Trinity Mirror’s West Midlands operation BPM Media is attempting to sublet thousands of square feet of office space left empty by successive rounds of cuts.
The company, which publishes the Birmingham Mail and Birmingham Post, employed around 600 people when it moved into its current Fort Dunlop premises in 2008.
But following a series of cutbacks since then it is now estimated that around half of that number are working there.
Now the Post has carried two full page ads on its property supplement advertising up to 24,575 square feet of office space in the building.
Trinity Mirror moved to Fort Dunlop in November 2008, having negotiated a lease for around 60,000 square feet of office space on the top floor of the former tyre factory.
The biggest round of job losses since then occurred in October 2009 when the Mail moved to overnight printing and the Post was switched to weekly publication.
A total of 82 jobs were lost as a result of the changes, around half of them editorial.
Trinity Mirror declined to comment further on the adverts.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
It was a crazy decision to move there in the first place. It’s way out of the city centre and it makes the newspapers ‘out of sight and out of mind’. It was also expensive and burdens the business with a cost it can ill afford.
Report this comment
Examples like this make you realise that those in strategic command have absolutely no idea what shape the business will be in next week, never mind next year and beyond.
They are steering a rudderless ship – and running it on the rocks with their half-baked decisions. Who needs an iceberg with this lot at the helm?
Now they are rattling around in a building and they want to sub-let some floorspace. Absolute genius.
Report this comment
If you added up all the empty spaces in newspaper offices up and down the country it would make the Shard look like a garden shed. Slogging away surrounded by empty desks and walking to the loos past whole rooms that used to be filled with people is not the sort of experience that contributes to a happy working environment
Report this comment
Those empty desk pictures in the ad look a bit sad.
Anyway, it’s worth remembering what the MD said at the time, from htfp:
Trinity Mirror Midlands managing director John Bills said the move was a “milestone” for the business.
He said: “While it is sad in some ways to be leaving the city centre, Fort Dunlop represents all that is best about the regeneration of Birmingham.
“It’s a landmark building that has been brought right up to date and given a new lease of life for the 21st century.
“In a way, that’s exactly what we’re doing with our publishing brands as we become a truly multimedia business.
“It is also an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design from scratch the layout of the office in a way that allows our journalists and staff to work in the new ways demanded by the digital revolution.”
Report this comment