It’s been another year of great front pages in the regional press and now it’s your chance to choose your number one.
The North West Evening Mail walked away with last year’s HTFP Front Page of the Year prize for its ‘Hear Our Voices’ mosaic splash about a campaign to save maternity services at a local hospital.
This year the CN Group title is in the running again as one of ten nominees for the annual award, voted for by HTFP readers.
Our shortlist covers some of the year’s biggest stories including last winter’s floods, the introduction of gay marriage, the Commonwealth Games, the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the Tour de France, the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, and the Scottish independence referendum.
You can vote for up to three contenders and the voting form can be found by scrolling to the end of the story, The poll will remain open until Monday 5 January and the results will be published on HTFP that day.
Here is the full shortlist, in chronological order of publication. The links will take you back to the original HTFP stories in which they were featured.
The online voting form can be found at the bottom of the page.
1. ‘Please Help’ – Somerset County Gazette, Feb 2014.
2. ‘Man Is Killed By Train, Then This Happened…’ – Brentwood Gazette, Feb 2014
3. ‘You May Now Kiss The Groom’ – Bristol Post, Apr 2014
4. ‘P45 Due’ – Newcastle Chronicle, Apr 2014
5. ‘Fan-tastic!’ – Luton News, May 2014
6. ‘Longest Day’s Lasting Legacy’ – Eastern Daily Press, Jun 2014.
7. ‘Tour de Force’ – Yorkshire Post, Jul 2014
8. ‘Pure Dead Brilliant’ – The Scotsman, Jul 2014.
9. First World War Centenary Special Edition – North West Evening Mail, Aug 2014
10. ‘Scotland Says No’ – Press and Journal, Sep 2014
What was the best regional newspaper front page of 2015?
- Bournemouth Echo - For You, Harry (30%, 581 Votes)
- Oxford Mail - This Is What Could Be Lost (12%, 227 Votes)
- Carmarthen Journal - Bring Him Home (11%, 209 Votes)
- Northern Echo - Abandoned (8%, 162 Votes)
- Western Mail - We Won, Spread the Word (8%, 146 Votes)
- Macclesfield Express - United in Grief (7%, 131 Votes)
- Leicester Mercury - 11 (6%, 115 Votes)
- Teesside Gazette - 1845-2015 (6%, 114 Votes)
- Manchester Evening News - Life or Death (6%, 113 Votes)
- Liverpool Sunday Echo - Legend (4%, 79 Votes)
- Croydon Advertiser - Spiderdad (3%, 50 Votes)
- Birmingham Mail - Wanted for Rape and Murder (3%, 49 Votes)
- Newcastle Chronicle - A Nation Divided (1%, 28 Votes)
- The News, Portsmouth - Today's The Day (1%, 22 Votes)
- Norwich Evening News - Glory Glory Norwich City (1%, 18 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,931
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Question: is a front/back wrap a front page? Surely part of the skill is getting what needs to be said and shown into one page….the front. The wraps are great, of course, and excellent work….but are they front pages?
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For the purposes of this contest, they are.
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Tend to agree with Idle Rich.
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Who decided on these front pages as the shortlist?
You’ve missed several good ones.
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Like the Luton page
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5
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Idle’s nit-picking. ‘Cover’ of the year would have been more accurate. Impactful design & the message are the important criteria though.
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Best newspaper in the region. Not only does it cover all the major news stories but also keeps up to date with the local news which is just as important.
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Ah, remember the times we had professional photographers?
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Oh the Newcastle one, just because of the fools they’ve made of themselves. I’ve been involved in similar and you can very quickly make yourself look stupid. I remember a classic, in 2001, when it was decided to try to compare the current strikeforce to the club’s all-time great forward line. The goals dried up, and it was not forgotten by many supporters. Of course, the poor reporter got it in the neck when he advised against it. Twas always so
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Just vote and stop your whining!
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Ha Ha…..well said, argghhhh
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Proud to be Yorkshire!
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Brentwood Gazette ‘Man hit by train’ for me – it’s the only one in the shortlist that isn’t either a localised national story or just great use of a superb image.
I imagine that was a week when the newspaper didn’t have an obvious splash so had to get creative and think outside the box – a great effort in my opinion.
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Margeret (sic),
Are you suggesting the Somerset County Gazette isn’t covering a local story with its front page about the fact the whole of Somerset (a county) is flooded?
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No reporter copy on any of them, just quality photography and subbing skills. Both of which will be extinct from papers soon.
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Fantastic portrayal of a doomed manager!
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Got to be the Mighty Hatters back in the Football League after 5 years of exile thanks to the injustices of the FA and FL. COYH!!!!
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Got to be Luton !!!!
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Couldn’t agree more with Margeret, the Brentwood paper’s story wasn’t obvious, it took lateral thinking. The rest are big events handed on a plate.
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Oh dear. My weekly splashed a double death crash on its Dec 25 issue.
Happy souls.
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Got to be Brentwood Gazette – great story. Unusual angle on a suicide withe tweets. Disagree that it wasn’t an obvious lead providing journos had picked up on the tweets.
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Above comment should of course say ‘with the’ tweets. Damn submit button!
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Brentwood Gazette is a true front page, not a wrap or special; photography used to good effect and well put together.
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It’s got to be “man killed by train”.
The Somerset floods one “Please help” is very good but unfortunately we’ve all seen enough of the Somerset floods on telly.
As for the others, not everyone follows football (it’s mainly blokes).
“You may now kiss the bride” will put many readers off.
The others are technically brilliant but not newsy enough, bearing in mind that they have all been covered by other media.
The Brentwood Gazette have it all sewn up…it’s of interest to everyone, local, and very powerful.
Happy New Year everyone!
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Would have been pleased to have worked on several of these. But there’s something about P45DUE that appeals to my downmarket tabloid roots. Hope it smashes it.
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You May Now Kiss the Groom would have been excellent, were it not for the horrendous boost in the top right. Perhaps should have been filled with the blurb down the left side instead, and the splash given more space. That would have been more eye-catching and made it my number one.
This is, after all, about the best page isn’t it?
So for me, it has to be the Brentwood crash. Great story, great use of graphics and it is the only one which made me read every word – and that’s what a front page should make you do.
The Somerset ad – 50 per cent off self-storage – should have been pulled on a story about people losing their homes and livelihoods. It looks like they’re trying to cash in on people’s misery.
The Luton headline – Fan-tastic – is as cliched as can be. Looks like someone wanted an early finish.
P45 Due is brave and eye-catching, but too niche for readers not interested in football.
And the First World War efforts are wonderful – but more for a magazine for me.
I’m sure you all disagree…
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All great use of pictures, sadly most publishers seem to be getting rid of their photographers!
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I would have voted for the Gazette had it not been for the horrible change of tense halfway through the headline. So I went for the Evening Mail.
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Brentwood Gazette for me, shame about the storage ad across the bottom of the Somerset County Gazette, otherwise I wouldn’t be so sure.
I also echo some of the above posts regarding good images used well. It makes the paper eye catching and will stand off the shelf.
Such a shame that most publishers are making their snappers redundant!
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