Farewell to 'The Pink'

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

End of era

 

Dec 18 2005

 

By Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

 

 

The final Pink rolls off the press

 

They think it's all over . . . it is now, after The Pink published its last-ever edition yesterday.

 

Our sister sports paper, on its distinctive coloured paper stock, bowed out after 110 years of reporting from the touchline.

 

And it really was the end of an era when the final whistle blew on a glorious tradition of print journalism in the region.

 

Generations of Newcastle United fans grew up waiting for the paper to hit the streets after watching the game.

 

 

Evening Chronicle editor Paul Robertson heaped praise on The Pink yesterday as he supervised the final print-run carrying reports of yesterday's away match at West Ham.

 

But he said closure was inevitable following changes in football which saw fewer Saturday matches.

 

He said: "Football has changed, readers' habits have changed and we're changing with them. We have done everything we can to try and keep The Pink going but it has become clear over the last two years that this decision was inevitable.

 

"Last season, only 14 out of United's 38 games were played on Saturdays with kick-offs at 3pm or earlier. It is a similar story this year with 10 blank Saturdays out of 21 up until the turn of the year."

 

The Pink, one of the country's oldest sports papers, was launched in 1895 . . . only 10 years after the Chronicle's launch. The switch to pink paper was at the start of the 1963-1964 season.

 

Some of the content will now be switched to the Sunday Sun and some will appear in the normal editions of the Chronicle.

 

And, just as The Pink was an innovation in its time, new technology will have a part to play as we plan for the future.

 

We will be publishing Newcastle United match reports straight after the game on our icnewcastle website, www.icnewcastle.co.uk

 

Evening Chronicle deputy sports editor, Stuart Jamieson, who last night helped put together the last ever Pink, said: "I remember waiting in the packed local newsagents as a young lad for the Pink van to arrive at 6pm on a Saturday night.

 

"It was the only place you could read about that day's Newcastle game, plus see how all the local non-league teams had got on.

 

"But, with new technology, that information is available on your mobile phones and TV instantly these days.

 

"It is the end of an era, and it's sad to see a North East institution finally close."

 

Suppose its time has gone now with fewer and fewer games being played at the traditional 3pm Saturday time and instant results services via the media and internet. Shame though.

[Meenzer 15718]

There goes another childhood institution... Saturday evenings, fish and chips, can of Vimto and the Pink.

 

[spongebob toonpants 4134]

Farewell to the pink. Last post Meenzer. Thats what I call irony

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Straight back from the match, our lercal would have it delivered and my faffa would buy me a copy and send me home while he stayed on for a few more pints. I haven't read it in ages tbh, but I always got it for the non-league results which you would then find out in the Sunday Sun were the wrong scores anyway.

[Renton 22001]

I used to get it after a Saturday home match if I was staying out in Newcastle, but only if we'd won.....

 

Which ended up being about 3 times a year maximum.

[Smooth Operator 10]

I used to get it just to see my name up in lights when I scored for my Sunday league team! Me and my mates used to sit in the pub and do the Pink quiz on a Saturday night, happy days them.

 

Well at least it's sister paper (The Brown) is still going strong, Wacky has been promoted to editor now!

[Jill 0]

I've not read it in years but when I first started going to the match my dad used to buy me one all the time and I loved it.

[Albert Kirkey 0]

Lots of memories about my Dad sending down the newsagents on a saturday teatime to go and get the Pink for him, and some sweets for myself for going.

 

Favourite ever Pink memory, after Quinny's four goal debut against Leeds in 1989, nearly being home but seeing the Chronny van pull in with the Pinks, and buying one.

 

Magic day that

[Renton 22001]

Got to admit I'm kind of hearing the music from the Hovis ad in some of these posts!

[Albert Kirkey 0]

110 years though, didn't realise it had been going as long as that.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Got to admit I'm kind of hearing the music from the Hovis ad in some of these posts!

69525[/snapback]

 

Have the voices in your head finally put a band together?

[Rob W 0]

I can remember when there was a "Green" as well in N & S Shields and Wallsend.......................