A front page featuring 1,200 images of local people made into a mosaic of a baby’s face has been voted the best of 2013.
The North West Evening Mail published the eye-catching splash last February to launch a campaign to save maternity services at a local hospital.
It won a convincing victory in our contest to find the best front page of 2013 with the backing of 47pc of readers in our Christmas and New Year poll.
A total of 1,260 HTFP readers took in the vote, which closed this morning.
Second place went to the Sittingbourne Messenger with its ‘Bridge Terror’ splash about a multi-vehicle pile-up on the Sheppey Bridge last summer, which took 32pc of the vote.
And the Burton Mail’s wraparound front and back page featuring dramatic pictures of a drugs raid was third after leading for the early part of the contest.
The idea for the Evening Mail’s mosiac picture came from a number of editorial team members including chief sub Fraser Robertson, his deputy Pete Mossop and picture desk administrator Jayne Cargan.
It made such an impact that campaigners turned it into a poster to be displayed in windows.
Deputy editor James Higgins said today: “It is very humbling that our front page has been voted as number one, largely by our peers in the regional newspaper industry.
“The Hear Our Voices mosaic image became iconic in Barrow and appeared in many windows after it was published. It was the result of team work, vision and a desire to do something different.
“While winning the front page of the year is a fantastic achievement, of more significance is that the campaign achieved its goals in ensuring our local hospital did not lose its consultant-led maternity services.
“Fighting for our readers is what being a local newspaper is all about and we are proud to have been able to help make a difference.”
HTFP publisher Paul Linford said: “Congratulations to the Evening Mail on a convincing victory and a great front page.
“Part of our aim in holding this competition was to celebrate editorial and design excellence in the regional press industry and I hope we have done that.”
The full results of the poll were as follows:
What was the best regional newspaper front page of 2013?
- Hear Our Voices - North West Evening Mail (47%, 594 Votes)
- Bridge Terror - Sittingbourne Messenger (32%, 403 Votes)
- Payback - Burton Mail (27%, 341 Votes)
- Justice - Derby Telegraph (9%, 113 Votes)
- Thatch Inferno - Oxfordshire Guardian (7%, 89 Votes)
- A Winter's Tale - South Wales Echo (5%, 57 Votes)
- What on earth - The Journal (4%, 55 Votes)
- Our hero who survived the Taliban - Manchester Evening News (4%, 51 Votes)
- Storm Force Anglia - Eastern Daily Press (4%, 50 Votes)
- Hands up if you want a fair deal - Cambridge News (3%, 39 Votes)
- Thatcher dies - News & Star (3%, 37 Votes)
- My very special boy - The Scotsman (1%, 17 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,260
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Well done Evening Mail – it was the best by far.
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What a fantastic page! Brilliant concept – and spare a thought for the artist who made it work so spectacularly.
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Nice one from the NWEM and well-deserved success. I haven’t checked, but a useful digital extension of this would be be an online version, in which clicking any micro-pic brings up the normal size version with, say, brief details of the person, maybe some details of their story, or “why our hospital matters”, or whatever. It’s a good way of driving online engagement and which has commercial potential. It’s not too late to do it either – just the sort of worthwhile project that an intern or two could be tasked with.
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Congratulations NWEM. Brilliant idea, brilliant front. For perfection I’d have ditched the ad though.
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A great example of what can be done with design, creative thinking, time to complete a good job and no template!
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@Splash sub – sadly, I doubt any editor has power to ditch an ad these days.
But yes – definitely a worthy winner.
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Superb front page. Well done all.
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