Reader Response to Newspaper Front-page Format

Abstract

A study of responses to newspaper pages indicated that persons may make judgments about the entire newspaper on the basis of typography. Respondents were shown front pages from six newspapers they had not seen before and were asked to rate the newspapers on 20 semantic differential scales. There were significant differences between ratings of newspapers on 12 of the 20 scales. Respondents seemed to prefer horizontal pages and disliked symmetry.