The Western Daily Press carried a good variety of page one content on Thursday 29 January, from politics and news to business and history, with a few slices of ‘extra value’ thrown in as well.
And while there were at least seven entry points for readers, the front’s conventional structure meant there was little chance of eyes going too astray, with the natural focus being the splash.
For those motivated by serious news, politics and business, this robust story reflected a growing push to de-select local Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, while a write-off teased an inside feature from Wells MP Tessa Munt on why she quit government, and the business boost highlighted a focus on the region’s top 150 companies.
For well-to-do older generations – and you’ve got to imagine this traditional regional morning has its fair share of those – the boost for a four-page ‘CHURCHILL REMEMBERED’ section was a convincing attraction, along with a picture recording Princess Anne’s visit to the region.
As for that ‘extra value’, what better than a ‘Free loaf of bread with this paper’ to persuade purchases from those in charge of providing staple diets within the household budget?
What seemed to be someone taking care of the mix continued on inside news pages, with modest-sized headlines and a six-column layout allowing for generously deep, analytical reads.
A prime example of this ‘give it space to breathe’ approach was the pages four and five spread on the Liddell-Grainger row: ‘Council has reached final straw with West MP’ headlined 18-pars completing the turn from page one; ‘Mixed views on moves to replace MP’ gave 19-pars of balanced views; and ‘District council’s motion against MP describes reasons behind drastic action’ provided 15-pars of detail.
All those words, along with a lead picture across the spread, three other medium-size pictures and two drop-ins, did not feel crammed despite a 25×3 display advert.
I’m told that editor Ian Mean – now in his 69th year and retiring this month – hardly uses a dozen staff to pull the Press together, harvesting much of its content from publisher Local World’s other titles across the region.
However uncomfortable we might feel about the lack of staff, this overview of a wide circulation area meant that decent content was used from all corners, other strong news stories including:
- ‘Young mum reunited with kind stranger’ on page seven, some great pictures helping to tell how Samantha Walsh, from Plymouth, was able to thank a fellow rail passenger, from Wiltshire, who’d secretly slipped her £5 because he was impressed with her parenting;
- ‘40 years of animal mania for keeper’ on page nine, which I know for a fact was taken from the same day’s Bristol Post, as I mentioned it in my blog on that paper earlier this month; and
- ‘Petition for head to return’ on page 10, a fascinating tale about hundreds of parents calling for the reinstatement of a Wiltshire school boss after his assault case was dropped.
The leader section design on pages 18 to 21 was impressive: the paper’s own editorial was placed with down-page restraint on a left-hander, the right hand lead was the above-mentioned, first-person resignation piece from Tessa Munt, followed by a mix of lengthy letters on substantial subjects and decent readers’ pictures, and an entertaining right-hand column by Rob Campbell.
In sport, the main back page picture was Tottenham players celebrating their League Cup semi-final victory against Sheffield United, with a full match report on page 43.
I always think it’s a touch of class when a respected regional simply selects the biggest national sport story and displays it well, unashamed of where the teams are from.
This still left room for a good back-splash on Bristol Rugby telling a wayward player to stay away from training, and a second lead on a new loan deal for a Bristol City striker.
Other sports pages covered cricket, horse racing, golf, tennis and more football and rugby – and again the Press displayed wisdom with its choice of the best national, international and regional stories.
There was a story count of 195 on 39 editorial pages in a 44-page main book, plus a 12-page ‘Business’ pull-out containing that list of 150 top companies’ financial statistics, which felt worthy of the 70p cover price, especially given the length of the reads.
The Western Daily Press was selling 21,783 a day in the latest ABC figures that I could find, which was for the second half of 2013.
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Totally subjective and lacks any science.
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Front page far too crowded for my tastes.
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Front page looks like a weekly, no wonder sales have plummeted.
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Front page content looks very awkwardly compressed between outsized blurbs and bottom ad.
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Looks life the loaf’s the splash to me
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My first impression was that it just looks a right mess.
“the front’s conventional structure meant there was little chance of eyes going too astray, with the natural focus being the splash”
I’d say the natural focus would be on anything else displayed on the stands with a proper splash.
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You must need your eyes testing, that front page is migraine inducing.Why is there all that white space under the headline?
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What a mess!
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Free loaf offer given about as much space as lead story. That says it all I am afraid. I guess people in this area are starving.
This paper looks worthy enough but needs a good designer as the front is frankly a terrible mess.
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I’m baffled, Steve. You criticised the Bristol Post’s splash a couple of weeks ago, stating it had ‘a lack of page one design structure’.
Now you’re praising this front’s ‘conventional structure’. Really? From what I can see both are all over the place.
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Thanks for the input, ‘Consistency’. I see your point. My thinking is that WDP’s page one sections are based on levels, which make the busy-ness easier on the eye, whereas the Post’s sections were floating, which made it harder. The result is that my eyes are taken to the splash and I know where I am with WDP. I didn’t with the Post. Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, as suggested by ‘Long John Silver’…
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That’s a dog’s dinner of a front I’m afraid, Steven. Free loaf? Perhaps if the designer had used theirs they might have got a better result.
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Perhaps it was the skybox, but I thought at first sight this was a WDP from the Sixties! Amazingly, it still bears hallmarks of dear old Eric’s magical era. Happy Days!
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Paper’ll be brown bread if they keep producing front pages like that. Banner’s far too deep. Lead’s completely lost.
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Had I produced a front page like that I’d be toast.
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To be fair, once the ad and promotions departments had taken their slices, there wasn’t much that editorial could do with what was left…..so you get the worthy clouded by the throwaway..
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What a mess – hard to see how the reader is being guided towards the lead story. And why Steve do you always insist on using a scrumpled up scan of the printed version? Surely you can source a PDF of the original page to turn into a jpeg or png?
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Come off it, Steve. That front page is a mess. It’s a dog’s dinner. I’ve seen better attempts by schoolkids during Newspaper Week. Seven entry points, possibly. One exit point, certainly.
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well summed up AYE, WELL, UMMM.
Ads rule over news design nowadays. It is a dreadful front but it is not the news dept fault. With profit-hungry MDs looking at ad-editorial ratios very strictly it is no wonder papers look so messy, not just this one.
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