Food fight: Would you like a newspaper with that?

By Streetly Spy (our man in Brum with his mouth full)
Breaking news has arrived of the latest marketplace tussle between the Birmingham Mail and the Wolverhampton-based Express & Star.
You may remember that this blog last week revealed how the Express & Star had successfully encroached into Birmingham city centre, placing live news bill boards next to empty Mail ones. Well now the tables have been turned as both papers launched special food offers to readers yesterday.
The Express & Star promised a “FREE SAUSAGE ROLL... with our great giveaway voucher from Greggs”, while the Mail had a “Great offer for every reader FREE CHEESE COB”.
Both sound tasty, you might think. But this time the Mail is streets ahead, with the cob worth £1.40 against the 58p sausage roll. The Mail’s cheeky too... choosing the Black Country-based Firkins bakers as its supplier. And to top it all, the Mail’s small print won the day, with the offer available at any branch, clearly stating that “Firkins has shops across Birmingham and the Black Country”. This was the case in its Birmingham AND Black Country editions.
Meanwhile, any purchasers of the Express & Star’s Birmingham edition were greeted with less pleasing small print that restricted the geography of the offer: “Valid at any Greggs shop in Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall and the Black Country.”