BIRMINGHAM POST'S "BRIGHT" LIGHT TO BE EXTINGUISHED

by Fred Bromwich
Vice-Chairman
Birmingham Press Club



So it looks like The Birmingham Post, in its new weekly (or should that be weakly) format is still going to give the business world a fair crack of the whip. Forty-odd pages or so of business content. But one much-loved institution is destined for the axe.

The John Bright Column, an incestuous weekly digest of gossip devoured by the Colmore Row brigade, will be no more. It'll be as dead as John Cleese's Norwegian Blue parrot.

Bright's Vicar on Earth, ex-Post business editor John Duckers, who compiles the column, was told the news in a call from God himself, Post Editor Marc Reeves - a man destined for reincarnation as he has also revealed that he will be heading for pastures new.

But love it or hate it, the Bright column was compulsive reading. Many people breathed a sigh of relief when certain indiscretions went unreported - but for the most part everyone was delighted to see their name in print, even when it was an embarrassment. A snippet in Bright was the oxygen they craved.

Will the devotees now start a petition to save Bright? Maybe. Would it achieve anything? Maybe not. The clamourings of some outraged readers and old hacks certainly couldn't dissuade Trinity Mirror from chopping the five-days-a-week Post from its diminishing stable of titles.

But as the Post plumps for an on-line future, then maybe even old-timers like Bright can change the habits of a lifetime.

Technology-embracing Duckers, a Luddite-reborn who can now talk twitter, blog, web, iPhone and iPod with the best of them, is seeking salvation for Bright in the world of new media.

The desire is to relaunch Bright on the web. But sponsorship is needed before that becomes a reality.

Will Bright's "victims" rally round to give him a new life?

Time will tell. So watch this space.