The Manchester Evening News has produced a special late edition paying tribute to legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson after he announced his retirement.
The paper, which is normally printed overnight, produced an on-the-day edition with six pages of coverage and a poster front page about this morning’s dramatic events at Old Trafford when Sir Alex announced his departure after 26 years in charge.
Rumours of Sir Alex’s imminent retirement emerged last night and made front page headlines in earlier editions of the Trinity Mirror title and on its website before the special edition hit the streets at noon.
The MEN is also producing a souvenir edition tomorrow which will carry a 32-page pullout about the reign of the most successful manager in English club history, as well as a standalone souvenir publication which will go on sale on Friday.
The MEN's special late edition was produced after Sir Alex Ferguson announced his retirement.
Editor-in-chief Rob Irvine said: “It’s a heck of a week to be a journalist in Manchester! Red fans in the office are unsurprisingly emotional about the end of an era but there is fevered speculation about who will fill Sir Alex’s shoes.”
The website team in the MEN’s offices were at work early this morning updating a live blog as Sir Alex arrived at Manchester United’s training ground prior to the announcement.
Sir Alex retires on 19 May but his last home game is on Sunday and the MEN will have full coverage of the day.
And not to disappoint the Blue half of the city, the MEN will also report on Manchester City’s bid for FA Cup glory on Saturday when they take on Wigan Athletic at Wembley.
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‘Newspaper Fulfils Remit’ shock.
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Is that Harold Evans?
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The Liverpool Echo should do a similar one, only saying good riddance.
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Maybe this is Nigel Clough’s moment to step up to the big time.
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Wow they pulled together a whole six pages!
Jesus that really must have taken a lot of effort!
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It does show you how quickly the media landscape has moved when you consider that a newspaper reporting news on the day is deemed worthy of mentioning.
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“71-year-old man retires from well-paid job” – big deal.
I find it astonishing that some stupid soccerball story is considered worthy of such downright hysteria.
How many pages of real news will be displaced in the MEN over the next goodness knows how many weeks until this feverish nonsense dies down and people get a grip on reality once more?
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It will never catch on. . .
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All Subbed Out.
It is a good job you are.
What a clueless buffoon you are. It is a huge story. The MEN should have had 20 pages in the edition today.
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Not wishing to quibble but has he actually quit? He’s retiring and will be taking on an ambassador role at the club, that doesn’t strike me as quitting.
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Whether you like ‘soccerball’ or not, this will be the main topic of conversation in Manchester’s pubs tonight.
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Not everybody goes to the pub in Manchester. In fact, many have closed down.
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Same day news is like soooooooo, errrr, yesterday.
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On a design note, why use a 10+year old picture? Carling haven’t sponsored the Premier League for ages. Looks a bit naff.
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What whingers! I for one was extremely curious as to how much the MEN would do on it. Particularly as Fergie had made similar murmurings in the past. Worth more than six pages though
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