A battle for circulation and advertising revenue appears to be brewing in England’s second city following recent upheavals in the local press.

The UK’s biggest-selling regional daily, the Wolverhampton-based Express and Star, has relaunched its Birmingham edition, coinciding with the Birmingham Mail’s switch from same-day to overnight printing at the start of the year.

The Express and Star, like its sister paper the Shropshire Star, remains a same-day ‘evening’ paper with the presses able to roll for the final edition well into mid-afternoon.

Its traditional news heartland has always been Wolverhampton, Dudley and the wider Black Country so moving into the urban sprawl of Birmingham marks a significant step.

Birmingham City Council’s online ‘Media Watch’ page notes stories in the first edition included an interview with its leader Coun Mike Whitby, building work beginning on a new £193m library in Birmingham and claims that city council tax had risen by 21pc in ‘real terms’ in the past decade.

The Express and Star, which has made no public comment about the relaunch, used to have an office in the city centre and still has journalists based in Sandwell, north west of Birmingham, and within relatively easy reach of the city centre.

The move comes shortly after Steve Brown, the new chief executive of the Express and Star’s parent company the Claverley Group, took up his new role.

Steve was formerly regional MD for Trinity Mirror Midlands and North East with the Birmingham Mail as part of his portfolio.

Comments

Mr Osato (15/01/2010 09:03:59)
Hmm,three stories in two days about smaller groups and start-ups expanding and investing as the big conglomerates continue to downsize. There’s a lesson in that…