A popular production journalist at the Birmingham Mail has died, aged 60.

Geoff Fielding was part of the Birmingham Post & Mail team, also working with the associated businesses, for about 33 years, first as a compositor printer but most recently as a page editor in the Mail's editorial team.

He learned his printing craft with Jewellery Quarter-based Siviter Smith before joining the West Midlands Press weekly newspapers publisher at Bloxwich in 1973.

When the site was closed he transferred to the Birmingham Post & Mail, then as the newspaper industry underwent technological changes with the introduction of computers, he retrained as a journalist.

He first worked at the Sutton Coldfield News as a sub-editor before being made redundant and switching to the Nottingham Evening Post.

Then, a year later, he returned for a job on the Mail.

Colleague Chris Morley said: "Geoff took a brave decision to take the plunge in midlife to change career as his existing work dried up. But he became an accomplished journalist, well-liked and respected by his colleagues."