The Shropshire Star and Express & Star in Wolverhampton are to unveil new-look websites later this month.

Staff behind both sites, owned by the Midlands News Association, have taken a fresh look at them following the formation of the group's new digital arm, MNA Digital.

Shropshirestar.com and Expressandstar.com will be completely rebranded and include new features to increase reader interactivity.

Last weekend both sites launched a live text commentary service, where readers can log on to see news of all the goals, free kicks and penalties as they happen for all the local teams from Aston Villa to the Kidderminster Harriers.

A video bulletin service has also been launched on Expressandstar.com, which will be expanded once the new site goes live.

And the Shropshire Star is looking for readers keen to contribute to the new website in the form of a blog.

The Star's national news editor, Dave Burrows, already writes his own blog on the site and the paper is now particularly keen to hear from fans of Shrewsbury Town or AFC Telford United as well as a teenage reader.

The site's Chris Leggett told readers: "It will be your chance to speak to an online audience of around 100,000 unique users each month — a figure which is bound to soar as we launch a whole raft of new initiatives.

"The Shropshire Star is looking for three readers to write web logs or 'blogs' for our website as we get ready to launch a full site redesign."