The Newcastle Evening Chronicle brought readers its “biggest story of the year” – the sacking of Sir Bobby Robson – after stopping the presses mid-way through printing its bank holiday edition.

Confirmation of the sacking of the Newcastle United boss reached Evening Chronicle chief sports writer Alan Oliver just before 10am on Monday, leading to calls to ‘Stop Press!’ to allow the front and back pages to be changed.

Around 30 per cent of the run had already been completed by this stage.

And after a 30-minute break while copy and pages were prepared, a new-look edition was published with the majority of papers already in shops replaced with the new edition and around 12,000 extra copies sent to outlets.

How Chronicle broke the news

Editor Paul Robertson paid tribute to the paper’s editorial, newspaper sales and production departments for the quick change-round.

He said: “Our readers are passionate about Newcastle United and recent events have created huge interest. Rumours were rife about Sir Bobby’s future and we put contingency plans in place for the bank holiday weekend.

“However, the fact that it happened as the paper was actually being printed made it vital we got it right. The team got the stories written and the pages prepared, and the presses were running again within 30 minutes.

“Many outlets close early on bank holidays and we had to get the biggest story of the year for us to our readers before the shops closed.

“This would not have happened without the professionalism and dedication of all the staff involved.”

The Chronicle followed up the story with 17 pages of coverage the next day, including an eight-page supplement entitled The Robson Years, and early indications show a significant increase in sales of Monday’s edition, with many outlets selling out.

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