Birmingham Mail - Editors Chair Blog

48-hours before the debate

2008-07-12T12:10:41Z

Well done Jasbir Authi and other Mail reporters who spent yesterday sticking posters up at the 26 threatened Post Offices in Birmingham to advertise the debate on Monday.

The Town Hall wanted to charge us £2,000! But the Council stepped in and, after a little persuasion, have instead given us the Council House Chamber free of charge to hold the debate on Post Office closures. (And so they should... many in the council cabinet are also furious at the closures).

Doors open at 1pm for a 1.30pm debate. We hope to fill out the 160-seats with plenty of standing room available.

The Post Office bosses are turning up, as are various politicians and Carl Chinn - community historian and man of the people. It should be an interesting hour.

Once that's finished, we'll be finalising plans for a battle bus to Whitehall to deliver the near-5,000 petitions.

Post Office campaign momentum grows

2008-07-05T11:54:50Z

The news team at the Birmingham Mail has done a thorough, quality job on the Post Office campaign.

Day by day, every day, they are highlighting the plight of each and every one of the Post Offices to be axed in Birmingham and surrounding towns.

And the back-bench is making sure that the campaign stays in the limelight - a strong package projected every day on p5 or p7 to date, each with the petition form attached.

The petition total to date is already in excess of 4,000 (more detail on this and what we plan to do with them will be in the Mail next week). The mass interest in such short a time is largely, I reckon, to do with the realistic statement in the petition.

We're not blindly saying 'no' to the entire Post Office review. But we are demanding that the Government and Post Office think again, and that it has proper, meanigful consultation in each and every area - not gutless 'tick-boxing' consultation.

The powers that be must work with the community leaders and public is each area separately to truly understand the effect closure will have on the vulnerable.

On top of the petition plans, we're also now close to confirming details of a forthcoming public meeting on the oissue at Birmingham's Town Hall...

Carry on watching this space and the Mail every day for more details.

Post Office campaign update

2008-06-29T19:28:42Z

It's all very well stirring the emotions of readers with a passionate series of campaigning articles on Post Office closures.

But now we've given readers somewhere to aim their anger (nearly 1,000 hard copy petitions within days and many more, I reckon, to come) the next stage of the 'Think Again on Post Office Closures' campaign is making sure we do something with it.

The news reporters and news editors will get together to suggest a structured plan early next week. Prime among the possibilities is a Birmingham Mail bus to Westminster for a mixture of readers and politicians of all colours to deliver the message personally.

Watch this space for news on the campaign...

When Sir Alf Ramsey was "King of St Andrews"

2008-06-29T19:16:57Z

On the same 'what to put on page one' theme...

Usually we like a giveway, or a 2-for-1 offer as well as news on p1 to tempt readers into another reason for buying the Birmingham Mail.

On Friday pm, there was nothing pending for the weekend edition's p1. And with it being close-season, not even a sports line grabbed us as the possible boost.

But when we turned to the 8-page archive section we were republishing, we suddenly realised the answer.

The 1977 edition told of a BCFC decision to place Sir Alf Ramsey in charge of the Blues.

From memory, it didn't last long 31 years ago. But what a story to have the 1966 hero in charge! And it gave us something different and attractive to boost on page one for the weekend.

Along with the 'splash' on the eventual murder charge following Villa fan Christopher Priest's derby death, it made for a very buyable Mail on Saturday.

Competing for page 1... A free Wii or nannygate?

2008-06-27T07:39:55Z

Today's news competed with features content and reader offers for the front page of today's Birmingham Mail.

Four teenagers jailed for breaching their ASBOs was the best story, with pix of the 'Frankley nightmares' for the package too.

But the p1 boost needed to push our 20-page What's On offering, including pix of Angelina Jolie and Dolly Parton, plus a mention of the 150 cinema tickets we had to give away, and not forgetting the chance to win a Nintendo Wii and games.

The first draw of p1 had the boost in what I call an upside-down L-shape, dominating two thirds of available space and leaving a box shape for the splash and pic.

On many days this may have been the right approach. But I'm essentially a news man, and the emerging story this morning is more pressure on Tory chairman Caroline Spelman to resifn over her 'nanny-gate' controversy.

I wanted that on p1 as well!

Splash sub today was Gary Young, and a quick bit of mouse-work saw the boost kept to the top of the page, managing to encapsulate What's On, Dolly, cinema ticket and Wii without losing to much projection.

This left the full half page below to run the Frankley tearaways as well as a second lead space for Spelman.

News junkie? Maybe, but if Spelman's gone by the end of the day then the Mail will be seen as carrying the story in the right place.

Oh, and the focus on Spelman gave me the chance to use ~~created~~ the term 'nanny-gate' for the story and headline today as well!

So what news do you get on 'quiet' days?

2008-06-25T06:40:51Z

Just had morning conference, and while there are good enough stories ready for the paper tonight, not many of them are really new.

Don't worry... we won't be short-changing readers. The stories are 'new' in that they've not been published. But they are 'in stock' stories prepared previously and kept to one side for quiet days. And today feels quiet.

It is often days like this, when all seems still and sleepy, that something happens to wipe out the front page afresh.

That's the feeling in my water today... let's wait and see.

Meanwhile, an up-our-sleever about council staff found to have spent £20k on 'work-related' trips to sunshine states will be rolling off the printing press on page one in the first edition at 10am...

Post Office closures are a roll-call of deaths in the community

2008-06-21T14:58:59Z

The list of ill-fated Post Offices in the Birmingham Mail today (in print and on .net) is a tragedy.

The details we've managed to have leaked to us currently only cover the city of Birmingham. And within its boundaries alone, 24 Post Offices will shut.

Almost all are in the midst of real communities, some traditional and pristine (eg: Kings Norton Green), others more populated and struggling with inner city deprivation (eg: Sparkbrook Post Office, Stratford Road).

Many, including the Birmingham Mail, have expressed anger months and years ago at the suggestion that such offices might close. But recent indications by government figures that these closures are now unstoppable has increased this fury... and the rage bubbles over when you read through the full list.

Just the suburbs alone cut to the quick... as well as Kings Norton and Sparkbrook, we have offices now doomed in Kings Heath, Aston, Bartley Green, Balsall Heath, Birchfield, Handsworth, Harborne, Druid's Heath, Perry Barr (x2), Ladywood (x2), Hockley, Northfield, Perry Common, Hall Green, Perry Barr, Acocks Green, Erdington, Small Heath, Ward End and Sutton Coldfield (x2).

It's a roll-call of deaths in the community.

Old ladies, vulnerable people without jobs or bank accounts, the infirm or disabled... how many thousands in Birmingham alone will be dispossessed of a neighbourly office in which to go about their lives? This is wrong. This is more than wrong.

The Post Office, or course, have been busily calling the likes of me and other editors to 'explain the background' of the cuts and to 'hope' that we will balance our coverage and 'understand' their actions.

'Fraid not, guys. This time, we'll spill the beans on all the cowardly excuses.

No balance is possible in this story. Bland statements of 'justification' will come, of course, and we will report them... at the bottom of every story we tell in the next few weeks on the hearltless slashing of our traditional Post Offices. If we've got room.

"Blame the government," they squeal. We will. But we will also blame the faceless civil servants at the Post Offices who dare to hide behind the axe of Whitehall.

Today we have listed the simple facts of the Post Office cull. On Monday, we will picture each and every one of the closures so far revealed. And when the fuller picture comes out of other surrounding closures, in the Black Country, Solihull, Coleshill, Tamworth, Redditch and the likes, we will detail them too.

And whatever the Post Office bleats about the unstoppability of the cuts, if our readers respond the way I think they will the Birmingham Mail will fight this strangulation of our close-knit communities by a government that does not understand what they are doing. We will tell the stories of misery that every branch closure will cause. And we will tell these stories day after day, and take the cutting and perhaps huge petitions to the doors of Number 10 Downing Street, until somebody listens.

"But the network loses money," the Post Office mantra squeaks again. Yes? And so do the binmen, but are we about the scrap them? Shall we cut Crossing Wardens, because they make no money. How about getting rid of the church, and local libraries? Neither of those make money.

The Post Office is a long-standing public service. Of course an empty shop with no prospect of real footfall should be reviewed. But to suddenly close dozens, many busy, Post Offices without any real consultation or decent staged programme is the crass, demented action of civil servants blindly following a failing government's inexperienced ministerial blunders.

Mark my words, Postmaster General and Gordon Brown: this one's not going to slip under the net! See Monday's Birmingham Mail for more on this emerging campaign...

The editor's 'wash and go' conundrum...

2008-06-17T16:00:05Z

It's time we had a laugh on this blog, and so I'll share with you the email I sent to my PA before leaving work tonight.

First, the background. I'm at an all-day meeting in Coventry tomorrow, and the dress code is casual. I'm pleased about the casual code, as I'm hosting a dinner in Birmingham starting at 7pm, and so this gives me the excuse to refresh and change into a smart suit beforehand.

But there's the problem... the away day does not finish until 6pm at the earliest. So how can I get to the dinner looking smart and fresh? Hence the email:

To: Andrea
From: Steve
Can you make one more call for me tomorrow? As you know, I'll be leaving Coventry asap and driving straight to Simpsons.
Ideally, if Simpsons are OK with this, I'll arrive, quickly have a shower and change into my clean shirt and suit.
Can you please call them tomorrow and see if this is OK?
If not, I'll have a flannel packed and will have a quick wash in the loos at Coventry and change before setting off!!
I only ask, because apparently there are no showers at Coventry.
Let me know what Simpsons say and I can then wash and go (or go and wash)!!
Thanks
S

This, in all seriousness, was the email. It wasn't until I was on the last line that it made me laugh!

What a load of Balls!

2008-06-12T06:37:36Z

Ed Balls' plans to beg grammar school heads to take over 'failing' schools set the cat among pigeons in the Birmingham Mail editorial conference yesterday.

The two sides could not have been more distant.

Us comprehensive lads were angry that a privately-educated Labour toff, with little or no experience of sink estates, could get away with such general comments.

While we were sure that some comps were truly bad, did he know how hard some state heads and staff have to work even to get their poor intake to attend school? With obnoxious, often violent parents to deal with, let alone their offspring, running and improving an average comp is no fair-ride. Typical Ivory Tower new Labour.

But grammar school boys around the desk disagreed. "The discipline we had at school was what is needed in failing comps," they asserted. "Balls is right."

"Balls," according to a page planner at the back. "What would those grammars be like without cherry-picking? Parents should serve and support local schools."

Whatever the opinion, the fact was that this was one of those editorial conferences when everyone spoke on the subject, and every other man (and woman) disagreed.

That's the pointer to a good sunject that will engage our readers. Hence yesterday's leader subject was turned around on the Balls plan, with plans to take the debate to readers later this week.

My future is not Orange!

2008-06-09T08:02:05Z

One of the things I always pull away from doing in life away from work is announcing, or even mentioning, that I edit the Birmingham Mail.

I'm sure you can understand why. We all know people who feel they have a half-important job who let it slip into almost every conversation that they feel they are rather important.

But after three months of telephone tussle with Orange, my internet provider, I broke my very own rule and told them who I was and what I would now do as a result of their appalling service.

Full details of this saga will be in the Birmingham Mail soon as our consumer editor Catherine Hendrick is hunting the company down over the way it has performed in my domestic case.

But, in summary, a long-standing internet connection from home started to fail back in January. I phoned the Orange helpline, quickly finding out it was a premium-charged line to India.

Fair enough... if it had worked. But it didn't. Over three months, the internet connection got worse and worse, eventually chucking us off within minutes of connecting every day. And each time I called the premium rate line, the Bombay-based operators toook me through the same, almost painful, scripted Q&A.

A word here about the operators themselves. Perfectly polite and pleasant. So long were some of the conversations that during the technology-related pauses we exchanged info about weather, time zones and shift times. Orange can at least be proud that they employ well-spoken, well-meaning operatives.

But unfortunately for those operatives, and more unfortunately for Orange, the Q&A scripts never changed despite each failure. And the system employed meant I had to phone them each time at a rate that soon meant I'd calculated £100+ in failed calls.

At this point I got quite annoyed, and spoke to supervisor after supervisor, trying to get someone at Orange to realise that surely in this case the consumer was being treated unfairly and deserved them to phone me at their cost, at the very least. Plus a partial rebate of the failed phone bill... and what about the £15 rent paid each month for a service that didn't work?

Their response? Phone this number....etc. At this point, I admit, I told whoever was on the phone who I was in terms of working role, ie: editor of one of the biggest evening papers in Britain. And I informed them that I would be commissioning an investigation into the way I felt Orange was ripping customers like me off.

Since then I have switched to another service, one run by O2, one that currently does NOT use a premium rate service and, to date, I have enjoyed total connectivity.

Orange, meanwhile, are now being held up against the wall for what I feel is their negligent consumer service, and the results will soon be published under our Watchdog series in the Birmingham Mail.

Watch this space...

Let's ABOLISH the Welsh Language Act 1993 (diddymu, if you like)

2008-06-06T11:57:26Z

If I was editor of a newspaper in Wales, I would launch a campaign to ABOLISH the Welsh Language Act 1993. Diddymu!!

Why? Because it's bloomin' annoying to be in Cardiff's main railway station trying to find one's journey home only to be faced with a screen continuously flashing from English to Cymraeg (that's Welsh for Welsh, by the way).

Don't misunderstand me... I've nothing against Welsh folk who want to sing, chat and dance in the Welsh tongue in private, nor against weird academic qualifications in the subject, (if anyone can work out what use that could be!).

But this nonsensical Act makes it obligatory for every sign, announcement and notice that is deemed to be governmental or of 'public service' to be printed in both English and Cymraeg. Why? Madness, if you ask me.

"Preservation," some will hark. "If we don't insist on such codification of the language then it will die." Others may cruelly answer: "So what?".

Not me. I can see the sense in some codification. The odd road-sign, for instance. Or even the occasional 'dyn' on the door of the gents' toilet for those in a desperate hurry.

But why confuse rail passengers with every flaming destination on a changing railway board in both English and Cymraeg? Do you really think that will attract tourists? Annoy and frustrate them, more like.

I mean, we all love cute places like Cornwall, and some even profess to say Scotland is an OK place for views. But we don't insist on south coastal and tartan versions of Gaelic appearing on every beach or kilt, do we?

Come on South Wales Echo, The Western Mail and Wales on Sunday! Let's campaign for the right to use our common sense and a measure of reason in our use of this daft language, not shove it down everyone's throats!

Respect the Ref success (hope you are watching, Sir Alex and co)

2008-06-04T17:23:27Z

Really pleased to see the results of our hard-hitting 'Respect the Ref' campaign.

This basically warned the abusive, sometimes violent, players and spectators in grassroots football that the paper would name and shame them for proven misdemeanors.

Figures revealed by the Birmingham County FA show that there were 14 attacks on referees last season, compared with 27 during the previous season and 33 the year before.

This is the lowest level since reliable records began in the 1980s.... and the FA beleive this has been helped by our 'Respect the Ref' campaign.

There can be no complacency. One attack is one too many, as is the constant string of verbal abuse received by refs.

And so the campaign will continue next season... with even more stringent shaming where necessary.

If only the likes of Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney would learn something from this and cease their constant berating of officials.

Just what do they think this arrogant attitude does to young people watching them on TV?

The fastest 15-year-old in the Great Midlands Fun Run

2008-06-01T11:46:55Z

A moment to be a proud dad, if that's OK.

Just got back from watching my eldest, 15-year-old Tom, come in 56th out of 4,000+ in the Great Midlands Fun Run, completing 8.5-miles in around 57-minutes.

I think he was the fastest 15-year-old, although will need to check this in the paper next week (this one was organised by the weekly Sutton Coldfield Observer newspaper).

The Birmingham Mail was there too, of course. This run may be organised by a 'competitor', but with 4,000+ runners and at least three times as many people cheering, it was a great local event that deserves coverage in the local daily. Pix and words tomorrow.

But for now, I'm just very proud of my son. (And yes, I too wonder where he gets it from! My performance in the Birmingham Mail Fun Run earlier this month was 3.5-miles in 45-minutes, and I think I was about 1,000th out of 1,800!!)

When adverts clash with copy

2008-05-31T14:06:26Z

Breaking news that on occasions clashes with booked advertising can cause real juxtaposition problems for a newspaper.

Today's front page in the Birmingham Mail tells of the horrible M5 crash that killed five people last night.

The editor of the day called me at home to ask whether or not we should take off the front page ad. for reasons of taste. The advert in question was for a taxi service, and it potentially sat very badly with the dramatic but severe picture of motorway carnage.

In the end, we kept this advert on. We made sure the story and picture were boxed in with a 5-point line (a heavy border), therefore making it clear it had nothing to do with the car pictures and graphics on the advert.

At other times, we have dropped the advert. Accident insurance claims would, for instance, have been offensive to readers on a front page telling of a fatal accident.

The worst I remember was a toothpaste advert clashing with a front page that told of a man who'd choked to death on his dentures.

Unsolved murders

2008-05-29T17:11:27Z

Spoke today with our trusty correspondent at Stafford Crown Court, Mike Posner.

Mike worked for the Mail for 30+ years before retiring, but has still kept us supplied with some great court tales as an occasional freelance for the last eight years.

He tells me that he's just about to launch a new book on the unsolved murders of Staffordshire. This will be some read. Watch this space and I'll link to the review that we will run in the next few weeks.

If I know Mike, for anyone who likes a good crime read it will be a real page-turner.