Which to choose- 2 column spreads

That awkward moment when:

- you make two versions of something and they both have their good and bad parts, so you can't choose which one to hand in at the end of the week.

In the first version I like the splash page better, but the article on the next two pages are horrible (except for the big pull quote on the right, and the image on the left framed by text.

But on the second version I like the blue stripes across the page and the icy banner at the top, but the splash page is crap and the sub-heading is weird.

Also, they both look cold, whereas the whole point of the article is the fact that the Arctic is melting.
I probably should have done a "melting" kind of spread design.