HISTORY
OF THE ALBION NEWS
Albion's first in depth match day programme was published for the
1905-06 season. The first issue was for the home League game with
Burnley on Saturday, 2 September 1905.
It comprised of eight
pages and only cost one old penny, and it is believed that 2,000
copies were printed. By 1907 the Albion News enjoyed a circulation of
5,000 copies per match and had readers as far as a field as Canada,
West Africa and Singapore.
The editor of the Albion programme for many years was Mr Harry Keys,
who even though a director of the club, chose to sit in the press box
rather than with his fellow board members in their own box. Between
1915 and 1919 the Albion News was not published (owing to World War
1) and from 1940 through to 1945 it was
produced on a restricted scale; because of a paper restriction.
Throughout the late
1940's and the 1950's the programme was a basic two colour
publication, but once into the 1960's - after Peerless Press had
taken over the printing from Joseph Wones Ltd (West Bromwich) - it
gradually improved in both content and cover price.
At the start of the
1969-70 season, the Albion News became much more of a magazine than a
programme and under the editorship of commercial manager, Les
Thornley, it was voted top football programme in the country.
Progress regarding content and design continued to be made and in
1974 a multi- coloured front cover was seen for the first time.
Ever since then,
the much collected (and circulated) Albion News has been printed in
many different sizes increasing from 24 to 48 pages, 64 to 100
pages where it stands at today, as well as rising steadily in price:
30p, 40p, 50p, 60p (1985 -32 pages), 70p, 80p, £1.00, £1.20,
£1.50, £2.00, £2.50, £3.00 (the latter being the cover price from
the start of the 03/04 season for 100 pages) and yet it has still
been regarded as one of the best soccer programmes in the country,
picking up several awards under a variety of editors, including
Gordon Dimbleby, statistician Tony Matthews, Gordon Bennett and Tom
Cardall, with excellent contributions and photographs coming in
from various sources.
NB: Prior to 1905 most clubs (including
Albion) used to
issue one - page team sheets rather than programmes.
