A West Midlands daily had an unexpected sales boost as a result of the fire which ripped through the pier at Weston-super-Mare last month.

Brian Hughes, regional circulation manager for Wolverhampton’s Express & Star, loaded up a van with 500 copies of the newspaper and drove to the stricken town, arriving at 1.15pm.

With two colleagues, Brian set up a table on the front and sold all the newspapers within three hours, to both Weston-Super-Mare residents and holidaying West Midlanders.

Weston is a popular destination for Black Country folk, and the Express & Star’s unusual move was seen as reassurance that West Midlanders would continue to visit.

Said Brian: “I think us being on the front was seen as a gesture of solidarity by the residents of the town who were reeling from the accident.

“West Midlanders will continue to holiday in the town whether the pier is rebuilt or not.”

East London weekly the Tower Hamlets Recorder, an edition of the Newham Recorder which sold 350 copies in its own right, has been merged with the main paper.

The paper’s owners Archant said there would be no job losses as a result of the merger.

Outgoing Press Complaints Commission chairman Sir Christopher Meyer will give a presentation at the next Newspaper Society Council meeting on October 9.

Other items on the agenda include updates on the campaign against the BBC’s online video plans and reports on the NS budget for 2009.

The Isle of Wight County Press has been reaching a wide audience over the past week at the annual sailing festival in Cowes.

Twelve large high-definition screens have been installed in the town with each carrying headlines from the County Press alongside sailing action, weather reports and local advertising.

The commercial director of MEN Media Simon Toft has left the company after 20 years with parent company the Guardian Media Group in various roles.

Simon took on the commercial director role at the Manchester Evening News publisher as part of a management shake-up last year.