A “mutiny” by the sports desk and an overwhelmingly negative reaction on social media prompted the Times to change its front page on Tuesday night to include the verdict of the inquest into the Hillsborough stadium disaster.

The verdict was not on the front page of the first edition, but a picture of a man shovelling snow was replaced with an image of relatives of the families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died. The masthead was changed to highlight coverage inside the newspaper under the heading: “Hillsborough: an end at last to the smears and lies.”

The failure to run the story in early editions, despite its dominance of all broadcast news on the day, prompted Sue Roberts, the sister of one of the victims, to express her outrage against the Times and the Sun, both owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Roberts, the secretary of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, whose brother Graham died in the 1989 tragedy, said she had come to expect little more from the two daily newspapers. “It is an utter disgrace, but it’s not a surprise. They have never changed,” she said.

“I will never buy the Sun newspaper and now I will never buy the Times either.”

The Sun has been subject to a boycott in Liverpool since the notorious “The Truth” headline in 1989 that accused the victims of appalling behaviour, an allegation that was dismissed by a jury on Tuesday, which ruled that the 96 victims had been unlawfully killed. The Sun has subsequently apologised for this front page, which it said was based on official confirmation, but made no comment on Wednesday on its decision to run a front page story about the prime minister and his team using WhatsApp as its splash.

Such was the strength of internal and external feeling that the Times, along with its News Corp stablemate, had ignored the story that 96 people were unlawfully killed, that it put out a statement confessing to an error rather than a conspiracy.

We've been criticised today for not having Hillsborough on our first edition front page. This is our response: pic.twitter.com/GNhBN6g3S1 — The Times of London (@thetimes) April 27, 2016





John Witherow, the Times editor, told the Guardian: “We made a mistake. We put it right.”

Insiders dismissed any suggestion that a visit by Murdoch to the Times newsroom on Tuesday, the day of the verdict, had anything to do with the editorial decision.

The Sun has been repeatedly criticised over the years for its “The Truth” headline.

Murdoch, a known admirer of Kelvin Mackenzie, the then Sun editor responsible for the front page, who writes a column for the paper, has been spending much more time in London since his wedding to Jerry Hall earlier this year.

Times staffers in the sports department joined Twitter users in expressing their outrage over the decision to demote the story about the vindication of a 27-year campaign for justice to an inside spread and the sports pages. Such was the strength of feeling following the omission from the first edition that one person close to the sports department said it amounted to “mutiny”.

“To say there’s anger about it is an understatement,” the source said.

Tony Barrett, the Merseyside football writer for the Times, was praised online on Wednesday after he apologised for his paper’s failure to cover the story. He later flew to Madrid with the Liverpool team.

To everyone who's been let down I'm so sorry. — Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) April 27, 2016

Sources said those who complained about the Times front page included Henry Winter, the paper’s chief football writer, who was hired from the Telegraph, the sports editor and the head of sport.

Oliver Kay, the chief football correspondent at the Times, tweeted his support for the changed second edition before commenting on the Times statement.

Statement from @thetimes recognising "mistake" re 1st-edition coverage of Hillsborough. I'm pleased to see this https://t.co/amydHNm7qa — Oliver Kay (@OliverKayTimes) April 27, 2016

The former England captain Gary Lineker was among those who complained about the incident on Twitter.

As disgusting as it is unsurprising. They have no shame. https://t.co/qKnngxoynh — Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) April 26, 2016

David Walsh, the chief sports writer at the Sunday Times, called the decision a “shocking misjudgment”. He suggested that areas such as Liverpool were unlikely to have received the later edition.

I live in a part of England that receives first edition of The Times. Failure to put Hillsborough on front page a shocking misjudgement. — David Walsh (@DavidWalshST) April 27, 2016

The Times splashes on the Hillsborough panel report in 2012. Photograph: The Times

A Times spokesperson said: “The Times led with Hillsborough coverage on all our digital editions throughout the day. This morning we have covered it extensively in the paper with two spreads, the back page, a top leader and an interactive on the victims.”



The paper’s decision to dedicate the front page to four other stories and a masthead promoting “status handbags” was in marked contrast to its response in 2012, when an independent panel produced a report that represented the first official vindication for the campaigners.

Then, when the paper was edited by James Harding, the Times splashed on the news and went on to allow its then football correspondent Tony Evans to criticise the Sun the following Saturday. Evans, a scouser and the paper’s longstanding football editor with oversight of its the Game supplement, quit last November to go freelance.

The Sun made no comment on its decision to splash on the story about the prime minister.