About

Brad Needham: a lover of all things newspapers, but especially design

I am an award-winning newspaper designer who is particularly proud of the three Society for News Design awards I won during my time at the now-shuttered-but-never-forgotten Guelph Mercury in Ontario, Canada. I have also worked for and designed for the Toronto Star, Barrie Examiner (RIP), Woodstock Sentinel-Review, Red Deer Advocate, Fort McMurray Today, and more. I have been working in newspapers since 1999, including my internships at small papers in northern Alberta and B.C.

I am also a proud alum of Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, where I originally studied to be a photographer and/or sports journalist. Neither of those things happened, though I was fortunate enough to be able to take lots of pictures as a reporter in Red Deer, Alberta, where I was a features reporter.

After a brief stint away from Pagemasters North America, where we did print production for the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press in Newport News, Winnipeg Free Press, and more, I returned in 2021 as the director of editorial development. In my year away, I was the Design Studio manager at St. Joseph Communications before landing at Postmedia as the assistant managing editor of its print production centre. There I briefly got to do some design again, and loved it.

I am passionate about print media. While I know it’s going through a tough time, I am here to support it until the long-promised and predicted end.

Disclaimer and other important information

Images: First, thank you to all the newspapers for the covers I am presenting here. I am using them under fair use, as I am critiquing and maybe educating, but all my critiquing is positive. So if you’re on here, I think you’re great. To the best of my knowledge all the images are PDFs and not photographs, but if I see a photographer credit, I will add it if I use the page in full.

Commenting: You are free to share your opinions here, however, this site is to celebrate newspaper design. If you post something overly critical, I will delete it. This is not a violation of free speech. This is my site, and a site for newspaper lovers like me. If you want to be critical, you’re not my target audience. There are lots of places you go to pile on newspapers. They’d be happy to have you. If you want to send me a message directly, newspaper lovers or haters alike, feel free.

Sharing: Share links at will. And when possible give credit to the publication. It is the designers and newsrooms at these organizations that make anything I do possible.

Have something to say? Please reach out. I want to hear from you.