At time of writing, the only Albion related reading material regularly published is the official matchday programme - ‘Albion’. It can be found on sale on matchdays inside and outside the stadium.

It costs £3, which is near enough the same as everywhere else these days, and is an excellent read, signified by the fact that it has won a number of awards during the last few years including the prestigious Programme Monthly Championship Programme of the Year award for two successive seasons (2006/07 and 2007/08) as well as finishing runner-up in the Premier League Programme of the Year (2008/09).

For the 2009/10 season, the 100 page full colour programme contains extensive match reports of recent games, supporters’ news, photos and information, current and former player interviews and regular columns by club captain Scott Carson, supporters club chairman John Homer, Albion legend Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown, former Baggies’ midfielder Richard Sneekes and local radio ‘celeb’ Tom Ross.

‘Albion’ contains in depth historical coverage including for 2009/10 the serialisation of W.Ellery Jephcott's official history of the club which was originally published just following World War 2. This season's programmes also take a look back at the 1919/20 season, marking the 90th anniversary of Albion being crowned First Division Champions. It’s this historical aspect of the publication that perhaps sets it out from most others and makes it that little bit more readable.

As per the norm the programme also takes a look at the day’s visitors, a section which is improved from recent years although still is not as good as it could be.

Surprisingly, for such a large publication there is very little advertising which makes a welcome change.

The programme, which is designed and produced by CRE8, is very highly recommended by this writer.

THE LOCAL ‘RAGS’

On matchdays you will usually see vendors around the outside of the stadium selling one of the local newspapers - the Express and Star. The edition on sale will usually be the day’s lunchtime edition with a special outer page featuring more Albion coverage than the normal edition. Quite often, some sort of free gift, such as a poster or sticker, is included  too.

The paper costs 40p and is one of the best regional papers in the country. It’s local and international news and sport coverage is second to none. There are a number of editions printed covering different local areas including Wolverhampton, Walsall and Sandwell - the edition to be found in West Bromwich.

Also to be found in local newsagents is the Birmingham Mail - formerly the Birmingham Evening Mail. Depending on where you buy it you’ll pick up either a Birmingham or Black Country edition. Again it’s a very good read but for a lot of Black Country folk it’s generally inferior to the Express and Star. At time of writing it costs 42p.

THE 'PINKS'

For many years there were two local Saturday night ‘Pinks’ - the Sports Argus and the Sporting Star.  The 'Argus' came to an end in early 2006, ending its 109 year run, whilst the 'Star' ceased at the end of the 2008/09 season after 90 years of publication. For a long time the 'Argus' was undoubtedly the Midlands’ premier sports paper, indeed at one time it had the highest circulation of such a paper in the country.

The ‘Argus’ tended to be more Birmingham focused, giving more coverage to Aston Villa, Birmingham City and Albion whilst the ‘Star’ concentrated more on Wolverhampton Wanderers, Albion and Walsall, thus mirroring the parent papers - the Birmingham Mail and the Express and Star.

Both papers carried extensive match and news coverage of Albion, Wolves, Villa, Birmingham City and Walsall, as well as providing in depth non-league and junior football news and results. A few pages were also devoted to other sports, generally horse racing and boxing.

The Sports Argus does live on in name - a much smaller (and inferior) edition is printed and included as a supplement in its parent paper the Birmingham Mail twice weekly.

UNOFFICIALLY

With Albion fans being amongst the innovators of unofficial publications, it is surprising and somewhat sad that there are no longer any such publications produced and issued.

September 2006 saw the end of the club’s last unofficial publication - The Baggies Newspaper - whilst the club’s last fanzine - The Grorty Dick - came to an end in May 2005.

More on the history of the club’s various fanzines can be found here

Information correct as of December 2009