While the nation has been football crazy over the World Cup, it’s also been a boom time for local newspapers which have been bringing readers up-to-date match reports and analysis from Korea and Japan.

The national press has been forced to carry the same stories a day later, and the regionals have seen sales soar on key days – although pub lunches and days off work have reduced sales opportunities for street vendors armed with extra copies.

But it didn’t stop the fans and readers snapping them up in “football” cities like Manchester, where on the day of the lunchtime Argentina-England clash, the Evening News sold an extra 9,000 copies.

The England squad had no fewer than four Manchester United players in the squad and locals were keen to follow their fortunes. But copy was supplied by third-parties to regional newspapers in the UK and much of the work was done from the office.

An MEN spokesman said: “We are an evening paper in a footballing city.

“There was a lot of reader interest, demonstrated by the extra sales we recorded.

“As far as the newspaper is concerned it has been difficult to predict when people would be out on the streets so the overall result for us has been difficult to analyse.”

Fans in the east midlands were also making the most of the early coverage offered by the regionals.

At the Nottingham Evening Post, an extra 3,600 copies were sold on the Saturday of the England-Denmark clash after special editions were printed early in the afternoon. Other lunchtime matches involving England saw a sales boost of more than 1,000.

Jon Grubb, deputy editor of the Nottingham Evening Post, said: “We were confident our readers would be interested in up-to-the-minute coverage on all the world cup matches.”

That meant the early matches were covered by the later editions and for the 12.30pm kick-offs, the newspaper was re-plated and the press run to produce an extra 3,000 copies for selected “football” outlets.

“Of course, 7.30am was way too late for the nationals but a great opportunity for us. The team here has done a fantastic job and both editions have made the most of the possibilities,” said Jon.

The Colchester Evening Gazette was quick off the mark with its coverage of the England v Argentina match in the World Cup.

The paper held its presses for two hours until the final whistle blew on the game.

Fans across Colchester snapped up the first printed reports and pictures of the match from 3.15pm.

The Gazette’s presses on the Severalls Business Park thundered out 19,000 copies of a special edition in 45 minutes.

The front page picture showed fans in Colchester celebrating Beckham’s goal and the back featured words and pictures from the match.

But, the celebrations blocked attempts to get papers into the town centre as fans spilled onto the streets.

Senior editorial and newspaper sales staff carried bundles into the shops from the outskirts of the town and editor Irene Kettle sold copies on the steps of the office.

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