Cracking Olympic farewell from Sindy

There have been some cracking front pages throughout the Olympics but this one from tomorrow's Independent on Sunday is as good as any. Nineteen images on one tabloid page ought to look a mess ... but it works brilliantly.

Footnote: Matt Chorley, who I first met when he was a trainee at the Editorial Centre in Hastings ten years ago, leaves the Sindy tonight to join Mail Online as political editor on Monday. "Thank you. It's been emotional," is the headline on his last front page. What a fitting way to send him off.

How The Times captured Olympic history

If you enjoyed The Times' Olympic wraps, then watch this excellent video on the thinking behind them and how the pictures were chosen.

How the regional press covered the Olympics

Well done to our newspapers during the Olympics. The coverage was generally positive, bold and confident. The Times led the way with its daily wraps but it wasn't just the national Press that pulled out the stops over the last fortnight. Here are some regional papers that caught the eye.

The Hull Daily Mail wraps it all up by focusing on gold medal boxer Luke Campbell

The Mail's good luck poster clearly had the desired effect

 The Northern Echo's Chris Booth captures Kat Copeland's gold winning face beautifully

The Echo uses a montage to sum up Super Saturday

The Press & Journal is happy to go gold and use poster fronts

Two stunning covers from the Western Morning News

The Gold top Ipswich Star throws its weight behind Team GB 

The Yorkshire Post and Evening Post celebrate Alistair Brownlee making history by winning Great Britain's 19th Gold medal and his brother Jonathan getting a bronze

 

Both Leeds-based papers also use big display to celebrate Nicola Adams, the first female boxer to become an Olympic champion

The Bristol Post finishes it all off with a special supplement

Over in Ireland the Belfast Telegraph enjoys the success of Coleraine

Also in Ireland, the Derry News supports triathlete Aileen Morrison with a headline borrowed from Dexy's Midnight Runners 

The Irish Examiner goes big front and back after boxer Katie Taylor became Ireland's only Gold medalist  

The Coventry Telegraph supports the women's football team when they played on home turf

The Liverpool Echo is one of many papers who adopted the wrap

The Echo uses a spread to profile Merseyside's 24 athletes in the games

Meanwhile the Echo's sister paper, the North Wales Daily Post, revels in the success of rower Tom James

A strong wrap from the Herald in Plymouth on Tom Daley 

An inside spread from The Herald

The Sunday Post is one of the few papers who opted for Mo Farah ahead of Jessica Ennis after Super Saturday

The Worcester News feels the pain of cyclist Jess Varnish after a botched changeover led to her disqualification

 The Gloucestershire Echo goes big on the rowing ....

 ... and has fashion fun with Bradley Wiggins's sideburns 

The Bishop Stortford Observer has a nice story on the actual siting of showjumper Ben Maher's golden post box

 The Bath Chronicle goes gold for Bath graduate Heather Stanning's rowing success

A Dorking Advertiser photographer talked his way on to balcony of a house to get this shot of the cyclists coming through the town   

The Hertfordshire Mercury celebrates the success of cyclist Laura Trott

The Reading Post opts for a montage

The Kent and Sussex Courier uses a wrap to say thanks to Kelly Holmes who got the Olympic Torch re-routed through Tonbridge

The Western Gazette revels in two gold medals for Sherborne

The Wokingham Times enjoys the success of doubles sculler Anna Watkins

An inside spread from the Sevenoaks Chronicle throws it all forward to look at the likely lads and lasses for Rio 2016

The Llanelli Star gets behind Dai Greene with a poster

All in all some powerful pages that show the Olympics were a local and regional, not just a national, event. They also show that creativity and passion is alive and well in the regional Press. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

 

Local newspapers show their Olympic style

I have looked in detail at the front pages of the nationals during the Olympics but the local papers are also using the Games to show what they can do.

Here is today's Cornishman, with a powerful wraparound. The front shows Helen Glover, born in Truro and educated in Penzance, with Heather Stanning on the back. None of the nationals splashed the picture of the Olympians in their boat, so this is a fresh, confident and up-to-the-minute approach by the weekly paper. Other weekly newspapers have also been keen to capitalise on the Olympic fervour. 

With 40 British athletes training in and around Bath, the Chronicle gave most of its news and sports pages to an Olympic special in the run-up to the Games. The front was winter Olympian Amy Williams with her face painted with the Union Flag.

Meanwhile the Kent and Sussex Courier featured pages and pages of Olympic logos designed by primary school children. As editor Ian Read says, some are better than the original. He will no doubt be hearing from Locog.

Any other regionals doing something special for the Olympics? Send your pages to petersands@mistral.co.uk and I will feature the best. 

Front pages raise their game

To the delight, and relief, of the nation Team GB picked up their first gold medals yesterday. So the newspapers, already big on display since the Olympics began, really had to pull out all the stops. But that's a tough call when you've used all the big design devices in the days before. So it was time to be radical - drop the headlines, change the titlepiece colour and wipe out the front pages with big pictures. Here's how they fared in the battle for attention on today's news-stands.

Headlines are clearly a problem, so the Daily Telegraph has decided simply not to bother. As newspapers no longer break the news, they sometimes have to try to capture a mood rather than tell a story, so I am not averse to having a page without a heading. I am not sure about the split vertical page though. It is usually preferable to choose one image and have the confidence to go for it. The split means that the paper has had to select a picture of the rowers standing rather than sitting in a boat. It's a good celebration picture but wouldn't the better crop be the one below? Certainly a different approach for the Telegraph though.

The Times' wraprounds have been a revelation ... bold and beautiful. The main problem with a wrap is choosing a picture that is worth wiping out page 1 but also has enough secondary information to make it worthwhile taking over the back.  So whereas the Telegraph paints itself into a vertical template, The Times needs a strong horizontal shot. So far it has chosen really well. Today's images presents the biggest challenge so far though. The paper, rightly, decides to go for the excellent picture of Wiggins by photographer Graham Hughes ... even though it has only one point of interest. It might be argued that the back page is a waste of space, although it does add context. A full page of blurred crowds, a quote (albeit a great one) and a barcode would, under normal conditions, be seen as indulgent. These are not normal conditions though - as illustrated by The Times using a gold titlepiece, changing its name to The Times of London and using a cryptic pun headline ... Mod rule (also in gold).  

The Independent also decides that it's fair game to change its titlepiece colour. On Saturday it used gold, today it looks more yellow but that could just be the PDF. I like it though. Newspaper fronts shouldn't look the same every day. The paper uses a classic Olympic picture - a British winner with a union flag drape - and the second straightest headline of the day.

The straightest headline goes to the Independent's sister paper the i. Like the Telegraph it goes for a 50/50 picture split - a horizontal one this time - which means one of the photos is forced into an inappropriate shape. The Wiggins picture just doesn't need all the background and cropping his hands off is a little strange. The crop on Helen Glover and Heather Stanning is strong though, which is probably why it takes the top of the page spot.

The Mail also goes for a split page ... with two strong pictures. The Wiggins photograph is almost comical - making him look more like a pantomime character than an Olympic champion. Like most other titles, the Mail struggles a little for an innovative headline. 'Golden Wonder' was The Sun's splash headline on Saturday. The Mail is the only paper to persist with its promo panels today. When is a woman at her sexiest and £5 off at M&S are classic Mail blurbs though. Should shift a few.

The Sun uses similar pictures to the Mail in similar positions. It's a little cluttered at the top but GOOOOOOOOOOLD! sums it up in a tabloidy way. This must be a world record for a one-word headline with the most number of ciphers (11). 

The Mirror goes for a Times' wraparound ... but decides the back page can't just be a fuzzy crowd shot, so adds a couple of tilted pictures.  'Gold rush' is a fairly predictable stock headline - it was used extensively four years ago. On the back page we have 'Day we rode and rowed into history', which is certainly original. Might have made the front.

 It's not often that the headline of the day goes to The Guardian ... but in one word it sums up the relief of the sporting nation. Nicely understated. I wonder if this could be the first time The Guardian has ever used an exclamation mark on its splash headline. Great picture ... a moment of triumph captured in Wiggins's face.

The Daily Express also uses "Gold rush'. On a day of amazing action three headshots across the top mean it's not just the headline that's a little static. Remarkably, the Express is the only paper (apart from the FT) not to splash on GB's two gold medals. I guess it will argue it knows its market. Mmmm! 

One of the best pages today though is this from The Times. A great shot with the headline 'Bradley Wiggins as seen by his rivals'. Underneath is a neat graphic showing just how far Wiggins was ahead.

Overall, a compelling set of pages using innovation and big display. It certainly has been a dynamic few days for UK newspapers. One contender for picture of the day that didn't make it on to any of the front pages, though, is this one of Boris stuck on a zipwire. Now that would have made an interesting wraparound ...  

     Thanks as always to @suttonnick #tomorrowspaperstoday