The Sunday Mercury is to expand its current East Midlands edition with the help of Don Hale.

The paper's existing coverage of Derby, Nottingham and Leicester mainly focuses on sport, and Hale has been brought on board to help pull together the news side of the operation, increasing the amount of local news the East Midlands edition has.

Mercury editor David Brookes said: "I can't say exactly how much more local news there will be. The sport changes will continue and we will have the facility to slip as many news pages into the paper as we want.

"Primarily this will be done with our existing staff together with Don Hale.

"We see ourselves as the Midlands paper, not just West Midlands, and this will give the paper more flavour for the people living in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.

"Rather than a new edition it is an extension of the East Midlands edition we already have and we will be increasing the number of outlets where the paper is available."

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