Six powerful regional newspaper front pages

I am looking forward to the Regional Press Awards next Friday ... a very rare chance to find so many colleagues and friends in the same place at the same time. One of my favourite awards is always the Front Page of the Year. Here are the pages on this year's shortlist.

The Belfast Telegraph uses a cracking picture taken during the loyalist protests last summer.

The Courier in Dundee goes for a wraparound with a really tight crop to celebrate Andy Murray winning Wimbledon.

The Manchester Evening News wipes out Page 1 with the last text that Lee Rigby sent home before he was butchered on the streets of London.

The North West Mail uses a mosaic of 1,200 local faces to create the picture of a baby to illustrate its campaign to keep a maternity hospital open.

The Northern Echo offers readers alternative front pages for the funeral of Margaret Thatcher. One shows tributes in London, the other former North-East miners condemning the woman they blame for blighting their communities. Both were on display and readers could choose.

The South Wales Echo runs a strong illustration expressing its view of the plans to change Cardiff City's name to the Cardiff Dragons.

Six very powerful pages that illustrate the creativity and passion that is prevalent in the regional Press. I certainly wouldn't like to pick one over the others. Who will win? All will be revealed next Friday. Hopefully, I will see some of you there.   

Catching up with cartoonist Cluff, a rare talent

I have finally caught up with one of my Christmas presents, Private Eye: A Cartoon History. It is a must-read book with real laugh-out-loud moments. There are almost 300 pages crammed with the works of the Eye’s greatest cartoonists including Ken Pyne, Ed McLachlan, Bill Tidy, Willie Rushton, Michael Heath, Tony Husband and, of course, the book’s editor Nick Newman. I was particularly pleased, though, to see the contributions from the excellent Cluff.  

In 1990, when I was at The Northern Echo, a mild-mannered council officer called John Longstaff came into the office to ask if the paper was interested in running a daily pocket cartoon. 

Cluff: John Longstaff

We gave him a go - and were blown away. Every night he would send over two or three cartoons, usually by fax. They were topical, waspish (occasionally too brutal for our sensitive readers) and always brilliant. John had that sideways look at life that separates the great cartoonists from the rest of us. He quickly became a daily feature on Page 1 and he has been in the paper each day ever since. Cluff, who took his name from a 60s' television series called Sergeant Cluff which starred Leslie Sands as Yorkshire Dales policeman, has his own section in the Eye book and there are 19 of his cartoons scattered around the pages. Here are a couple:

Reading the book prompted me to get in touch and discover, among other things, that John is an artist far beyond his cartoons. You can catch up with some of his other work here. 

This one in particular caught my eye - not least because the Britannia was the Echo journalists' pub back in the 80s. It was a joy to catch up with the man and his work. He also told me he is holding an exhibition in Darlington’s Crown Street Gallery in September. I might have to contrive to be up there. 

20 years in exile: My North-South divide

      

At the end of 1993, I said goodbye to the editorship of The Northern Echo and to my native North-East and hello to an editorial executive role in Westminster Press and to Sussex. Twenty year later, we are now adopted Southerners. The locals no longer ask if we keep coal in the bath and my grown-up children all talk with Southern accents. It has been a great move for us. There are more journalism opportunities in the South and our businesses, the Editorial Centre and SMS, have thrived. There is plenty we miss though - including the beer, the pease pudding, the countryside and the football. The question I am most asked is which do we prefer and would we ever move back. So to try to answers those and to mark 20 years in exile I wrote this piece for today's Northern Echo on our own North South divide.

Trevor Upton - the backbone of the subs' room

I am so saddened to hear of the death of my old Northern Echo colleague Trevor Upton. Trevor was already at the Echo - on his second stint - when I arrived in 1979 and he was there when I left as editor in 1993. It seemed he would be there forever, the backbone of the subs' room. When I joined the subs' table Trevor was a senior player, a veteran with Fleet Street experience, and I hung on his every word. He knew all about points and picas, he could rattle off broadsheet pages to fit perfectly, had a great eye for a picture (not least because he was also a trained photographer), could turn a badly written piece of copy around in minutes and he also knew how to deal with stroppy printers and precious news-editors. It was as a headline writer, though, that he was most impressive. He wrote some classics and was always willing to lend a hand if a young sub was struggling. I remember chief subbing the paper one night when a late story broke. A house had been wrecked by a gas explosion. The householder had found the leak and blocked it by carving a carrot to the exact size of the hole in the pipe. The gas built up behind the carrot and the whole thing went bang. We were on deadline and the subs were all desperately trying to think of a headline. There had to be something clever and witty. As they flicked through their thesauruses looking for puns (I think What's Up Doc? was even suggested), Trevor came in from the stone asking where the page was. I explained the story that was holding things up and, without pausing to think, he simply said: "The carrot that blew up a house." Genius. Trevor was a great character and a lovely man. I enjoyed many a break-time pint in the Red Lion or Golden Cock, listening to his newspaper stories and his wise words. He became assistant editor and remained the Echo's production mainstay until he retired in 2006. Trevor died in Darlington today, aged 69, after a short illness. He leaves wife Chris, daughters Alexandre, Stephanie and Caitlin and grandchildren, Freya, Tiggy, Ralph and Velvet. He also leaves behind some very sad former colleagues - and some vivid memories. 

David Kernek (formerly Flintham), who also worked with Trevor writes:

I worked with Trevor during my stints as deputy editor and, later, editor of The Northern Echo. I think he also had the burden of subbing some of the copy I bashed out during my years at the House of Commons as the Echo's political correspondent.

Despite the normal production pressures of getting the multi-edition Echo out every night - and often in later years the turmoil generated by worldview changes at Westminster Press, local NUJ issues, editorial department re-organization, and the press in York - Trevor was never less than calm, cheerful, constructive - in a low-key, London sort of way - and supportive. He was especially helpful when I tabled not widely welcomed proposals to align the shift hours of senior subs with those of the news desk. His copytasting instincts and Page 1 design skills were consummate.

David Kelly, retired, former managing editor of The Northern Echo and managing director of North of England Newspapers/ Newsquest North East, writes:

My time at The Northern Echo was more or less synchronous with Trevor's. His experience and skills were matched by his confidence in adding his view, full of experience, journalistic nous. His views were strong and clear - and mostly right!

He got on with stuff whether or not that was ensuring the last page was on time or checking the crossword grids.

We worked together through very good times and others that were rather more challenging - not least the performance of the press at York where, if we were not together in the office in the early hours, we were talking on the phone about what pages of editorial and advertising we had to dump.

We got our hands very dirty cranking up the redundant Darlington press (no printers!) to get out a paper when the York press completely failed (e.g. a General Election night), an experience that few journalists will have had. Trevor got lots of that - as did other journalists we had to ferry down to York to help bundle papers there. Those times were 'life or death' issues. Can you imagine if your daily paper had not appeared...? Not many production editors have had that experience and carried us through time after time.

I always felt the paper was safe in Trevor's hands: he only called in the small hours when he knew the issues were significant.  We had many small hours conversations...

Part of measuring any colleague is how they perform when stuff hits the fan. He was special.

Mostly I will miss him because we had an open and honest professional relationship, robust at times, but when he was there I felt the paper was secure. He always had Friday nights off... sleepless night for me!

Perhaps more than all that, we could be open and honest with each other.

His commitment - with dear and special, dedicated Chris - to his family was a remarkable example of huge commitment to their children and their families. That was/is formidable involving great sacrifice and financial commitment.

It was a delight that I finished up in a hilly village where one of Trevor and Chris's very special daughters lived. Both in retirement, Trevor and I would meet from time to time, chew a bit of cud.

In the different generations that make up the life of newspapers you come across some - and it is not a few - who are special to their time at that time. Trevor was certainly one of those. Pray for his family who have been robbed prematurely.

Trevor's funeral will be held at Newbiggin, Richmond, on Friday, August 30, at 1pm.

The Northern Echo's tribute is here.

Desolation row is gold for North's newspapers

There's nothing quite like a misinformed Southerner slagging off the North-East to get the region galvanised. And if that person is a Tory toff all the better. When I was at The Northern Echo we had all kinds of slurs directed our way. There was the Tory minister who said 'the problem with the North-East is that there are not enough golf courses.' Cue outrage. And when there was a proposal to relocate MoD jobs from London to Teesside, business editor Terry Murden went South to discuss perceptions of the North. Everything he needed to know was found on a map of Britain hanging on an MoD wall. Someone had drawn a line across the country, just north of Birmingham, and above it sketched smoking factories and written the word 'permafrost'. Did we have fun with that one. Now Lord Howell of Guildford has added his name to the notorious list. During Lords questions he dropped in the remark that 'there are large and uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly in part of the North-East where there's plenty of room for fracking.' Cue even more outrage. What makes it all the more perfect is Lord Howell's credentials. He is Margaret Thatcher's old energy minister, George Osborne's dad-in-law and you don't get any more southern than Guildford.

This great stuff for North-East loyalty … and the newspapers did themselves proud. 

The Northern Echo carried this front page which appeared on national TV and has been retweeted hundreds of times.

Editor Peter Barron also covered the issue in a robust blog and has now encouraged readers to send in their photographs to show how 'fracking beautiful' the North-East is.

The Journal also carried a cracking fracking front page. Lord Howell has apologised - but it's all too late. The newspapers are not going to give up on this one. It's all just what is needed in the height of the silly season - a silly Tory peer with foot in mouth disease. This one will fill page after page, get the readers involved and run for weeks. Newspaper gold.

Illustration: Huffington Post

Tony Metcalf - a great newsroom character

I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of my former Northern Echo colleague Tony Metcalf. When I was editor, Tony had not long arrived from the Scarborough Evening News. He was a tall, amiable Geordie who supported Newcastle United. He was also a naturally gifted reporter who quickly rose through the ranks. He became assistant news-editor and regularly demonstrated his natural eye for a story. His news-lists were always dominated by hard news. He was a really good footballer too - an asset to the Echo's formidable team. I moved south and Tony's career progressed, becoming news-editor and then assistant editor before spending time heading up the journalism course at Darlington college. The last time I saw him was 16 years ago, when he came on an editor's chair course in Hastings. He was still the same ... ambitious, enthusiastic and great company. The last time we were in touch was in 2010 when another of our Echo colleagues, Patrick Lavelle,  prematurely died. 

By then Tony was in New York, working as editor-in-chief for Metro US. He was taken into hospital this March for a routine bowel operation but was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died in Darlington yesterday morning. He was 50. There is a fitting tribute to him by Nigel Burton in The Northern Echo today. It includes a quote from editor Peter Barron: “Tony was not only a fine, passionate journalist but a great character to have around. He brought infectious energy and fun to the newsroom, led from the front, and The Northern Echo was lucky to be one of the newspapers which benefited from his great qualities. He will be greatly missed.” Says it all.  

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.

Couple of captions that caught the eye

Here's a couple of captions that caught the eye this week. The one above from my old friends at the Newark Advertiser is an excellent example of why subs need dirty minds - and good taste. Thanks to ‏@EdGrover for that one.

And this one from my other old friends at The Northern Echo, reporting on the delays to the badger cull, made me smile too ... albeit for different reasons. Hat tip to @johnestevens.

Echo front page captures Quakers' plight

Here's a very strong front page from tomorrow's Northern Echo covering Darlington FC being forced to leave their stadium. It's been a sad day for the town. The paper's editor Peter Barron says the picture was taken months ago, although he hoped he would never have to use it. It's a great image that sums up the story and shows that Peter has lost none of the forward planning skills he had when he was my news-editor 20 years ago. Top notch.

Amos made 'bigger impact' than Sir Harry Evans

I have just about recovered from Mike Amos's retirement party at the weekend. Peter Barron, editor of The Northern Echo, said Amos had made a bigger impact on the Echo than any other journalist - including former editors WT Stead and Harold Evans. High praise indeed. My musings on the weekend are here. 

Valedictory columns mark Mike's final week

I am really looking forward to Mike Amos's retirement bash at Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield on Friday. We have been promised lots of old faces, real beer and Taylor's pies and then it's off to Shildon versus Bishop Auckland on Saturday. As he counts down his final days as a staffer, after 46 years, the Echo is running a series of valedictory columns. Lovely stuff ... an enjoyable read for anyone who worked the North-East patch or, indeed, anyone with fond memories of the way newspapers used to be.

John North goes South

So the enigmatic columnist John North has finally shuffled off his mortal coil. Today his last column appears in The Northern Echo. Writer Mike Amos (above) is retiring JN before his own retirement in October. The column, described as "a quirky view of the region's people and places", has had many guises. When I joined the Echo in 1979 it was written by John Simkins who went off to the FT. He was replaced by Bill Hearld, later deputy editor of the Yorkshire Evening Press. Others included Stephen Brenkley, the Independent's cricket correspondent, and Terry Ramsey who became TV editor of the Standard. When John North was on holiday there was an occasional woman's perspective by Jane North. But the column mainly belonged to Mike, who celebrates 46 years at the paper this year. He relinquished it while he was the Echo's news-editor but came back to it as a weekly column years later. In its heyday the column was daily. It was a full-time job and the brief was to be out there picking up the interesting snippets, the oddities, the grassroots stories that were peculiar to the North-East. The JN chair in the office was always empty. It was also one of the most high pressure jobs in the business. Every day JN had to find fresh, compelling material and, unlike the national columnists, he was on his own. There was no team of researchers, no juniors or back-up staff. And Mike, who doesn't even drive, delivered day in day out. In these austere times there are few regional papers who can afford a full-time, off-diary writer. But there was no doubt JN brought in readers, gave the paper an essence and a unique voice. There are many reasons why regional newspapers are in decline but I am certain that one of them was the whole 'value for money', high story count policy peddled by the beancounters. Legs of briefs on car boot sales and choir rehearsals may be easy pickings but they are of no interest whatsoever to the general reader. What JN offered, and what all newspapers need, was a reason to buy the paper every day. So RIP JN, he will be missed. But I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere down the line, he doesn't make a comeback.
Hat-tip to Neil Hacking
Mike Amos picture http://theshrineofstbruno.yolasite.com
        

The Dryden shootings: 20 years on

Anyone who has ever been on one of my courses will be familiar with the story of the murder of planning officer Harry Collinson in Butsfield, County Durham. It was the most remarkable day during my time as an editor. The story revolved around a bungalow that had been built, without planning permission, by an eccentric maverick called Albert Dryden. Derwentside District Council decided that the bungalow had to be demolished and Mr Collinson turned up to oversee it. While the bulldozer was preparing to break through the fence, Dryden went off to a caravan and returned wearing a gunbelt and holster with a First World War revolver. He walked up to the fence, took the gun out of the holster and shot Mr Collinson dead. He also shot and injured BBC reporter Tony Belmont and PC Stephen Campbell. Northern Echo photographer Mike Peckett took an astonishing set of photographs, recording the whole event on film. We ran them across Page 1 in a sequence (above left). It happened exactly 20 years ago today but the pictures are still as shocking now as they were then. The news-editor of The Northern Echo that day was Peter Barron, and he clearly hasn't forgotten it either. He is now the paper's editor  and today ran an interview with Mr Collinson's brother (above right) and a first person piece by Mark Summers (below), the reporter who covered the story for the Echo. It's a considered and sensitive article that tells the shocking events of the day in detail. It all vividly brings back the way the day unfolded and the decisions we made. And if it sends a chill down my spine, I can't begin to imagine what effect it has on those who were there ... or on Harry Collinson's family.

 

Farewell to Priestgate, Fleet Street of the North

I spent 14 years working in newspaper offices in Priestgate in Darlington town centre. I first crossed the threshold as a newly qualified trainee and left as the editor of The Northern Echo. I worked the night shift on the Echo and the day shift on the late Evening Despatch. In many ways the office defines a huge slice of my life. With people who were to become lifelong friends, we covered four general elections, the disasters at Lockerbie, Zeebruge, Heysel, Bradford and Hillsbrough as well as the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher's resignation and the Ripper's arrest. We watched Priestgate change from a hot metal rabbit warren with its own Press to a computerised open-plan office. But it was always our Fleet Street, the hub around which our lives revolved. We strolled out from time to time to go to the Red Lion, the Britannia, the Flamingo and even home, but we were never very far away. Some great newspaper characters have stalked the corridors of Priestgate. W.T. Stead, Harold Evans and David Yelland are among the most famous but you would be hard pushed to go into any newspaper or broadcasting office in the land and not find someone who had cut their teeth in that Victorian building on the corner of Priestgate and Crown Street. My 14 years pales into insignificance, though, compared with the tenure of award-winning writer Mike Amos, MBE.  He was the news-editor when I arrived in 1979 and is still there today, having racked up 45 years. This weekend it was announced that The Northern Echo and Darlington and Stockton Times are to leave the building after 150 years. It will be consumed by the shopping centre and probably become Debenhams. Who can blame Newsquest from selling it? It is no longer necessary to have such a huge town centre building to produce a newspaper. And if I was sitting on a multi-million pound asset that was surplus to requirements, I would cash it in too. But that doesn't mean it isn't a sad day and that a big chunk of North-East history will disappear with it. On hearing the news one of my old colleagues, Red Williams, summed it up in an email: "A sad day not just for the likes of us but also for the people of Darlington, a genuine North-East powerhouse of news and sport moves on...brings a tear to the eye mate." 
Read more here and on Peter Barron's blog.
Picture courtesy of www.freefoto.com

Journalists writing fiction (or are they?)

My summer reading included The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, former editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. The backdrop to his first novel is an English-language paper based in Rome. The good times are over, circulation is down and it has failed to move into the brave new digital world. The remote owners aren't in the least bit interested. Each chapter looks at the frailties of one of the paper's characters - the has-been Paris correspondent, the pedantic corrections editor, the smart and cosmopolitan editor. As the paper falls apart, so do their lives. It is funny and just a bit close to home. If you work in newspapers, you will recognise the people and the scenario. It reminded me of the novel Still Lives, by my Northern Echo colleague Brian Page, which tracks the flawed lives of the characters on a 'fictitious' Northern newspaper, the Evening Leader. Also funny and, uncomfortably, even closer to home. 

Champions of junior sport?

It was our football club's presentation day this month. Beckley Rangers FC was formed 15 years, ago by me and Phil Brain so local children, including our sons, could play organised football. At the awards day each player received an inscribed trophy and a magazine that includes their picture, playing record and a brief write-up. I have been producing the magazine for 12 years and it has become a memento for a generation of footballers. It's easy to do ... and could be a rich vein for local publishers. There are 60 plus players in our village. Replicate that across the county - and then the country - and you have an awful lot of interested families. During the close season there are scores of tournaments. The local newspapers aren't there, not even a bill saying the results will be in on Monday. Why on earth not? Covering junior sport properly - names, scorers, pictures, league tables has to be a reason to buy the paper. Yes, the leagues have their own websites and there is full-time.thefa.com. But you can't cut them out and send to granny. I recall Mark Sweetingham, editor of the Romford Recorder, telling a conference that his 20 pages of junior sport - treating kids like Premiership stars - had led to a colossal sales rise. Some newspapers take it a step further organising events around local sport. The Northern Echo’s Local Heroes Awards are a triumph. 700 people turn up to pay tribute to “unsung heroes” and “leading lights”. The Leicester Mercury Sports Awards are also prestigious event. Isn't this the essence of what local newspapers should be about - reflecting the success and achievements of local people, offering genuine reasons to buy the paper, appealing to a generation of non-newspaper readers? The irony is that it doesn't have to be labour-intensive. There are scores of enthusiastic club secretaries, myself included, who would supply all of this as a labour of love. It must be a more valuable use of space than the 'what's on' entries purporting to be news stories, the recycled press releases and the often banal community correspondents. 

Silly season comes early ...

... at The Northern Echo with the story of a pheasant attacking cars and prams in a North Yorkshire village. Editor Peter Barron says the story has now gone global, being published in Australia and the Aston Martin news site! The video made me smile - how to make a story out of not very much. http://bit.ly/pheasantattack