A business journalist named the best in the UK at last month’s Regional Press Awards is to take redundancy after a 40-year career in newspapers.
Jon Griffin, left, business editor of the Birmingham Mail since 1998, was named Business and Finance Journalist of the Year at last month’s ceremony having also won the award in 2011.
Earlier this year Jon was one of two members of staff threatened with redundancy in a restructure by Mail publisher Trinity Mirror, although the threat was later lifted.
However the company has since invited fresh applications for voluntary redundancy as part of its proposal for 19 job losses in Birmingham, and Jon has decided to bow out.
Jon told HTFP: “I am leaving the Post and Mail after more than 20 years, 17 and a half as Mail business editor.
“I have loved my time on the Birmingham biz beat but I think this is the right decision for me at this juncture.”
Jon is due to clock up 40 years in journalism tomorrow, having started his career at the Peterborough Evening Telegraph on 30 June 1975.
He first joined the then Birmingham Evening Mail in 1978 and had stints at the Coventry Telegraph and then the Wolverhampton Express and Star before rejoining the paper in April 1996.
Jon has long been regarded as one of the outstanding business writers in his region, having won the Business Journalist of the Year prize at the Midlands Media Awards on no fewer than nine occasions.
He is the current holder of the award, having also won the same prize in 2013.
As part of the current round of cutbacks in Birmingham and Coventry, each member of staff at the two centres was offered the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy, with a deadline of 16 June for applications.
It is understood that Jon’s application for VR was accepted by the company last week.
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It would be nice to hear Jon’s true feelings on the matter. Unfortunately, Trinity Mirror like to tell staff their redundancy payment would be withdrawn if they speak ill of them.
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This is the man who was being made redundant, then reprieved, and is now applying for voluntary. What a business we’re in these days!
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Remember Jon from when learning production skills on the Coventry subs desk. Although we all love the craft, in its many pursuits for perfection, retirement is nirvana, if that is what he chooses.
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One of the genuine good guys in the business who will be sorely missed by both the Post and Mail specifically and regional journalism in general.
But he is almost certainly bowing out at the right time and at the top of his game having just won this national title.
It does beggar belief why Trinity Mirror were looking to make him redundant in the first place, and he was right to fight the decision at the time.
But with a further cull of the remaining journalists in Birmingham it’s now an ideal opportunity to write another chapter in that 40-year career. I’d be surprised if there aren’t plenty of takers.
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I’m sure Jon doesn’t need me to tell him that life doesn’t end when you walk out of the door of ‘big’ journalism for the final time. As ‘former regional journo’ says, there will be plenty of takers for Jon’s considerable story-finding and writing skills; a man with as many contacts as Jon has nurtured over the years will not be short of work, if and when he wants it. I wish him well.
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Since first meeting Jon when he joined the Birmingham Evening Mail at its former district office in Bolebridge Street, Tamworth back in 1978, I have only had the warmest admiration for his journalistic and personal qualities. He has been an outstanding news gatherer and writer as well as loyal friend and colleague. Trinity Mirror’s massive loss will be some other business’s undoubted gain. Jon Griffin, a jewel in any media company’s crown. Duncan Danley, Charles Barrington and Victor Box send their very best wishes, too.
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Good luck to him. I think I have some idea how he must feel. I did over 30 years at one of Trinity’s biggest regional titles. By the end of it, I was still capable of doing the job, I still loved many aspects of the craft and I took a pride in producing what I can say without vanity was excellent copy. But it was obvious that the powers-that-be cared more about the size of the payroll than the quality of the newspaper (or indeed the website, which is degenerating into the usual mess of clickbait and listicles). So when the redundo was offered, I grabbed it with both hands.
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