So as Gordon Brown arrived in Birmingham yesterday for the first Cabinet meeting held outside London since 1921, the West Midlands daily was ready with a special edition welcoming him and his colleagues to the region.

It was also able to offer the Prime Minister some friendly advice on the issues important to the people of the West Midlands.

It commissioned Brummie historian Professor Carl Chinn and Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby to write articles. And its political editor John Hipwood travelled up with the politicians from his office in Westminster to be in Birmingham to cover the meeting.

The special edition, complete with the banner headline Welcome to the West Midlands, became something of a talking point with Cabinet members who passed it around ahead of their historic meeting.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith posed for pictures reading it and several television news channels used it to illustrate the interest the event was creating in the West Midlands.

Deputy editor Keith Harrison said: "As our deadlines run right up until 2.30pm we were able to update the content throughout the day, including pictures from inside the meeting at 1.30pm for our main edition. Beyond that, there was coverage on our website www.expressandstar.com and traffic on the internet was very busy indeed.

"It was a great example of old-fashioned journalism, breaking late news on a historic day for the West Midlands and the whole E&S team performed magnificently."