The world's 17 best-looking newspapers?

It’s that time of year again when the world’s best designed newspapers are chosen by a panel of five judges in Syracuse, New York. This year they have drawn up a shortlist of 17 with the final five to be announced at a gala evening at The Newseum in April where the world’s best designed apps and websites will also be announced. I have long-followed the Society for Newspaper Design’s competition, applauding the recognition it gives to talented newspaper designers from around the world. This year the list is full of the usual suspects. All bar one of last year’s top five are included in the 17. They are Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), The Grid (Canada), Welt am Sonntag (Germany) and The Guardian. Only Germany’s Die Zeit is missing. Four of those, along with Denmark’s Politiken, were winners in 2013 and a couple of winners from 2012, Canada’s National Post and Mexico’s Excelsior, are back in favour. The judges, of course, say that is because 'the best have a way of rising to the top regardless of who is doing the tasting'.
They are probably right. But I fear it is all becoming a little predictable. Many on the shortlist are lavish feature pages - almost magazines in newsprint - with barely an advert in sight. They look splendid of course, and I appreciate the design is about the art of the page, but is there not room for some tabloid (dare I say it) red-top grittiness? I was also slightly disappointed that the recent resurgence in Asian newspaper design (particularly from The Times of Oman, South China Morning Post, the Gulf News) has not seen any of them burst into the top 17.
The Times of Oman did however, deservedly, receive a judges' Special Recognition, award for indefatigable creativity in its World Cup coverage for this:

All of that said, there are some cracking pages on the shortlist. Top marks to SND for organising it and congratulations to The Guardian for reaching the top 17. Looking at the shortlist, it must have an excellent chance of being in the top five again. Anyway, make your own mind up. Here's the top 17.

Dagens Nyheter (Sweden)

Die Welt (Germany)

De Volkskrant (Netherlands)

De Morgen (Belgium)

Excelsior (Mexico)

Folha de São Paulo (Brazil)

The Guardian (UK)

Informação (Portugal)

La Nacion (Argentina)

 Los Angeles Times (US)

The National Post (Canada)

New York Times (US)

Politiken (Denmark)

Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden)

The Grid (Canada)

The Washington Post (US)

Welt am Sonntag (Germany)

This week's news quiz - 25 points up for grabs

Here's this week's news quiz. As usual there are 20 questions with five bonuses ... so a possible 25 points up for grabs. Let me know how you get on. I reckon that this week 18 is an impressive score.

The poppies at the Tower made an impressive wrap in The Times (Q1)

1. The poppies around the Tower of London represented every British and colonial death in the Great War. How many were there?
Bonus: The name of the poppy installation was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier? What is it?
Bonus: The BBC came under fire for not including the British Legion poppy appeal song No Man’s Land in its Radio 1 or 2 playlists. Who sings it?
2. Under a new law, likely to be passed next month, what will you not be allowed to do in your car from next October?
3. David Moyes has been appointed manager of which European football team?
4. Which BBC programme was screened on Wednesday after a last-minute legal challenge prevented it from being shown on Monday?
5. Who used the code names ’the A-team’, the '3 Musketeers' and ‘1 team, 1 dream’?
6. Why was Rebekah Gibbs in the headlines?
7. Who will present Wayne Rooney with his golden cap at Wembley tomorrow (Saturday), to mark his 100th England appearance?
Bonus: Who will England be playing?
8. Singer Dolores O’Riordan was arrested for allegedly assaulting an air hostess and headbutting a police officer at Shannon airport. Which rock band did she front?
9. The Foreign Secretary visited Sierra Leone as part of an Ebola assessment tour. Who is the Foreign Secretary?
10. The Rosetta space probe reached the comet 67P. In which year did it leave earth?

Bonus: Name the robotic Lander that settled on the comet.
11. Two window cleaners were rescued from a collapsed cradle at the World Trade Center. How many storeys up were they?
12. Who insisted she does not hold a grudge against her ex-husband by saying: “To hold any kind of resentment is like taking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die”?
13. It has been reported that the White Widow has been killed by a sniper in Ukraine. What is her real name?

Bonus: David Cameron gave a speech outlining plans to restrict the movement of British Jihadists. In which city was the speech delivered?

14. Where are Varyag, Shaposhnikov, Fotiy Krylov and Boris Butoma believed to be heading?
15. Tracey Emin has designed a neon-style sign that reads 'Faith love trust you me and the world’. Where will it appear?
16. What do athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, sixties rocker Dave Berry and TV sports presenter Charlie Webster have in common?
17. Andy Murray was knocked out of the World Tour Finals in two sets by Roger Federer. How many games did Murray win in the match?
18. Why was Michael J. Garcia in the headlines?
19. More than 22,000 patients are to be recalled for tests after it was revealed dentist Desmond D’Mello broke hygiene procedures. In which city? 

20. Who is the oldest celebrity to be taking part in the next I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here?

Answers here

Scotland is butt of the April Fool frenzy

It's after midday so all of the April Fool gags should now be taken down and we can get on with the serious business of the day. I offered my view of the jokes this time last year. Basically, when I was an editor I never understood why we would spend the whole year persuading people of our integrity and credibility and then one day just tell blatant lies - and take the mick out of the readers. And apart from anything else most of them weren't at all funny. 

If you came up with a Panorama spaghetti farm idea or if The Guardian discovered the islands of San Serriffe, including the small islet Ova Mata, then it would definitely be worthwhile. But crude photoshopped images of giant bunnies invading football pitches? I think not. This year everyone seems to have been at it. So, taking my po face off for a while, here is my pick.

Scottish independence seemed to be the main butt of the jokes with five national papers taking a bit of a poke. 

The Daily Telegraph used Page 10 to unveil the new Scottish pound coin with Alex Salmond replacing the Queen. The Guardian gave Page 5 prominence to its story that if Scotland wins independence it will change driving to the right. I liked the proposal to change the traffic lights to red, amber and blue which was rejected after fears the Southern Tories would adopt it as their own. Scottish Independence was the theme in the Mail too - with an idea to get rid of the Scottish Saltire from the Union Flag so that it will look like this:

Avril Mactickle was the campaigner in this one. 

The Times had a story about a German duke who would have claims to rule Scotland and The Independent said the UN will be drafted in to monitor 'cross border tensions'. The peacekeepers will be changing their helmets from blue to purple so that they aren't seen to be Scottish supporters. 

The Sun opted for Page 9 to run its headline Frackingham Palace above a story on the Queen drilling for gas at Buck House. I quite liked ER Ewing. Predictably, campaigner Avril Fuel also makes an appearance. The Sun also had a story on the sports pages about Plymouth Argyle changing their pitch colour to orange so that it doesn't clash with their green strip. 

The Express also carried a spoof football story - that Arsenal and Spurs were to share a ground.

The Express ran two more April Fool stories - one online and one in the paper. Online was a story about a mummified teddy bear being discovered and on Page 3 there was a tale about a farmer hatching a plan to sell square eggs. It will end the need for eggcups. The farm was, predictably, in Flair Loop in Suffolk and campaigner Flora Pilo was the campaigner.

 Coincidentally, ITV's Daybreak also ran a story about square eggs.

The Mirror went with an economical farming story too - the farmer breeding six-legged lambs. 

In the regions the Brentwood Gazette reported that Brentwood is planning to pay tribute to TOWIE star Joey Essex with a huge bronze statue. Meanwhile both the Nottingham Post and Hartlepool Mail went for the discovery of historic bones. In Nottingham it was Robin Hood's remains that were found and in Hartlepool, inevitably, it was those of the famous hanged monkey.

Sinkholes were a bit of a theme too - there was one in Somerset and one in Coronation Street. The Western Daily Press's report - with a far more authentic looking picture than the Corrie one - had me wondering for a second but Freshford resident April O'Lof was a bit of a clue. 

The PR companies were at it too. Andrew Bloch listed scores of them on twitter this morning including the aquatic taxi by Addison Lee that can get you across the Thames quicker. If you want to indulge yourself, follow Andrew here. 

The readers were also being inventive, as this bicycle prank covered on Kent Online shows.

Perhaps my favourite though was Penguin Books announcing it was to replace full stops with exclamation marks. "For the first time, iconic books such as Albert Camus's The Stranger, Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment will remove all the instances of full stops in the original text, and replace them with exclamation marks." 
Brilliant ... although I fear I have worked in some places where they have already done that!!!!!!

If you are not rigidly bored with all of this by now you can follow Felicity Morse who has been prolific in collecting today's jokes. There are also good compilations by The Independent, the Mirror, The Guardian and The Telegraph.   

The only one that got me going, though, was from my 17-year-old son. He is taking his photography AS level today and set off early for college in his car. At 9.30am I got a text that read: "Traffic was really bad. Was late for my exam and the examiner wouldn't let me in. My teachers flipped out for no reason. Think I've been kicked off the course." Ten minutes later I managed to get down from the ceiling. Gotcha!

Be careful of dodgy relationships

There have been a few embarrassing juxtapositions doing the rounds this week, including the three above. The 'Man plunges to his death front' is at least six years old. I remember using it during design courses to illustrate the point that anyone laying out a page should always see the adverts first. Incidentally, I am told by my Aussie mates that the spelling of Pedophile on the Sunshine Coast daily is correct. New one on me. There is no doubt that the dodgy juxtaposition of headlines and pictures is rarely libellous and can cause amusement and a flurry of attention. But sometimes an inappropriate relationship can also be crass, in bad taste and occasionally hurtful. At best it will have people laughing at your paper, not a good thing. Subs, layout artists and advertising staff need to be wary of them. Here are a few more. Be warned.

Footnote: Since I posted these @SimonNRicketts has pointed out that the Obama page from the Washington Post is probably a spoof. Here's the evidence. @foodepedia asks if we would change an advert or story. It's a fine line. I haven't changed copy or the wording of an advert but I have moved stories and ads so they don't sit next to each other. I have even thrown and advert out of the paper ... and been thanked by the advertiser for saving him from embarrassment.