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Saturday, 17 December 2005, 05:05 GMT

Final whistle for sports weekly

Newcastle United v Sunderland One of the UK's oldest sports papers is being published for the final time.

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle's Saturday night sports paper is closing after 110 years because so few fixtures are now played on Saturday afternoons.

Last season only 14 of Newcastle United's 38 Premiership matches were on Saturday afternoons and this year there have been 10 empty Saturdays out of 21.

The Chronicle's editor says it will be switching much of The Pink's content to its weekday papers and website.

"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," Paul Robertson added.

Matches moved

"Football has changed, readers' habits have changed and we're changing with them."

The demands of television have had an impact on kick-off times in all professional sports, especially football, where pay-TV has prompted matches to be moved to Sundays, weekdays and evenings.

This has hit the sales of Saturday night sports papers like The Pink.

"This is something which is out of our control and has made The Pink unsustainable as a separate product," Mr Robertson said.



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Related to this story:
Earlier is better for Sunderland (12 Jun 05 |  Wear )
Storm over Sunday soccer (30 Oct 01 |  Northern Ireland )
Police fears over late kick-offs (28 Jul 01 |  Scotland )
Sunday football creating 'battlegrounds' (13 May 99 |  UK News )

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