A regional daily was the first to break the news that One Direction pop star Zayn Malik had got engaged to Perrie Edwards of Little Mix.

The Dorset Echo beat off competition from the world’s media to confirm the engagement, which followed speculation in The Sun after Perrie was pictured wearing a diamond ring at the premiere of the boy band’s movie in Leicester Square.

The Echo broke the story on its website on Wednesday morning and since then has been name checked in newspapers and websites across the globe, including the Daily Mail, Sky News and the New York Post, who cited the paper as the source of the story.

It confirmed the engagement after reporter Catherine Bolado spoke to Perrie’s mum, who lives in Weymouth.

Dorset Echo group editor Toby Granville said: “One Direction is the world’s biggest band right now – and the global media were waiting for Zayn and Perrie’s engagement to be confirmed.

“This is obviously an unusual story for a local paper to break, and more the remit of the nationals and entertainment media world.

“But thanks to the trust we’ve built up with Perrie’s family since her X Factor days, our scoop demonstrates that local papers can still break the big exclusives like the rest of them.”

Perrie was born and raised in Weymouth before moving to South Shields and many family members still live there.

The Echo has built close links with her family since she first auditioned for The X-Factor.