The Olympic legacy: bolder design

With another three gold medals in the bag and Jessica Ennis breaking records in the Hepthalon, selecting the right image for today's front pages was understandably a tough call. The Times simply chooses the most suitable photograph for a wrap ... horizontal, stunning, beautifully framed with colours that make it look more like a watercolour than a photograph. The pursuit of excellence is a nicely understated headline too. The Times wraps have been a joy. I hope they have translated into sales. If you didn't catch yesterday's here it is.

The best angle, though, was the amazing performances by the Team GB women. It was clearly an opportunity too good to miss for the Mirror.

What a great tabloid page - the top to bottom cutout of Jessica Ennis is a real eyecatcher. A page of joyful faces.

The Daily Star inevitably also took the girl angle but it is all a bit overpowered by the clutter ... and the massive yellow Free £1. I am not sure why, when you have pictures of beautiful women who have achieved something extraordinary, you would decide a stock image of a couple of anonymous blonde models is a better choice. 

The Sun is, unusually, a little understated. It's certainly an emotional picture of Victoria Pendleton but does it capture the real joy that was around yesterday? The paper is normally excellent at reflecting the feelgood factor but misses out here. The pedal medal headlines have been around this week too.

It was left to the serious papers - who have definitely moved into tabloid territory during the games - to go for it. The Telegraph decides Victoria Pendleton's celebration is the strongest image of the day. Queen Victoria may be predictable but it works. The advert (yes, yes I know journalism has to be paid for) isn't really very Telegraph at all. Sandcastles and cheap 'white out of red' flights. My word. What would Max say?

The Guardian also goes for a picture of Victoria, one with more movement that fills the page better. It was clearly The Guardian's turn to use the Gold, gold, gold headline. 

It was the i's turn yesterday (above). Presumably the missing comma after The Guardian's second gold was added in later editions. Remarkably, The Guardian, not for the first time this week, uses an exclamation mark on its splash headline. 

The Independent has had a confident games and today is no exception. It has swapped its serif headlines for sans caps, used cutouts, chosen dominant pictures and the titlepiece has been gold, yellow and now cyan. This is a nicely balanced page. It has a bull picture, well cropped and cutout, captures the fact that Team GB won three golds and manages to build up anticipation for the day ahead. Impressive.

The Mail wraps its week up with a souvenir supplement, which will no doubt sell, but it overshadows the stories and pictures. I am not a fan of blurbs that shout Free Inside. It strikes me that they are a waste of a prime spot ... tell us what you've got, rather than where it is and how much it costs. The Dream Cottage is a popular promotion so it gets top of the page prominence. All of this means the lead gets squeezed into a downpage oblong box with two square pictures and too many words. Not the Mail at its best.

The Express is selling on the word Free today ... which it uses four times in its blurbs. It clearly believes its target readers are 'owt of nowt' merchants. I am not sure anyone who has seen the Dark Knight Rises will be able to recognise Batman from the toy teetering at the top of the page. Top of the World and Golden girls are the straightlaced headlines. 

The i, as is its style, goes for pictures of all of the Gold winners, plus Jessica Ennis - and another four photos on top. Busy, busy. Gold rush ... now where have I seen that before? Oh yes, it was the Mirror and Express's main Olympic headlines on Thursday.

Once more a largely good set of impressive pages. I like to think the mould-breaking will inspire other newspapers to burst out of their templates and be bolder and braver with their designs, even when the Games are long forgotten. That would be a good Olympic legacy.

Thanks as always to @suttonnick #tomorrowspaperstoday 

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

Olympic shock. Eye uses P**** on its cover

Private Eye doesn't seem to have bought into this wave of goodwill that the rest of the media is projecting on to the Olympics. Very funny though.

The Times gets off to cracking Olympic start

So, Britain is on the eve of its biggest sporting occasion ever. Not even the World Cup in 1966 or the Olympics in 1948 can match this one. For newspapers that means the chance to go for it ... to create a memorable, historic front page. It's not as easy as it sounds though. The front pages that create themselves are those that record something that has happened. You have photographs, quotes, victims, perpetrators and a record of events. The hardest are those that preview an event and try to report on something that hasn't happened yet. That's when creativity, planning, headline writers, photographers, writers and layout artists all have to come together to build something special. So how do today's papers fare?

For me, The Times wins it by an Olympic mile. A stunning photograph of only two colours used as a classy wrapround. If you'd told me ten years ago the Times would lead on a magenta splash headline, I wouldn't have believed it. But it works. The back page quote by the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, is a nice counter to all the corporate nonsense that has surrounded the Games so far. The picture is by the Press Association's Dominic Lipinski @domlipinski. Really deserved a byline.

The Daily Star and Daily Telegraph aren't natural bedfellows but both use the same photograph and, more or less, the same headline. Great photo, although I'm not sure that too much effort has gone into the Let's party/Get the party started approach. 

Despite the universal outburst of positivity, the brilliant Matt still manages to add his waspish view.

The Mirror uses the same picture as the Telegraph and Star and adds a trademark pun to the splash headline. It also tries hard to wipe the slate clean ... by reminding us of all the awful things that have gone before.

The Daily Mail also has a lively picture across the full width. This time it's 81-year-old Torch bearer Florence Rowe dancing outside 10 Downing Street, with Dave and Sam Cameron in the background. It certainly reflects the joy of the Olympics. The headline is on the predictable side - although stronger than Let's Party. But is the ! really necessary?

Instead of gravitas, The Guardian goes for circus. It's main picture is not really an iconic image ... Ab Fab stars Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders partying with the Olympic Torch in London. In contrast the headline has a certain poignancy. One way to deal with something that hasn't happened yet is to get the best writers on the job ... and typically The Guardian does that brilliantly with a think piece from author and columnist Jonathan Freedland.

The Independent wipes out the front page with a classic London symbol - a double decker red bus in Oxford Street.

The Sun has also comes up with iconic British symbols ... all expected to appear in tonight's opening ceremony. Perhaps inspired by Linford Christie's famous claim that he started races on the B of the Bang, they all begin with B. They are an interesting choice ... Bond, Becks, Beatles, The Baked Bean (why the definite article?). What else could they have thrown into the mix ... Beef, Beer, Buses, Big Brother, Breakfasts, Bovril, Brass Rubbing, Blackpool Tower, Buckingham Palace, The Beano, Bingo, Bubble and Squeak, Binge drinking, Bad Weather?  The list is endless. Could have filled the whole paper. 

The Express manages to get the royal family, including the ubiquitous Kate, into its Olympic picture but decides that pensioners being ripped off by the taxman is far more important.

 The FT chooses an arty shot but also decides there are weightier issues to lead on. With the Nomura axe falling on top staff, who could argue?

All very positive though ... fingers crossed for more spectacular and good news pages in the weeks ahead.
Thanks to @hendopolis #tomorrowspaperstoday






  

Apps v newsprint ... which wins?

So how many of you have cast aside your daily newspaper and opted for the app version only? Is it like quitting smoking? Reaching for the paper when your coffee arrives only to realise you have to download today's edition on to your iPad? Well, I recently quit reading national newspapers ... a habit I have had for almost 50 years. More specifically, I stopped reading newsprint. Instead I spent a month gaining my daily news fix from a range of apps. I have to say it was less painful than I expected and some of the apps, particularly The Times, had worthwhile extras. My briefcase was a lot lighter too. But now I am back with the old inky stuff, at least for the time being. Find out why in this article, in the latest InPublishing magazine.

The Batman massacre front pages

The most harrowing picture to come out of the Batman massacre was that of Tom Sullivan embracing his family as he searches for his son Alex, who had celebrated his 27th birthday by going to see The Dark Knight Rises. It was taken by AP Photojournalist Barry Gutierrez. He told Wired magazine: “He was screaming at the top his lungs, ‘Have you seen my son?’ It was so gut-wrenching, it rocked me right to my bones. I couldn’t imagine what he was going through.” Tragically Alex was one of the 12 victims. The picture that captured the raw grief of the story was the most used front page picture across America. None used it better than The Bakersfield Californian.

Other newspapers chose to use different pictures of people shocked and grieving which, while powerful, don't quite have the impact of the Sullivan photograph.

The safe choice of image is killer James Holmes which many, including the UK papers that led on the story, used as the main photograph. It has to be used of course ... but is it really the main picture?

The New York Post managed to find a picture of Holmes with red hair, which he is said to have been sporting when he carried out the massacre.

 

Other papers, possibly not wanting to intrude on the very personal grief, chose a more symbolic image or a general shot. The spilled popcorn on the front of Puerto Rico paper El Nuevo Dia is certainly poignant, as is today's Sunday Herald.

All very strong images and pages. It is always a critical decision for editors on these occasions - which photograph to use as the main image. What I wouldn't have done though is used, as the main image, a picture of President Obama, even if he is close to tears.

I also wouldn't have fallen into the trap, which too many papers often do, of being indecisive - and using eight pictures too small. Choose the best and use it big has usually, although not always, been my preferred approach.

And I certainly wouldn't have used a publicity shot from the film as the main image, as the New Zealand Weekend Herald bizarrely decided to do.

There isn't a right and wrong of course. Telling stories visually is all about the judgment of the editors and designers. That is what gives newspapers their diversity and character. I believe some of these pages are stronger than others. I would have used the Sullivan picture because it encapsulates the human consequences of this terrible story. But that is just an opinion. What is important is that newspapers take a different approach, that they are shaped by the editorial values of the journalists. When all our papers look the same, templated to the point of blandness, will be the day I pack it all in to run a beach bar on the Med.  

Thanks to: The Poynter Institute, Newseum, Hendopolis and Front Pages Today