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 ‘ALBION’
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 the prestigious Programme Monthly Championship Programme of the Year award for two successive seasons. For the 2007/08 season, the 100 page full colour programme contains extensive match reports of recent games, plenty of supporters’ news, photos and info as well regular columns by club captain Jonathan Greening, the larger than life Ron Atkinson, Albion legend Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown, former Baggies’ midfielder Richard Sneekes, local radio ‘celeb’ Tom Ross and even the club’s chaplain! ‘Albion’ also contains in depth historical coverage including the serialisation of Albion legend Jeff Astle’s book ‘Striker’. 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 although that section is not perhaps 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 is included too. The paper costs 38p 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 40p. THE 'PINKS'
The ‘Argus’ tended to be more Birmingham focused, giving more coverage to Aston Villa, Birmingham City and Albion whilst the ‘Star’ concentrates more on Wolverhampton Wanderers, Albion and Walsall, thus mirroring the parent papers - the Birmingham Mail and the Express and Star. The Sporting Star can be found in local shops and newsagents from around six o’clock on a Saturday evening and currently costs 35p for around 40 pages. As well as extensive match and news coverage of Albion, Wolves, Villa, Birmingham City and Walsall, there is also in depth non-league and junior football news whilst a few pages are devoted to other sports, generally horse racing and boxing. 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 March 2008 | ||||
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