What a week

By Marc Reeves on Mar 4, 08 01:50 PM in

The first rule of good blogging is to post frequent updates - as we're telling the Post's new model army of Birmingham bloggers.
Impressive, then, that the editor willfully ignores this instruction and leaves several days between his first and this latest post.
I think I have an excuse, though: last Friday's gala dinner to celebrate the paper's 150th anniversary rather occupied my thoughts towards the end of last week - and those of the great many colleagues who helped make the event such a great success.
At the dinner, I was able to shamelessly exploit the opportunity to plug this new website, and give a flavour of the challenges 2008 brings the Post and its sister papers.

Just one of those is the installation of a new editorial computer system, which, though possibly of zero interest to the average Post reader (and rightly so), represents a transformation for our journalists.
Yesterday, we started a four-month programme of training and implementation for the Post, the Birmingham Mail and the Sunday Mercury, with the first reporters getting their hands on the shiny new kit.
The system replaces an outdated Mac-based pagination set-up that is completely obsolete for the digital age.
Once installed, our new system will allow my reporters to file from anywhere with a 3G or wifi connection, and my desk editors to publish directly to the website, while the newspaper itself will benefit from the design capabilities of Adobe Indesign software.
All this, added to the new website, will make 2008 an incredible year for the Post, but more importantly, for our readers too. If we don't put all this expensive new hardware and software to good use by helping us do what we do better, then it will all be money wasted.
So, if like me, you've been cheerfully ignoring those helpful pop-ups inviting you to complete our on-line survey, please feel free to tell me directly what you like or dislike about birminghampost.net.
That way, I can tell the bosses I'm spending their money wisely.