Dedicated staff at a regional daily went into overdrive to produce 20 pages of special coverage when their town’s football team clinched promotion.
The Express and Star in Wolverhampton placed key members of the editorial team on standby as Wolves needed one more win to climb out of League One and back to the Championship.
The in-form team duly celebrated a 2-0 win at 10-man Crewe – and a team of Express & Star reporters and photographers worked into the night on Saturday to provide extensive digital coverage as well as putting together copy for the newspaper.
Many were back in again on Sunday – along with a team of subs – to put together 20 pages of coverage including a 16-page promotion special.
Deputy editor Diane Davies said: “Everyone had been primed and ready for action for weeks – we were just waiting for the day to come.
“As soon as it did, everyone flew into action to bring unrivalled and extensive coverage of the promotion and the celebrations both online and in print.
“It was a fantastic effort across the whole news operation.”
Online, fans had already been primed to send in their pictures and their stories with the offer of £100 for the best efforts.
The Express & Star received a flood of selfies from the game which will be used to create a poster of head coach Kenny Jackett’s face.
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With all that bad news yesterday, you’ve got to hand it to the staff. No credit or anything to anyone involved in the management at any level, but lots to those who grafted while under the shadow of redundancy. It does prove why newspapers have been able to get away with treating staff with contempt for so long – just too much professional pride – but kudos to you still.
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Paper does job
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16 pages?! Wolves won promotion from League One not the sodding Champions League! The E&S tends to go a little OTT especially when it comes to their local football team. I remember when Wolves beat Manchester United at Molineux in the Premier League in the 2003/04 season and the E&S ran the headline: The day Wolverhampton shook the world – I think their sports desk got a little too excited, just like they have here.
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Spot on Scoop, unfortunately. So many papers are completely reliant on the goodwill of their staff and the managers probably don’t even realise.
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