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Royal Wedding ‘first’ for top-selling regional daily

The UK’s biggest-selling regional daily has claimed to be the first newspaper in Britain to hit the newsstands on Friday with photos of the Royal Wedding.

Wolverhampton-based daily the Express & Star said its Cannock edition was on sale at 11.35am, featuring the first photos of Prince William and Kate Middleton at the altar – just 35 minutes after the start of the ceremony.

The title said it had 10 reporters and photographers in London from dawn to cover the event.

Following publication of its first edition, pictured below, further ones followed at 12 noon, 12.15pm, 1pm and 2pm.

All its editions contained a 20-page wedding supplement which was updated throughout the day.

The paper also produced another 24-page wedding supplement on Saturday and a 96-page glossy souvenir magazine which went on sale separately.

Regional papers across the country also published special editions to mark the Royal Wedding.

At the Shropshire Star, its seven editions, one of which is below, included a commemorative 20-page supplement, as well as seven pages of news on the occasion, with journalists reporting from London and at local celebrations.

The Lancashire Evening Post produced an eight-page wrap of pictures from local schools for its first edition on the day of the wedding.

It then produced a special late edition, below, replacing the wrap with eight pages of Royal Wedding coverage, ensuring the first picture of the kiss on the balcony rolled off the presses within the hour and was in the shops shortly after.

Reporter Melanie Wallwork travelled to the capital with a bus full of readers and filed copy from the scene with a local flavour. 

At the Manchester Evening News, a special city centre free edition was produced featuring the wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey, pictured below.

And the paper sent 21 reporters to cover at least 83 street parties for the title and its sister weeklies, while they also contributed to a live blog.

At the Lincolnshire Echo, reporter Philippa Stewart, who is an ardent royalist, ended up being taken to hospital by ambulance after hurting her ankle.

Philippa, pictured below, was supposed to be covering as many street parties as possible but tripped shortly after arriving at the first one at RAF Scampton.

She was taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle but managed to file quotes from the party from the ambulance.

Assistant news editor Emma Pearson said: “As it happened, her ankle wasn’t broken, it was just soft tissue damage, but I don’t think it was the royal wedding day she had planned!”

The weekly Yellow Advertiser series published its papers the day before the wedding, with its front page featuring two local namesakes of Kate Middleton and William Windsor, who met for the first time.

It also included an interview with the Sun’s Royal photo Arthur Edwards, who lives on the patch, as well as an art competition, poetry competition and ‘name a beer’ competition run in conjunction with a local brewery.

And Newcastle daily The Journal featured the Royal couple leaving Westminster Abbey on Saturday and also produced a special souvenir supplement with full coverage of the event.

4 comments

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  • May 3, 2011 at 3:38 pm
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    The dreaded ‘people’s’ adjective, Can sub editors, like, get over this now? As the young ‘uns say.

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  • May 4, 2011 at 12:36 pm
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    This is what happens when you refuse to give your assistant news editor a bribe…
    Also, I object to the flagrantly inaccurate use of the term ‘ardent royalist,’ a more accurate description would be ‘reluctant wedding hack.’

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  • May 4, 2011 at 1:37 pm
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    As I recall, the moment Emma revealed how Philippa was to be royal correspondent for the day, the response was unprintable!

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