The Hampshire Chronicle is a local newspaper, currently based in Winchester and cover local news throughout Hampshire. The first ever edition of the newspaper was published in 1772 and makes this one of the oldest publications to still exist in England, (we are talking around 230 years!)
When the newspaper first emerged, it was based in Southampton but moved to its current home of Winchester in 1778. It began primarily focusing on both national and international news as it was produced at a time when national newspaper created in London were difficult to transport to Southern England and in particular parts of Hampshire. James Linden was the founder of The Hampshire Chronicle.
Being a local newspaper, it is published weekly and a new edition is available for purchase every Thursday.
The Hampshire Chronicle's layout remains consistent each week and consists of three main sections:
There is always a large broadsheet section that dominates and covers local news, weather reports and sport coverage that has been taking place in the area. Secondly, also in broadsheet size, a property supplement is provided and it contains a range of houses available to buy or to let. Most of which, are very expensive and suggests that perhaps any regular readers of The Hampshire Chronicle would perhaps be wealthy enough to afford these types of properties. In addition to the two sections mentioned, there is a final supplement called '7 Days' and in contrary to the others, this is published in a tabloid format, perhaps targeted for a younger audience. This contains coverage on arts and entertainment, book and film reviews and any general activities happening in the local area that may be of interest. This is a more light hearted, opinionated supplement.
I managed to successfully retrieve the rate card belonging to The Hampshire Chronicle and found this very useful and interesting to look at. When I compared the gender of the readers of The Hampshire Chronicle, there was only a very slight difference in percentage with the ratio being 52 women : 48 men. However, the large difference occurred when looking at demographics. A ratio of 66 ABC1 : 34 C2DE shows a massive difference between the target audience. I also looked at who is more likely to read the newspaper in terms of age groups. Not surprisingly, those aged 55+ made up almost 30% of all readers, whilst those aged 25 - 34 made up the smallest proportion. I originally thought this was quite surprising as I would have naturally assumed (being a student myself) that people of my age up to early twenties would have been the people least likely to read this particular newspaper but having thought about this, it could be due to the property section. Students are always looking out for new potential homes in the forthcoming years so they may be taking an interest in that or of course the '7 Days' supplement which provides information on local entertainment and activities etc.
After having read several editions of The Hampshire Chronicle, I did notice a regular occurrence in its news agenda. There has very frequently been mentions of building plans, any planning applications that have been either rejected or granted from the local council, or in general anything that is likely to change Winchester in a dramatic way will usually appear in the Chronicle and will be across the front pages. This, I feel makes a direct connection to its target audience of people probably aged 55+ and who are likely to have lived in this area for a great deal of time and would have formed an opinion regarding any building plans.
In addition to this, The Hampshire Chronicle carries a strong sense of military connections throughout its news agenda, this is probably because Hampshire as a county is home to many army barracks. Aldershot is just one example. As people would be so familiar with army territory, it would perhaps be of interest to them to know what is happening within the forces. Aside from this, every week within The H Chronicle, Page 6 will contain a full page feature article which is usually related to the military or changes happening in Winchester. For example, a few weeks ago this page was devoted to Remembrance Sunday and showed interviews and photographs of people paying tributes to those who died during the World Wars.
I feel that I have enjoyed the time I have spent reading The Hampshire Chronicle but as I. am not a member of its target audience some areas are difficult to engage with as they are not appealing to me as both a young adult and a student of the university. This being the case, I am not sure I would read it for my own pleasure.
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