper, Real Layout, this is the Hampshire Chronicle!

Sitting On A Black Gold Mine

At long last my town has got in the national newspapers for a good reason for a change – I am living on top of a ‘Black Gold’ Mine! Leigh Park is sitting on potentially millions of barrels of oil. Of course, Leigh Park, supposedly famous for being a ‘chav town’, will reap in benefets from the oil rig set to be built within three years near the B&Q. Comparasoms have been made to that silly american import – Dallas. Hopefully no longer will Leigh Park be associated with ‘Chavs’, ‘Trackies’, ‘Yobs’ and ‘Hooligans’ and instead be famous for it’s high rise glass skyscrapers, modern luxury houses and apartments. Currently Leigh Park’s claim to fame is the fact it is the seventh largest council estate in Europe, once it was the biggest. It was created as an overspill for those people whose houses have been bombed during the WWII. The first completed house in Leigh Park was number 7 Bramdean Drive which still exists. It grew around the Dairy idustry but since this has declined in recent years most jobs are based in Portsmouth or the town of Havant. Of course none of this is guaranteed, if Northern Petroleum do not find any oil in the first four weeks, they will abandon the plan for a full sized oil rig. If they do, they will and Leigh Park will be subjected to constant noise from the Nodding Donkeys and the smell of oil will constantly be in the air, but will it be worth it for a better economy?

Read what ‘ChavTowns’ have to say about Leigh Park at the moment.

• http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=317
• http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1487