Our annual contest to find the best regional newspaper front page of the last 12 months is under way again – and we want your help to find the winner.
We are today publishing a long-list of contenders featuring some of the best front pages that we have featured on the site during 2018.
Now we are inviting HTFP readers to submit their own nominations before we whittle it down to a final shortlist of 10 for our final vote which will open next week.
Voting will continue over the Christmas and New Year period with the winner announced in January.
Last year the annual poll was won by a weekly title, the Warrington Guardian, with a moving front page tribute to local band Viola Beach, whose members died in a car accident in Sweden.
And the Newsquest-owned Guardian is among the contenders again this year with its commemoration of another tragic event affecting the town – the Warrington bombing of 1993.
Coverage of the wintry weather arising from the ‘Beast from the East’ in March features in nominations for two Scottish titles, the Daily Record and the Fife Free Press.
By contrast the summer heatwave led to an invasion of jellyfish off the Kent Coast – and a striking front page from the Folkestone and Hythe Express.
The death of physicist Stephen Hawking led two rival Cambridge newspapers to produce their own front page tributes, and both are nominated here.
Other big stories reflected in the list include the 70th anniversary of the birth of the NHS (Swindon Advertiser), the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One (the Northern Echo,) the death of footballing great Jimmy Armfield (Blackpool Gazette) and the helicopter crash which killed Leicester City owner Khun Vichai (Leicester Mercury).
There are also two front pages in which newspapers highlighted particular social issues affecting their patch, from a spate of drugs-related deaths (Dundee Evening Telegraph) to rising homelessness (Daily Record.)
But if your favourite isn’t in the list, and you think it should be, just drop us a line at [email protected] or have your say in the comments.
Here is our long-list in full.
Jimmy Armfield 1935-2018 – Blackpool Gazette
We’re Three Cans Deep – Daily Record
‘Remember to look up at the stars…’ – Cambridge Independent
Salute to our snow heroes – Fife Free Press
Warrington bombing 25 years on – Warrington Guardian
Goodbye Professor – Cambridge News
72 Dead – Dundee Evening Telegraph
Manchester terror attack – one year on – Manchester Evening News
Every 18 mins – Daily Record
This is where it all began – Swindon Advertiser
Invasion of the Jellyfish – Folkestone and Hythe Express
Cut Out Your Own Cop – Edinburgh Evening News
A City in Mourning – Leicester Mercury
1918-2018 – The Northern Echo
May blanked out after press conference ban – The National
…and here are the ones you think should be on the list, based on nominations sent in or tweeted by HTFP readers.
They’re Coming – The Argus, Brighton
A Lasting History of Time – Cambridge News
The Secret Police – Greenock Telegraph
Blood red memorial – Campbeltown Courier
Keep them coming to [email protected] or via @journalism_news on Twitter.
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Its a difficult choice,,,,,,,,, as they are all so very average. If these are the best 10 front pages the regional press can come up with, no wonder sales are down so much every year. But will go with the MEN as they made more effort than the rest, and not so messy.
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I think you are being extremely harsh Dave.
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MEN and Northern Echo for me. I think the Echo nudges it, poignant and well executed – just the sort of thing readers expect from their local paper.
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Not very inspiring bunch of front pages. One or two are poor. Hope something better emerges but I am not holding my breath
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Very amusing that the Record and the Nat Onal are both classed as regional news papers, especially given the former is in the national ABCs. Once upon a time the CQ management would be outraged at being classed as such. These days they’ve so few readers nobody notices…
The MEN cover, clearly, stands out as the finest among those ones, although the Gazette, the Echo and the Mercury’s use of a single bold photograph is excellent. Given the lazy output at Renfield St it’s hard to tell if the Nat Onal cover is a deliberate choice or just poor production, but it’s absolutely no right being in that list.
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I think, Paul, there is a point from Dave S.
The full page picture splash is sometimes spot on. But the pictures used in some of these examples aren’t that good.
White space in a headline? Ouch. But I’m told the effort goes into the web edition and sod the front page in print.
I like the effort and thought of the Daily Record, applaud the MEN’s simple and poignant cover, but think the Northern Echo trumped it. I only hope the coverage inside did the wraparound justice.
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gosh, not much there is there! and someone needs to tell HTFP that someone’s accidentally put the Folkestone Express in the mix. That front page is an eyesore.
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Driven to the Folkestone front by above comment. What bugs me is Over-70s is split in headline, and the use of arrive and arrival in heads is poor.
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Aye, Northern Echo.
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