Saturday sports paper


In the UK, a Saturday sports paper was a local newspaper published on a Saturday evening containing information about sports matches played on that day. Throughout most of the twentieth century they were very popular, representing one of the few up to date sources of information available to sports fans. Gradually, circulations fell and all had ceased publication by December 2017.
Saturday sports papers were published locally, with a different paper produced in each area covering local teams in depth. They were often connected to the local newspaper. In Cardiff, for example, the Western Mail and Echo published the South Wales Sport Echo In all areas Saturday sports papers were commonly nicknamed according to the colour of the paper they were printed on, which usually was not white. The "sports pink" or "green 'un" were common names.
Most Saturday sports papers focus on football, providing match reports of games involving local teams and a full listing of final scores. Many also cover other traditional sports such as rugby or cricket and some have expanded into covering newer sports such as ice hockey. Saturday sports papers are published as soon after full-time as possible. Cardiff's South Wales Sports Echo was available to buy within twenty minutes of the end of the game, featuring half-time reports and full-time scores, with a fuller edition later in the evening. Many sports fans have fond memories of going out to buy a Saturday sports paper as soon as it was printed to find out how their team had done.
Before the advent of radio, Saturday sports papers were the only way most fans had of finding out sporting results and consequently they were very popular, some with circulations of more than 50,000. Since the start of the 21st century, however, Saturday sports papers declined dramatically in sales. Birmingham's Sports Argus, which used to be the biggest selling Saturday sports paper in the country, was one of many to be forced to close, publishing its last issue on 13 May 2006. Those that remained saw declining sales or switched to providing websites.
A number of factors have adversely affected the popularity of Saturday sports papers. Televised sport means that matches frequently do not take place on Saturday afternoons so they cannot be adequately covered by a Saturday evening publication. Another issue is the rise of alternative sources of information. The internet, mobile phones and teletext services also allowed sports fans to follow their team's progress without the need for Saturday sports papers.

The final titles

The Sheffield Star Green 'Un closed in the summer of 2013 and the Sunderland Echo Pink followed at the end of the same year. This left only two Saturday sports papers in existence - Portsmouth's Sports Mail which had only just been resurrected for the 2013-14 season and the Southern Daily Echo's Sports Pink.
The Sports Mail moved its publication date to a Sunday in October 2016. The Southern Daily Echo's Sports Pink therefore remained the final Saturday Sports paper until it too closed on 9 December 2017.

Notable former examples