Northcliffe Web site breaks news of foreign football buyout

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Tuesday 16 November 1999

News of Britain’s first football club buyout by a foreign consortium was yesterday announced via Staffordshire Sentinel Newspaper Ltd's This is Staffordshire Web site.

News of the £6.5 million (66%) buyout of Stoke City soccer club was reported on the www.stokecity.co.uk Web site, which is produced and managed by the new media arm of Stoke-on-Trent-based Staffordshire Sentinel Newspapers.

The site covered 18 different news stories, pictures, comments and provided the full story as the new Icelandic chairman announced the news at a press conference.

Sentinel new media director Rudd Apsey said: "It meant that no matter where they were in the world, Stoke City fans could read the news as it was happening. It was a striking example of what can be achieved through the immediacy of the Internet."

With huge Icelandic interest in the take over, Apsey's new media team also placed advertising in the Icelandic Daily News to direct readers to the Stoke City site.

The Stoke City site can be accessed directly via www.stokecity.co.uk or from its hosting site This is Staffordshire.

This Is Staffordshire is one of 18 community Web sites owned by * Northcliffe Newspapers Group Limited. The other 17 are:

This is Cornwall
This is Derbyshire
** This is Essex
This is Exeter
This is Gloucestershire
This is Grimsby
This is Hull and East Yorkshire
This is Kent and East Sussex
This is Leicestershire
This is Lincolnshire
This is North Devon
This is North Scotland
This is Nottingham
This is Plymouth
This is South Devon
This Is South Wales
This is Scunthorpe

  • Northcliffe Newspapers is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust.
    • Jointly owned by Northcliffe Newspapers Group Limited and Newsquest Essex.

For further information contact:
Staffordshire Sentinel Newspapers Ltd: Rudd Apsey, New Media Director
Tel: 01782 602525
E-mail: rudd@dial.pipex.com