The Express & Star and the Shropshire Star responded to the lunchtime announcement to turn around in-depth coverage in time for their afternoon print times.
Express & Star chief news editor Becky Woods said: “The 12.50pm announcement of Baroness Thatcher’s death gave the editorial team only 40 minutes until the City Final edition deadline.
“Within 20 minutes, we had spoken to more than a dozen local MPs and other community figures for their reaction.
“We had a feature on her visits and connections to the region. In total, we put together four pages in 40 minutes, with the entire front page dedicated to the story.
“It was a tremendous effort by all the team, backed by extensive coverage and reaction on Expressandstar.com.”
The Shropshire Star managed to complete 12 pages of coverage on the death of Baroness Thatcher, helped by its 3pm same-day print.
The coverage included four news pages and an eight-page pull-out that chronicled Lady Thatcher’s life and times, both during her visits to Shropshire and her role nationally and internationally.
Acting editor Mark Drew said: “It was a magnificent effort by everybody involved, especially the sub editors who had the task of putting the coverage together.
“It is only when a huge story like this breaks right on deadline that you appreciate how talented some of the people around you are.
“It was a great job and provided our readers with a great product that captured the enormity of the news.”
Both titles gathered social media reaction from followers on Twitter and Facebook, along with dozens of reader comments via Shropshirestar.com and Expressandstar.com. Video journalist Nicky Butler produced a vox pop film of reaction on the streets of Wolverhampton.
Staff are continuing to work through the night to provide full coverage for Tuesday’s papers, which will include a 16 page pullout.
