Big changes for The Birmingham Post – reaction round-up

We’re just come back from a big announcement about the future of Trinity Mirror Midlands, part of that was a major announcement about the future of The Birmingham Post.

I think I want some of the dust to settle before blogging my own thought (and don’t want to gazump my Editor!), but I thought I’d provide a bundle of links to other people talking about what is happening.

I will post my thoughts a bit later, so if you want to leave some questions in the comments, I’ll try and answer them. Suffice to say there are some very interesting times ahead.

– The Birmingham Post Editor, Marc Reeves, on the newspaper’s announced relaunch…
– …and he also blogs about it.
– Birmingham Post news story on the relaunch (we will update this during the day).
– There are a few interesting comments appearing on Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson’s blog.
– The Guardian’s report on the wider Trinity Mirror changes.
– …and documents the NUJ’s reaction to the announcements.
– The Guardian has now followed up with the story that we have all technically been made redundant.
– Brand Republic report.
– The Journalism.co.uk report on the Birmingham Post…
– …and it’s report on the wider Midland announcement…
– … and then on the change of roles for our editors.
– Holdthefrontpage.co.uk focuses on the new roles for our editors.
– … and the titles that are set to close…
– … and has now done a report on the job losses.
– Money invested and jobs lost lead in Press Gazette report on Trinity Mirror Midlands…
– … and a focus on the new tabloid sized Birmingham Post.
– The inaccurate corrected BBC report (it’s not The Post cutting 65 jobs, but TM Midlands) seems to miss many of the crucial details is here.
– The Express and Star report.
– Press Gazette’s The Wire does it’s own round-up.
– …then reports on Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson’s response to criticism on his blog.
– Paul Groves gives his reaction to the announcement on his blog.
– Rick Waghorn comments on the job losses.
– Roy Greenslade says he understands why the changes are happening, although he takes no pleasure in it.
– His blog seems to have inspired much of the content on the Editors Weblog.
– They have also blogged about the Post changes.
– Justin Williams, assitant editor of The Telegraph wonders if regional papers will outlive the NUJ after the announcements.
– The NUJ’s official response.
– The already infamous blog post from Nigel Hastilow.
– Birmingham Post’s political editor Jonathan Walker’s blogs about the changes.
– Jon Bounds offers a good local angle on The Post relaunch on Birmingham: It’s Not Shit.
– Peter Morgan gives his summary on Info:node.
– PR Bristol.
– World Association of Newspapers.

Beautiful Day in Brum

I’m in the mood to assert my English-ness: What glorious weather we have had today!

This was the view from the window of my flat this evening. Absolutely beautiful, wish all Sundays in February could be like this one…

Brum Tig: I’m “It”

In a bid to draw attention to the plethora of interesting Birmingham blogs floating about on’t Internet, Jon Bounds of Birmingham: It’s Not Shit has started Brum blog tig.

The rules, according to Jon, are:

• Each player starts with an odd, but fun, fact about Brum and one odd, but fun, fact about their blog.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose two people to get tagged and list their names.
• Tag your post “birminghamUK” and “brumblogtig” (the second one is a memetag).
• People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (with their version of the post) and post these rules (or link to them here). They can tie it in with their particular subject if they so wish.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So my Brum fact:

Did you know that the lifts in the Mailbox each have different voices recorded by people from BBC Birmingham? One of them is definitely John Craven, although I’m yet to figure out who the others are!

(As an aside, over the way in Walsall Art Gallery the “voice of the lifts” is Noddy Holder)

And my blog fact:

According to a colleague, I technically could have been fired for starting this blog. Somewhere in my contract – apparently – there’s a clause about not publishing information about my employer, or something like that.

It was lucky that, when I decided to start blogging a little over three months ago, I didn’t think to look at my contract. It was doubly lucky that, when the people I worked for found out about the blog, they supported it instead of giving me my P45!

I’m tagging Tom Lennon and Bunny Bissoux.

Twitter: a case study

Yesterday I logged on to Twitbin and saw that bounder had tweeted about Birmingham’s Conservative MEP website using a picture of Birmingham Alabama by accident.

The story ended up making the nationals (due to a press release by Labour who, apparently, didn’t credit their original source). But bounder’s tweet got to me well before then and about five seconds before one of my colleagues put down the phone to a contact who had rang him about it.

Now it was always going to be my colleague’s story as he has far better political links. But, if it shows one thing, it shows how Twitter can be a rather speedy way to transmit a story.

I just wish the Twitter feed on this website updated faster – so far it has been as slow as a very slow thing going slowly. Grr.

New Year’s Resolution

Last year I had no New Year’s Resolutions. This year they are longer than my arm.

Some are typical (eat less, exercise more), others less so.

There is one that I would like very much to keep, but not sure how practical it is in my position. But hey, stuff it, I’m going to give it a go:

My new year’s resolution is to try to avoid writing any articles that involve fretting about Manchester .

Never once have I seen an article in a Manchester paper fretting about what Birmingham is up to and I wish we didn’t do it so much.

Yes, I know I’ve written about Peter Saville as part of the creative director stories and I do refer to Manchester as an example of good self-promotion. But, if these issues come up again, (and I expect they will) I will have to think of other examples and ways to write them.

Merry Christmas!

I’m going offline for (only) a few days, so I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Chirstmas and to thank you all for turning what started as a little experiment back in September into a major obsession!

Seriously! I love this blog. It has been a great thing to write for and it is wonderful to get the comments that I have. It’s all been very exciting.

I’m now hooked on blogging and I hope it will help make 2008 just as interesting!

J.x

(Pic taken at Birmingham’s Christmas Market by Tim Ellis. Check out the Birmingham Flickr group – it’s a thing of beauty.)

Why I might be obsessing over brand Birmingham

Press conferences in Hong Kong are strange affairs. If the subject being questioned is not a politician, the default position of journalists is wildly deferential.

Now I’m not saying that’s altogether a bad thing, it’s just odd and makes the one British journalist stand out as a bit of a… well… tough cookie.

So, I was the big bad journalist when interviewing Tom Dixon, the former creative director of high-street furniture chain Habitat, at Business of Design Week in Hong Kong the other week.

Mr Dixon seemed less than delighted to find that, amongst the throng of polite Hong Kong and Chinese journalists asking to impart the secrets of his success, there was a British scallywag questioning his sincerity about environmental issues.

He had been saying how bad it was that design was focused so heavily on consumer goods. I found it a bit rich coming from a man who continues to make his money from the sale of faddy furniture – much of which has a high plastic content – so I asked him whether he felt guilty about it.

He answered the question well enough admitting that he was a hypocrite, but that he was trying to do something about it by developing environmentally friendly furniture as creative director of Artek. Not groundbreaking for a man who has enough money and influence to do something really incredible, but certainly a start.

What I found totally unacceptable, however, was the conversation we had when the press conference came to a close.

I can’t remember how we got on to it, but he had mentioned something about working with motorcycle firm Triumph (which was founded in Coventry). The rest of the conversation is how I remember it, not having my notepad open at the time.

Me: Yes! Thank you very much, that might be a Midlands angle. I’m from The Birmingham Post you see and I’m looking out for Midlands-related stories while I’m over here.

TD: You are from Birmingham? I feel your pain.

Me: Actually, I really like the place.

TD: Really? Why? It’s got a terrible reputation for design.

Me: I think you’ll find there are a lot of good design companies in the city working really hard and they are helping to build up Birmingham’s reputation.

TD: Are they? Well… good for them.

The last comment was said in such a patronising tone it made my blood boil. But there isn’t much you can say when you’re fighting old, ingrained stereotypes. Admittedly, I should have asked him if he’d ever visited Birmingham, but instead, flustered and cross, I just walked off.

Now, I know there are good things going on in this city. Those who work in the creative industries in Birmingham also know there are good things going on. But time and time again in this job I am faced with people peddling this anachronistic image.

I suppose you could say it doesn’t matter what these people think. We know Birmingham has a lot to offer, if others aren’t interested they can sod off.

Well… yeah… but the problem is they do. They sod off to other cities in the UK and we lose out. Our situation is exacerbated by condemnation from influential figures such as Mr Dixon.

This annoys me because there is absolutely no concrete reason why this should happen, except because of an outdated image.

That’s why I’m obsessed with brand Birmingham. If ever a UK city gets undersold, it’s Brum.

Mr Birmingham

As a health warning, most of this post was written sitting in a Euston station café after I found out that my train ticket to Birmingham New Street was for off peak travel only. That left me with nearly three hours (!) to spare, so I have probably gone overboard here.

I was in London because I had a meeting with Michael Wolff. I have blogged about him before (here, here and here) after his visit to Birmingham as part of the Plus International Design Festival. The interview I did with him also provoked quite a big reaction from the city’s great and good.

The meeting was more of a chat over lunch than anything formal (I am on holiday after all!). We talked about the process of branding businesses and about how the process might apply to a city.

He had some interesting points to make. One was about the importance of understanding what you want your city to be about, before you start reflecting that through design.

If Birmingham was a person, or a family, what would it be like? If it was a verb, what would happen if you Birmingham-ed?

It’s an interesting exercise and I didn’t have an immediate answer. However, I think it that says a lot in itself.

Some people might say you can’t simplify a city down to just a few key features but, in fact, we do it all the time. Manchester isn’t just about its football and its music, but there is no denying that it has benefited from those associations and, I bet, most Manchester residents are pretty proud of that.

So, being stranded in Euston station for two-and-a-half hours gave me ample opportunity to mull it over! If Birmingham was a person, what would they be about?

I got rather carried away and it ended up quite detailed covering home life, leisure, family, work, education and more!

I imagine a lot of people will disagree with what I’ve written. I hope they do. I’m more than aware this image says as much about me as it does about Birmingham. I only hope it is not as soaked in middle class stereotypes as I fear it may be.

However, the point still stands: the more people that undertake the exercise there is more of a likelihood that common themes will emerge.

This could then be used to develop perhaps five key areas that could be developed to help define the city, Michael suggests.

Maybe it is committing to developing the best care homes in the UK, or perhaps there is something else that Birmingham is good at that can be built upon, boosted and made part of the city’s image.

I’m not sure. But below is my “Mr Birmingham”. See what you think:

Birmingham is a warm, welcoming and outgoing person.

He has lived his life in the city of his birth and has a strong identity with its traditions and heritage. He is proud of what it has achieved and likes to be associated with the great innovators of the past.

But, along with this sense of place, he has a strong cultural connection to one or more other countries/cultures. His parents/grandparents/ great grandparents arrived in this city and made their home here. He likes to share this cultural background with his friends and to hear about their cultures and traditions. As a result, his musical, artistic and culinary tastes are eclectic and diverse.

His home is a popular destination for parties and events, as he has the knack of making everyone feel at home, no matter who they are and where they come from.

He has a great sense of humour and can laugh at himself. That doesn’t mean, however, that he isn’t proud of who he is.

His house is not showy, pretentious or egocentric. It is comfortable, clean, welcoming but also well designed and stylish. Its innovative and environmental features often impress guests.

But, despite this, he is, generally, modest and is not a man that indulges in crude status symbols. He is no yuppy. Making people feel comfortable is more important than showing them how successful he is.

That is not to say, however, that he is unsuccessful. His creativity and education combine to make him refreshing and inspiring in his work. He is very good at what he does and embraces new developments in his industry as opportunities, not threats. He is often at the forefront of these developments.

When it comes to clothes and fashion, he is confident and innovative enough to have developed his own sense of style. But he remains constantly open to, surprised and delighted by new ideas.

His car looks good, but it is more likely to have been chosen because of its clever use of design. This is a trait that he is very proud of. After all, doesn’t he deserve something that is more than just adequate?

He loves playing and watching sport and is a great supporter of his local teams, especially football and cricket.

Family is important to him. He recognises the sacrifices made by generations before him and wants to provide them the best possible care for them as they get older.

For his children, he wants them to have an education that opens doors and provides opportunities. Although he’d love them to stay in the city to develop their careers, he is happy that if they have to move on, they will be proud to say where they have come from.

He is also passionate about instilling an attitude of creativity and invention – it’s ok to fail if it is part of how you improve and develop.

 

NUJ Multimedia Commission

The report is out! But, I must confess, I haven’t read it yet.

At the moment I’m trapped between writing up my trip to Geneva, preparing two weeks of media & marketing stories, completing the registration for a postgraduate course and preparing to go to Hong Kong on Sunday (I know! I will tell all soon!).

However, Paul Bradshaw picks up on some interesting bits of the NUJ report. Press Gazette also covers it and so does the Guardian. There is a lot I want to say, but I want to hold out until I’ve read the whole report (something for the plane perhaps?!).

Also, I’ve been really interested in the creative director for Birmingham debate that has taken place of late and will have more to say on that very soon. I read the posts by Stef and Paul with interest. There have been a few developments and I’ll fill you in on these soon too.

Sorry for the poor post!

The Brummie of the Year is…

John Tighe.

Congratulations John!

As landlord of The Spotted Dog pub in Digbeth, John has battled against a noise abatement order served against the pub, after live music at the venue (which has been going for 20 years) affected some of the residents in a new apartment block built nearby.

A campaign website related to his plight (set up by a resident from the very same apartment block) keepdigbethvibrant.co.uk tells more.

Also congratulations to runner up and mentor to the Birmingham blogworld, Pete Ashton.