New Birmingham Evening Mail editor Steve Dyson has begun his drive to transform the paper’s coverage of the city.

In a bid to improve its grassroots news the paper plans to appoint several senior reporters who will spend a substanial time out of the office gathering news from their patch.

Based at either the Mail’s head office or one of its branch offices, they will help make sure readers knows what is happening on their own street corner as well as across the city.

The paper is also putting more emphasis on campaigns, something which helped Steve boost circulation at the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough.

During his three years as editor there he helped secure the future of the Corus Redcar plant and stopped a controversial scheme to demolish Middlesbrough’s historic North Riding Infirmary.

Since joining the Mail last month he has already launched the United for Peace campaign.

The changes are part of Steve’s aim to strengthen the paper’s position in the West Midlands.

Before taking on his new role he told HoldtheFrontPage he hoped to engage readers with news written, presented and circulated locally.

He said: “If there are problems in the area the local paper should be right in the middle, providing a forum for local concerns and not just reporting, but asking questions and getting them answered.”

Born just a stone’s throw from Longbridge, Steve previously worked at the Evening Mail for eight years from 1994, starting as industrial correspondent and rising to the position of deputy editor.

Sales of the Evening Mail have fallen in recent years, and it currently sells 96,143 (ABC July to Dec 2004).