Four MPs have joined the debate over the future of one of the UK’s biggest-selling regional dailies.

Last week Trinity Mirror announced it was consulting staff and advertisers over the way forward for its Midlands division – particularly the publishing model for the Birmingham Post and Mail.

The Post could be switching from five days a week to a weekly newspaper, while the Mail could move to overnight printing, joining the Post as a morning title.

Sources at the Mail have told HTFP they are worried about being scooped for same-day news by the Wolverhampton-based Express and Star, which has just employed former Trinity Mirror MD Steve Brown and has no plans to lose its ‘evening’ status.

Now four Birmingham MPs have voiced their support for the Mail to retain ‘live’ same-day printing, under a blog post by editor Steve Dyson.

In their comments, Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell, Yardley MP John Hemming, Northfield MP Richard Burden and Erdington MP Siôn Simon, also minister for creative industries, have echoed the feelings of almost every poster on the blog.

Mr Simon wrote: “It almost goes without saying that I support the general wish to keep the Mail as an evening paper for the city.

“It is a part of our cultural heritage which it would be a great shame to lose.”

Mr Hemming said: “It would clearly be a commercial mistake to take the Birmingham Mail overnight as it would then lose one of its marketing advantages.

“It is important to take the actions to maintain the history of the Birmingham Evening Mail, but this step would not be one likely to achieve that.”

Mr Burden added: “A city as important as Birmingham needs a daily paper. And it needs one that reports today’s news, not just yesterday’s.”

And Mr Mitchell commented: “The Birmingham Mail and its sister paper the Birmingham Post are vital to our city…..any moves to turn the Mail from a ‘live’ newspaper into an ‘overnight’ newspaper would have a detrimental effect on that, especially in a world where people want their news ‘here and now’.”

By way of contrast, one person wrote: “Financially I think the proposal for the Post and the Mail overnight make absolute sense. You have to restore profitability to survive long and maybe medium term.

“Both the Post and the Mail provide unique local community coverage…..If the overnight Mail can be as up-to-date as the Post currently is I do not see a problem.”

Steve Dyson told HTFP: “While I cannot say anything about individual comments, I have been stunned by the reaction from the community and the amount of comments which have been left.”

Comments

clare lawner (02/09/2009 12:56:27)
how sweet..

james cooper (02/09/2009 16:46:14)
The Mail editor says very little we didn’t already know from HTFP and gives no indication of his own views, which is surprising given his previous pledge to always speak his own mind, even if it differed from his bosses’ views.
It’s also interesting that most of the posters are local bigwigs, while views of ‘ordinary’ readers are conspicuous by their absence.
Most fail to question WHY the Birmingham Mail is selling fewer papers than its counterparts in Stoke, Leicester and (gulp!) Telford – before you even mention the Wolverhampton Express And Star selling more than twice the Birmingham Post and the Mail combined.
Carry on at this rate (14pc down year on year) and there won’t be a Mail left in a few years anyway, so what is Sly Bailey supposed to do? Don’t forget, Trinity backed a £1m relaunch a few years back – which ironically saw the word ‘Evening’ dropped from the title – and has seen sales fall off a cliff ever since. So is the big debate really ‘overnight or same-day’… or is it why 95 per cent of Brummies are no longer buying the Mail? Because THAT really is a “stunning reaction from the community” Steve.

AH (03/09/2009 11:37:17)
One thing is for sure. Going “next-day” won’t save the paper’s circulation.
Take a look at some of the other former evenings.

Walter (03/09/2009 16:32:11)
The paper should remain same day. Yesterday the biggest story in the city was the jailing local celebrity Ashley Blake – it happened mid-morning and on the afternoon newsstands. It would not have had the impact the next day – alongside the nationals caught up.