Sunday 12 July 2009

Last daily Post for Birmingham?

The Financial Times has run a report predicting that the Birmingham Post may be forced to go weekly as a result of the crisis in the industry.
The FT says: "The Birmingham Post might cease daily publication after 152 years, becoming the first flagship newspaper of a large city to go weekly in response to the recession and competition from online media."
It adds: "It is understood that options studied by Trinity Mirror, which owns the white-collar morning title, include converting the loss making publication into a weekly title. The media group might publish the Birmingham Mail, an evening newspaper with a blue-collar readership, in the mornings instead. This would trigger wide-ranging redundancies, from delivery drivers to newsagents and journalists in a newsroom that services several titles."
Circulation of the Birmingham Post has dropped from 18,500 to 12,700 since 2000, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations and, the FT story says: "Locally, a fully paid circulation of less than 7,000 is spoken of."
Trinity Mirror told the FT: "If there is a formalised plan, the first people that we will communicate it to will be our staff".
The NUJ claimed last month that Trinity was considering turning the Post weekly or bi-weekly.
Story via Tom McGowran

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