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.

 

How super Sundays reported on super Saturday

I was going to take a night off looking at the front pages - but after a day like that, how could I resist? The adrenalin in the newsrooms will have been fantastic. After an early holding edition, there will have been all hands to the pump when the Jessica Ennis pictures arrived, just on deadline. But then Mo Farah was running even later - and in the middle of it all there was a ginger bombshell in the form of Greg Rutherford. Six medals, Britain's greatest performance and a selection of marvellous photographs. What to do? Well, this is how they fared.

For me, The Observer leads the way. The picture of poster girl Jessica Ennis is stunning - capturing the complete joy of her moment. And using the ecstatic Mo Farah across the top of the masthead is spot on. The headline just sums it up. When you get a day like this you just need to tell it how it is and cut down on the superlatives. I like the six Gold headlines down the side too (preferably without the exclamation marks). A good lesson in how to tell a complete story without using many words - and all put together in minutes. Fantastic. 

The Observer had brought out an earlier edition, to meet the needs of its country-wide distribution. The earlier front wasn't half bad though. The picture of the sculls duo is brilliant. Kate Copeland has one of the best winning faces of the Games. Gold Rush has, to be fair, been done to death this week. The paper took a punt on the pictures across the top - but missed out on Mo Farah and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Greg Rutherford. A change was inevitable.

The Sunday Telegraph also gets it right - poster girl Jessica Ennis as the main image, right across the full eight columns, and then every other Gold medalist featured. All turned around in a matter of minutes too. 'Sensational!' in caps with a dog's cock is about a tabloid as you can get - but these are extraordinary times. There are lots of words, a thorough round-up by Cole Moreton and Robert Mendick, but they could easily have gone inside.

And the The Sunday Times is top notch too - just a joyous picture of Jessica Ennis for its wrap with an understated 'Six of the very best' headline. Minimalist and powerful.

 
Inside the front page proper mops up the other stories. I hadn't expected anyone to go with Greg Rutherford ... but here he is across the full eight columns. I'm not sure about the headline over the picture though ... it was more than an hour, it was a full day. To me, it also suggests that Rutherford's performance was our finest hour? 

I only had the early edition of The Independent on Sunday last night but here is the later version, which is stunning and gives The Observer a run for its money. The picture is just a joy, cropped and placed really well. I know we saw the Happy and Glorious headline a few times during the Jubilee but it works. The flag cutting across the titlepiece is a smart touch.

Here's the earlier version of the Sindie ... strong in its own right.  

The Sun is the pick of the tabloids. It keeps the non-Olympic clutter to a minimum, has the cleverest headline and uses the picture well. Using the other five Gold winners in medals is a classic tabloid device. Not sure many will be bothered about the Jacko story but, on any other day, it would have been a splash.      

The Mirror reckons its 48-page football magazine is a big seller. It could be right as, with everyone else going Olympics crazy, it needs something to give the paper an edge on the news-stands. I will probably pop out and buy it on the strength of the blurb (although my views on 'Free inside' are well documented). The Mirror, like The Sun, goes for a three-deck headline but ends up squeezing it all into a tighter space. 'Yes. yes, Jess!' is OK but the paper could have used it smaller and let the cracking photograph dominate. No mention of the other three Golds. Wonder what the take-up will be on the 10p cuddly (really) mascot.  

Woah. There's an awful lot going on the Daily Star's front. It looks like a TV mag. Peel away the clutter and it's not a bad piece of work. Jessica Ennis in Seb Coe pose is a great choice, neatly cutout and 'Joy of six' is an ideal Star headline. Like The Sun it uses the other five Gold winners in medals. Few words needed.  

This version of the Mail on Sunday looks like it had to go to press not long after Jessica Ennis's race, so no Mo Farah on the front. Using 'Jess' as a pun for 'Just' stretches it a little and the heading could do with a tad more leading. Taking those great photographs and making them all squares is an unusual decision too. Ten thousand Olympic bags to give away is a strong promotion. Overall, though, it looks like it was put together in a rush. There is probably a later edition. 

The Sunday Express persists with its blurbs. Free CDs and Union Jack Flags (seems a bit tautological to me). The paper could have wiped them out and replaced them with some of today's extraordinary pictures. Jessica Ennis is probably the best story - and it's an iconic image - but we won six Gold Medals. 'Jess the Best' is the sort of thing my kids used to write on their schoolbooks. 

'Gold rush' is, by far, the most widely used headline of the Games so far. It's clearly difficult to keep finding more ways of describing Team GB's amazing success. The Herald uses the same picture as the Independent and, rightly, leaves in her left hand. The javelin through the sixth ring is a nice touch. 'What happens to sport in Scotland after the games hype fades?' is a good question ... nice to know the Herald is keeping our feet on the ground. This also looks like an early edition.

There has been some first class work by the writers, subs, designers and photographers again ... and there is a whole lot more inside. Hopefully people will not just admire the great designs but go out and buy copies of the newspapers.

Thanks as always to @suttonnick #tomorrowspaperstoday