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.

WILL POST AND MAIL JOURNALISTS HAVE A BALL?

by Philip Parkin, Operations Director, Birmingham Press Club

It’s the Press Club’s annual ball this evening, and no doubt a hot topic of conversation will be the changes to the ‘Post’ and ‘Mail’ revealed a few days ago by the owner of the titles, Trinity Mirror.

There will certainly be plenty of ‘Post’ and ‘Mail’ employees at the Ball – not least because our chairman, John Lamb, came up with the idea of donating tickets to the event to those at Fort Dunlop (or Funlop, as we hear it is called).

It will be interesting to hear what the ‘Post’ and ‘Mail’ staffers think of this week’s events, but I can’t believe many of them will be overjoyed at what’s happened, least of all the sub-editors, many of whom will be in line for the tap on the shoulder.

That’s because the ‘Post’ and ‘Mail’ are set to adopt a system called ‘smart templating’, where the reporters flow their own copy into a page template, thus eliminating the role of the down table sub.

It’s not clear to me who then puts the headline on – if that is to become the reporter’s job as well, then you don’t really need any subs at all.

One other potential problem with this system – as everyone in the media knows, it is not a good idea to proof your own work, as it is very easy to miss things you have just written and got wrong.

So, for journalists, subs were always a good fall-back, not just for checking the facts were right, but also for making sure spelling and grammar were correct.

My question is: who’s going to do that now? If anyone knows the answer, or has a view, post a comment below.

Now, turning to the major measures announced by Trinity Mirror, namely the ‘Post’ going weekly and the ‘Mail’ going overnight.

I said in my previous post that I would not give the weekly ‘Post’ much hope of a long and happy existence. Frankly, I would have thought the alternative that Trinity Mirror apparently considered, namely reducing the pagination, was a much better idea.

But then of course, the ‘Post’ would still have been a daily morning paper – the slot that Trinity Mirror wants the ‘Mail’ to occupy.

Of course, when you compare the circulations of the two newspapers, it’s pretty obvious that Trinity Mirror is going to focus most of its efforts on the ‘Mail’.

And, with the Coventry ‘Telegraph’ having already established a precedent for this, the writing has probably been on the wall for the ‘Post’ for some time.

As I have said, I don’t believe the ‘Post’ going weekly is good news at all, and I can’t believe any of those working on it can be happy about it being downgraded in this way.

Well, maybe there is one person – I quote you Marc Reeves, the editor: “I’m delighted to be able to leave the ‘Post’ on a high as it takes a really ambitious and brave step and one that puts it in an even better position to meet the challenges of the economy and the changing media environment.”

Do you really, honestly believe that Marc?

BIRMINGHAM POST: DAY OF RECKONING IMMINENT?

by Philip Parkin, Operations Director, Birmingham Press Club

This coming week promises to be a significant one for ‘The Birmingham Post’, the city’s long running daily morning newspaper.

As media watchers in the Midlands will know, the ‘Post’ has been under threat for some time now, a situation brought on by falling sales and increased competition from other forms of media, including the web.

The circulation of the ‘Post’ has now slumped to an all time low of 6,000 – well, that’s 6,000 paid for copies, they give away a similar number, so the total circulation depends on whether you add those together or not.

Either way, about a year ago the newspaper was in dire straits. At the time it was a broadsheet, and in what was viewed by most people as giving it a final chance, it was revamped into tabloid format.

At the same time, its staff were integrated with other titles produced in Birmingham by owner Trinity Mirror, the ‘Sunday Mercury’ and the ‘Birmingham Mail’.

This was an attempt to cut costs, a move which has unfortunately failed to secure the future of the 152 year old ‘Post’, as Trinity Mirror have admitted.

We have known for some time now the owners of the newspaper have been pondering its future, with the choice seemingly between slashing its pagination or turning it into a weekly.

It would appear that the latter is the favourite, a move which I think will probably seal its fate, unfortunately.

You see, going weekly is likely to fatally damage the paper’s prestige and standing in the city, in my view. It may also further deter advertisers.

Certainly, there are those in the business community who are waking up to the fact that a weekly paper may not be in their best interest, not least because they won’t get the acres of coverage that they have enjoyed in the past.

Anyway, my spies tell me that this is the week that the announcement about the newspaper’s future is due to be made, with the switch to weekly happening sometime in late November.

As part of this, it is also likely that the ‘Mail’ will follow in the footsteps of stablemate the ‘Coventry Telegraph’, and move to being a morning newspaper.

I’m told this will bring huge cost savings – for example, around £1m will be saved by not having to use vans to distribute the ‘Mail’ to newsagents.

And that will be that – the journalists on the ‘Post’ and ‘Mail’ will no doubt find themselves working primarily for the latter, for obvious reasons, which will be another nail in the coffin of the ‘Post’.

Will it work? Well, Trinity Mirror will undoubtedly cut costs, but I fear that the ‘Post’ will continue to lose readership.

However, the main loss will be to its prestige and standing, as I said earlier. And that’s why I fear for its future. If the ‘Post’ is still with us in 18 months time, I will happily eat my words.