Heart campaign revisted by Echo

Many people I have worked for will know my colleague and friend Mike Brough. He is a first rate designer and graphic artist who I have known for more than 25 years. Together we have redesigned more than 80 newspapers and magazines and Mike regularly delivers sessions on our training courses. In the summer Mike had a heart attack while playing football at Darlington's Dolphin Centre. His life was saved because, having left the centre after the game, he had the presence of mind to return. The centre had a defibrillator and trained staff and within two hours Mike was sitting up in a hospital bed, stents fitted. Mike, 51, is now back at work and fully recovered. On the back of his experience The Northern Echo, where Mike and I first met, launches a campaign tomorrow for more life-saving defibrillators in gyms and in public places. A poll by the paper revealed that 80 per cent of private gyms do not have one. As part of the campaign the Echo has bought its own defibrillator and is training staff to use it. It is not the first time the paper has campaigned for better heart care. Twelve years ago, it launched its A Chance To Live campaign aimed at cutting the waiting times for heart bypass surgery. It followed the death at 38 of another friend and colleague, Ian Weir. Ian, the father of two young boys, was a brilliant photographer, (he took the pictures at my wedding) who died of a second heart attack after waiting nearly eight months for a triple bypass. The campaign helped persuade the Government to bring British waiting times in line with the rest of Europe. Well done to Echo editor Peter Barron for, once again, throwing his paper's weight behind the critical issue of improving heart care. And well done to Mike, who has just been given the all-clear to grace the five-a-side court again.

Go safe - farewell to our Nigerian friends

With the designers at the start of the course

Mike with designer Akila

Mike with the design team

Photography specialist Alun John

Mike at work

I said goodbye to nine Nigerian newspaper designers and editors today. They flew back to Abuja after two weeks at the Press Association offices in London where we have been helping them redesign the Trust titles. They had sessions with picture specialist Alun John, software training with Ti Majek and four intensive hands-on design days with Mike Brough. Their first week was seriously disturbed by news from back home that a bomb had gone off at neighbouring newspaper Thisday, and nine people were killed. It emerged later that Nigerian newspapers and their journalists are now targets of the sect Boko Haram. In a remarkable video, posted on YouTube after the attack, an anonymous man lists 11 newspapers and puts them in three risk categories. He says Thisday, in Category 1, was attacked for publishing 'inaccurate and biased information' about Boko Haram. The Daily Trust is in Category 3 and has been warned it will be targeted unless it stops publishing 'falsehood' about the sect. It certainly puts some of the issues we are facing in UK newspapers in perspective. Despite the worries about what was going on at home, the nine enjoyed their London stay, were great company and produced some exceptionally good pages. I wish them a safe return and look forward to the next time. 

Footballing weekend pays off

It's been a real footballing weekend for me ... working with Allan Prosser, Mike Brough and Paul Wick to produce a 56-page Champions Full Time supplement for the Irish Examiner. It is published today, free with the paper. Great fun to do but I could have done without the relegation issues on Sunday. I had taken a gamble that Wigan would go down and Birmingham would stay up, so apart from updating every Premier League club's page I had to set about on two major rewrites. Then Carlo Ancelotti was sacked. We made the deadline though. It marks another fantastic commitment by the Examiner to sports coverage. The supplement  includes a club by club analysis, the best quotes, the top 20 goals, the worst fouls and howlers and a 12-page Champions League preview. It's a great read. Above are a few pages, including the cover and my review Newcastle's season. If you are a footballer fan, try to get hold of a copy. I can guarantee it will be worth it.

Fresh look for Highland newspapers

The old versions are on the left, the new on the right

The new-look Inverness Courier and Highland News series were rolled out this week. My colleague Mike Brough and I have been working with the staff at both titles to modernise the papers while ensuring their character remains undiluted. The changes have rightly been subtle. The bi-weekly Courier's script titlepiece has been turned solid and made bolder, the display typography has been changed from Dutch to Utopia Bold, the body copy made more readable, new artwork and a colour palette have been introduced and the paper is now an eight column broadsheet rather than ten-column. The red-top Highland News, North Star and Lochaber News also had a revamp, including a change to their slab-serif titlepiece. These were really 'reviews' rather than full scale redesigns. We concentrated on making the papers more readable and structured while retaining their traditional quirks and charm. It was great fun to be working simultaneously on an understated and traditional serif broadsheet and a full-on red-top tabloid. It was also rewarding to work alongside committed journalists turning out great papers that really matter to their communities and a management team looking to expand rather than contract.  

Editorial director David Bourn, former editor at the Evening News in Norwich and deputy editor of the Hull Daily Mail, is pleased with the changes. He said: “We were faced with the difficult task of freshening up the papers, giving them a cleaner, more logical and contemporary layout without losing the brand values and there is no doubt that Peter and his team have managed this – and some!
"Now we plan to do the same thing with the rest of the papers in our stable and, having seen the results of the redesigns of the Inverness Courier and Highland News series, the rest of our editors just can’t wait.”
Looks like we will be heading back, which is good news for Mike and me as the Scottish Highlands are a fantastic place to work and the views over the Moray Firth are probably the best from any newspaper office in Britain. The pubs (particularly The Castle, where many creative discussions took place) aren't half bad either.

Gunners missing a gladiator

Enjoyed putting together the Irish Examiner's 32-page Champions League curtainraiser with colleagues Mike Brough and Paul Wick. Fantastic sporting commitment again from the paper. I was really pleased with the cover - but finding a gladiatorial Englishman from each of our Champions League club's was a tall order, especially after Defoe was laid low. Arsenal was particularly tough, as you might imagine. Most pictures of Theo Walcott are more gladioli than gladiator. Great cover by Paul though ... and a really good read once more by the Examiner.