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Newspaper’s mystery plan revealed as daily tablet edition

Mysterious plans by the Birmingham Post promising the dawn of a “new era” have been revealed as a new daily tablet edition for business news.

The weekly title is launching the Birmingham Post Business Daily as a tablet app with 30 pages produced each weekday, available to subscribers first thing each morning.

It means the battle for business readers in the West Midlands is hotting up again as the new digital edition will compete directly with TheBusinessDesk.com’s business news service for the region.

Other daily business news alerts in the West Midlands are sent out by Insider Media and the city’s Chamber of Commerce, with at least one more understood to be in the pipeline.

Plans for a major new Post initiative were revealed last month after the Trinity Mirror title launched a mysterious advertising campaign with the tantalising catchphrase: “Make it your business, daily.”

The new app, which is available to subscribers starting at £9.99 a month, goes live for people to download today but will be officially announced to readers in this week’s paper on Thursday.

Editor Stacey Barnfield said: “The launch of the tablet edition takes the historic Birmingham Post brand into a new era to capture a 21st century digital-savvy readership.

“It will complement our print version perfectly, giving the people of Birmingham the fastest, freshest and most unique business insight every day of the week.”

The tablet edition will include business news from across the region, an analysis of stocks and shares and properties of the day.

It will also feature a ‘Water Cooler’ business gossip page and five pages of lead and deals – a daily round-up of mergers, acquisitions, planning applications and contract offers.

The tablet edition is available on Apple and Android devices and a corporate subscription model has also been introduced for companies with a sliding scale for pricing, while a dedicated subscriptions manager will help the tablet edition connect with its target audience.

David Higgerson, regional digital publishing director for Trinity Mirror, said: “Business Daily will reinvent business journalism within the regional press. It’s all about being useful, and helping to provide local businesses of all sizes with the information they need to thrive.

“We know from our digital audiences that people want content which is useful to them. We will apply this test to all content going into Business Daily in the same way we are increasingly doing with content on our websites across the country.

“The Birmingham Post website, due to relaunch next week, will focus on key areas of interest for Post readers and provide breaking news around the clock. We intend to develop new communities around these areas too.

“We believe there is a gap in the market which we can fill thanks to the high regard in which the Birmingham Post is held.”

The Post went weekly in November 2009 and shortly afterwards, its former editor Marc Reeves helped launch TheBusinessDesk.com in the region, although he has since left the project.

5 comments

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  • June 3, 2013 at 10:54 am
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    Good luck to Stace and the team at The Post. Here’s hoping the venture gets the backing it deserves and puts a bit of pride back into the brand.

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  • June 3, 2013 at 2:41 pm
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    The real questions are: is Trinity Mirror going to employ the extra journos to give a 24×7 service and how much money does TM expect to make from it?

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  • June 3, 2013 at 4:14 pm
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    In an era when it’s generally a case of cuts followed by more cuts in the newspaper world this kind of bold and ambitious venture to get to grips with the digital age should be applauded.

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  • June 3, 2013 at 5:07 pm
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    Thanks for the positive comments. In the answers to Chris’s question, yes we have taken on extra staff for the new service.

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