Yesterday Birmingham Post editor Marc Reeves outlined the challenges facing the newspaper and called for readers to send in their views on the options being considered for survival. Here are some of the responses.
Dear Editor, While sad to learn of the financial difficulties of the Trinity Group I hope the difficulties will not affect the excellent professional staff, but, support staff who play an important part in the production of our favourite daily newspaper. I am of the opinion that if push comes to shove then the Post should be published weekly on a Thursday.
I confess to still missing my The Birmingham Weekly Post, which I took for years and indeed my wife sent me when I served in the Army.
Our unit consisted of about 40 per cent Brummies and 60 per cent Yorkshiremen and when I passed on my Post and it was widely read.
Clearly I would wish for a return to a broadsheet Post published on six days per week with plenty of letters to which I have been known to contribute over many years, but needs must I imagine!
Tom Wareing, Redditch
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Dear Editor, I read your article in today’s paper with sadness. I fully understand the difficulties you are facing and your desire to keep the Post as an important local and regional voice within the national press.
I have read the Post regularly, for my work role, for the last 20 years or more. I worked for the senior partner at Coopers & Lybrand (before the Pricewaterhouse merger) and then Digby Jones at Edge & Ellison. Since then I have had a number of roles in the Birmingham conurbation with my most recent role for the past five years here at I.M. Group. For the last ten years I have also had a role supporting various people in their political activities so keeping abreast of political news in the region is very important for me.
All of these various roles have meant I needed to be fully up to speed on local issues. Unfortunately the national media and press do not cover closely such issues at LDV, Mike Whitby and the council, etc. News that’s a week old (with a weekly edition) would be pretty pointless for me and would be more akin to reading a magazine.
In summary, I prefer a daily paper but would accept a weekly edition as long is it is supplemented with regular regional and local news updates on a website.
Cynthia Bayliss, I.M. Group Limited, Coleshill
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Dear Marc, I was both saddened and heartened to read your statement in to-days paper regarding it’s very future.
Sad because like many readers I have relied on the Post for reliable balanced reporting for decades (I even subscribed to the paper whilst away at school over 30 years ago); but heartened that you are taking such an enlightened approach to the newspaper’s future with your consultation.
In truth I now glean most daily news from media such as the BBC’s “radio five live” and the internet. However there will be a void in what I would term as “regional high brow reporting”. That may sound somewhat pompous and trite but is none the less the truth of the matter. The post will be needed to assist in deciphering the report on the demise of Rover, when it is finally released. No other regional paper has the expertise/experience in these areas.
In concluding I reluctantly agree with your own considered view that a “quality” weekly paper is probably the way forward. Although I would recommend more of a magazine format (as the lifestyle magazine) in order to attract a younger audience (i.e. lots of colour/pictures!). A regional version of the Economist perhaps?!
In any event I wish you and your fellow staff all the best for an uncertain future.
Richard Harper, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
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Nicholas Newman said: "A good piece of analysis, but I do not think it goes far enough. There is a third option. It is time for your owners to return the paper to local ownership, as is being currently proposed with The Scotsman. In order to relieve The Post from the fiscal burdens of being part of the Trinity Mirror empire.
A new local owner is likely to be as with football clubs a local businessman, such as an estate agent or developer, who is anxious to promote the interests of Birmingham, as was the case in the 19th Century for many local papers."
Gary Cousins said: "I am very sorry to read that things have got as bad as this. However, as you say, the advertising spend in property and recruitment is at a real low at the moment. There is also the fact that more and more people are looking to the internet to get their news.
Is there more you can do online? For one thing, I would be prepared to pay a subscription for a good (improved) online regional newspaper. Would a subscription service be feasible, coupled with the online advertising income?"
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Anonymous said: "Simply can’t imagine a world without the Post in printed form - so whatever shape it takes and Marc Reeves is in the best place to know what that needs to be - then so be it.
But the mention of subscriptions by Gary above sparked a thought. Can’t we (businesses in the West Midlands region) help save the Post ourselves - maths never was a good point so don’t know how the sums would add up but wouldn’t we all be more than willing to pay 2-3 times the current daily cost of the paper to see it survive (and in printed form too) via a subscription.
It’s a nationally respected paper. Getting any mention in there has always been the holy grail of regional coverage for businesses and has been instrumental in the launch of many successful companies I’ve no doubt over the years.
Quite simply businesses in the West Midlands region need the Post. We must fight to see it survive."
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Blair Kesseler said: The truth is the world moves on. Even me, as a near pensioner, get my news feed from the internet maybe five times a day, never mind radio and TV. What I want from the Post is local depth, good business coverage, connection with the life of the region (including the charitable sector - don’t let Thrive go!)
I have no doubt that you can provide that on a weekly basis - and get a few more readers on the way.
Having been through downsizing in previous careers I can feel for the staff who will be worried about their futures. However, Birmingham needs a serious paper and if the model that works is weekly - then best of luck."
Janette Rawlinson said: Endorse the option to go weekly but better quality local/regional stories. who else and where else can we fly the flag for local/regional business and its achievements when so much central/national policy and reporting downcries the vital work carried out in this region in wealth creation, manufacturing and service sector?
We all need to say what can we do to help solve the problem before it’s too late and we lose our very important recognisable publication which gets out local issues quickly.
Given new apps on i-phones and blackberries etc, how about a headline subscription service or feeder/teaser headlines to tempt us to the weekly publication?
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Dinkey said: "I’m sorry, but with all due respect, this isn’t consultation and these aren’t appropriate options. This is a PR exercise to soften up readers on behalf of Trinity Mirror who have already decided what to do.
Trinity Mirror have completely mismanaged their whole Midlands newsprint and internet operation. They paid over the odds for buying the titles which are now worth less than a tenth of what they borrowed. They are trying to squeeze too much out of the titles to pay back the banks, and with a complete absence of a coherent internet strategy and lack of core investment, no wonder the Post is in trouble. Trinity Mirror has not adapted but simply been using the same old business model and now blames the competition, falling advertising revenues and the internet.
Don’t get me wrong, I think you, Marc, have done a great job editing the Post with the limited resources you’ve got, and continued to produce a terrific newspaper. And I’m sure the web team do the best with the miserable platform they’ve got (which is certainly not lauded by anyone I know).
It would seem that in the apparent cost saving measure to move out of the City centre to Fort Dunlop, the Post and Mail lost its Birmingham heart and loyalty."
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Vern Topper said: "Weekly would be fine by me, but please let us have a digital download Thursday edition, with a quarterly subscription payable via PayPal. The wider West Midlands business reader doesn’t see the paper edition of the Birmingham Post in the newsagents - but would quite like to download and read it, adverts and all, in the format for which it was intended."
Praguetory said: "This isn’t surprising. Like the rest of the newspaper industry your masters failed to spot that the sluggish growth under New Labour was itself unsustainable - and we’re supposed to read your paper for analysis? If you’re serious about cutting staff costs, I would happily submit articles reporting on what’s really happening in Birmingham politics for free."
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David Clarke said: "I’ve said it before: Birmingham would be a poorer place without the Post. And therefore, all of us should do all we can to retain it. But we also need to be realistic.
We are in a different world where we access our information differently and indeed keep in touch differently. The recession is not the sole cause of the decline in circulation and ad revenue: it has though, been the accelerator.
The changes made recently - cutting Saturday and going tabloid - have evidently not been sufficient to reduce costs and halt declining circulation. But they have ensured that the Post remains in the public eye and continues to play its part in the life of the city. The question is, will a weekly format (long-mooted and seemingly the management preferred option) be sufficient to preserve the Post’s contribution? I suspect not."
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Tony Taylor said: I would very much miss the “feel” of a paper Post, but can see from the general malaise throughout the newspaper market that it seems no one is prepared to pay to advertise - in this medium - however judging by the “pop ups” on Google, etc - perhaps there would be a sustainable income stream if the “paper” went internet based. I do wonder whether it’s an age thing? do young people read papers? Are they naturally going to die out as my age group does (57 on 9/11)? Personally I can think of nothing worse than taking my lap top to the loo for a few minutes read."
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Post blogger David Bailey said: "I feel greatly for the staff at the Post who do such a good job and face uncertain times. However, the world is changing and it’s difficult to see how a daily paper can survive.
Of the options you outline, I’d prefer a rich, hard-hitting weekly paper I can look forward to reading than a skimpy daily with a lot of bought-in content."
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Mr O said: "Marc, the point is, it doesn’t really matter what you do. Go weekly. Lose 30 per cent of your editorial staff. What you’re doing in effect is slowly winding down a medium that is no longer relevant and can’t make any money.
In short, the Post won’t be around in 2012, and you’re deluding yourself if either your pitifully tiny readership or small band of ex-advertisers are going to be marching through the streets of Brum in protest.
Business is business. And your model has been a busted flush for at least 10 years. I know it. You know it. And management have known it for years. The problem has always been the method of execution.
All the recession has done is bring the model’s inherent failings into sharp focus. Online dominates, news is a free commodity and you haven’t figured out where revenues are going to come from in the digital age.
If newspapers had never existed and you pitched the idea today to Theo, Duncan, Peter, Debra et al, you’d be laughed out the Den before you’d even finished your speech."
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Foz B. said: "However much I cannot dispute the problems outlined in the posting and whilst I know nothing around running a newspaper – I can’t help but think that the two “options” are a negative response, where a positive one is needed.
Thinning the title and padding it out with more syndicated content is a tactic that has already been used over the years – and is a reason why several people I know, who’d read the paper for years, stopped parting with their cash. We know that change was forced by finances, not because of a lack of will or talent by the people on the paper – but, already 70p can be a big ask on lighter days.
A weekly just seems against all logic. You can’t compete against more instantaneous news sources, so you’ll go in the opposite direction and give us news LESS frequently. Yes, yes, you’ll say it’ll be quality over quantity – but it’ll be very out of date before it gets to us. I already find it annoying to pay for a paper and read what I did the day before somewhere else. Weekly exclusives and expert analysis you say? Hmmmm."
Paul McSweeney said: "I think turning the paper into a weekly paper would be a mistake. It would lose its prestige instantly and you would lose your most important market. ..the business community. How could you expect to serve the business community with information that is three or four days old. Markets move fast.
I would lessen the page count as you suggest. Focus solely on the business community with a local sports section."
