A former editor of the Sunday Mercury is to take over at The Birmingham Post.

Fiona Alexander - an award-winning editor with the Sunday title - will take up her new role later this month.

Her current role is that of business development director for the Birmingham Post and Mail, and prior to that she was editor-in-chief of Midland Independent Magazines, a role she took after leaving the Sunday Mercury.

The Post's last editor, Dan Mason, left the company in March, three years after being appointed publisher.

Fiona said: "The Post is a unique brand in a unique city and it's my aim, with the help of its passionate staff, to build The Birmingham Post into the must-read newspaper for Midland businessmen and women when at work and at play.

"The Post will become more focused and relevant to its target audience, more hard-hitting and challenging, asking those questions and starting those debates on issues that affect our work, leisure, family and environs.

"Over the next few weeks I will be inviting people from all sectors of the business and leisure community to join me to discover more about the future vision for The Birmingham Post and to give readers and advertisers the chance to ask questions and air their views about the publication."

Trinity Mirror's regional managing director Alistair Nee said: "Fiona has a proven track record as an editor and as a senior manager.

"She will relaunch The Post as a must-read newspaper finely focused on its core audience which is, of course, the business and commercial community and all those associated with it.

"She is a passionate supporter of the Birmingham revival and I know she will display the same passion required to take this great paper into a new era of success."

An announcement about Fiona's current role will be made in due course.

She takes on the job within a week of Trinity Mirror's announcement of 550 job cuts as part of a programme to save £25m a year by 2005. Sales of newspaper titles, and a savings drive were also part of the plan to "stabilise, revitalise and grow" the business.

Trinity's Birmingham business lost 20 staff in a redundancy programme in May, during which eight new jobs were created.

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