Birmingham Mail & Post Under Threat

We need a 'free press' and call me old fashioned if you want too. But losing an Evening Newspaper will make this conurbation the poorer. The big debate taking place now in Birmingham is what to do with the Birmingham Mail & Birmingham Post. The Post looks doomed to become a weekly! What a comedown for title with that prestige!

The Trinity Mirror in its quest for profit will squeeze the Birmingham Mail newspaper out of existence at an even greater pace if it forces it to become an 'overnight' entity.

This would signal that the 'news' is yesterday's rather than today's! What will that do to the market? Well it will accelerate any decline and help to remove any influence the paper has in the City as a 'mover & shaper' of public opinion.

It also gives even more ground to local competition in the electronic markets especially.My advice to an embattled Editor is to be brave Dyson, do what a long line of previous editor's would have done. That is follow their instincts and support what the readers want.......News today not history tomorrow

Of course the Birmingham Mail is not the only newspaper in trouble. It isn't all down to the recession either. The fact is that the electronic media is quick at getting the news out. The email versions are cheap and free in the most cases. It is this type of competition that is also a large contributor to the decline in popularity of traditional newspapers both here and abroad.
Figures released by the Newspaper Association of America in 2008 show that the decline of newspapers is more rapid than previously thought, with total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunging 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006, the biggest drop in revenue since 1950, the year they started tracking annual revenue.

Some Newspapers in the States
are turning to e-news as a way of staving off closure. The most recent of these has been the Local Newspaper in Anne Arbour. Who has closed the print and opened up a much truncated business, selling advertising and news through the net!

Again the Newspaper Association of America warns that "Online provides some solace for the dead-tree business, with internet ad revenue growing 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to 2006, but a rate significantly lower than the 31.4% growth the year before, and not even close to replacing the losses from print. Online revenue now represents 7.5% of total newspaper ad revenues."

If Newspapers do have a future, they will soon have to come up with a winning way to extract more revenue from their 'on-line versions', continue to satisfy their loyal newspaper readers .

Indeed much of the lecture given today by the son of Rupert Murdoch was about the battle for revenue. The attack on the BBC has been growing in recent weeks as local newspapers fight for that reduced income. The BBC is seen to be an obstacle as the licence payer keeps the revenue high and the BBC provides free quality news through their internet operations!

So there we have it.......the news business is in crisis!

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