Welcome to a new Birmingham Post and a new era
No regular reader of our print edition can fail to see the changes we have introduced today - the most visible being the change in size and design of the newspaper.
But, as we hope those of you who read the Birmingham Post online will be discovering, the new compact print product is only one of a number of responses the title is making this week to the challenges presented by the rapidly changing media marketplace.
Other developments are not as visible, but no less significant for that. The Post's online presence, birminghampost.net has been updated, building on phenomenal growth since its launch just eight months ago.
Later this week, the Post becomes the first regional newspaper in the UK to launch its own news and information service designed specifically for use on the new generation of mobile phones.
Underpinning the changes in format and new ways of receiving the Post's services is a sharpened focus on the business agenda of the West Midlands, and at the same time the retention and enhancement of what the Post has always done best.
For many, this is the duty to explain and analyse the issues behind the headlines that drive the region's economic and political agendas.
These tasks remain, but the paper now puts more emphasis on serving the information needs of business-focused readers. They may be young entrepreneurs or newly qualified professionals building businesses and careers in the new economy - or public and private sector leaders leading transformational change in their organisations. Whatever their sector or background, thousands of wealth creators and policy makers in this region need the unique oversight and insight the Post brings to the issues that shape our environment.
In today's turbulent times, that need has never been in sharper focus.
The Post's changes equip it to continue to serve this need in a variety of ways, and to remain relevant to the new generations of leaders who are shaping the future for all of us.
The Post has taken what it hopes are the right steps to ensure a prosperous future for serious journalism in the West Midlands.
Now it wants to get on with the job of ensuring a prosperous future for the rest of the region.
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Jonathan Walker - The Birmingham Post's political editor
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Roshan Doug - Poet and freelance journalist
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Alister Scott - Professor of Spatial Planning and Governance, Birmingham City University
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Hi Jo. The last few months have been packed with marvellous changes, and while some of them still have to pass the test of time, many are immediately clear as good changes.
The shift from last year's layout to the newer one is one of those immediately apparent and powerfully useful changes. Today's online edition updates that layout and prompts this note in that there seems to be an uncertain mix of old and new. The older masthead is still in place above the Blogs & Comment section. But the home page has a different masthead, and a load of stuff that isn't news. So much so that the headlines are beginning to get lost among the other detail.
I'm wondering if this is a change required for phone-based viewing, and whether it's going to spread beyond the home page. I'm recalling the discussions about layout earlier in the year, and wondering what prompted the modifications. Is it that newer technologies cannot accommodate the former aesthetic? Is there a demand to pack every pixel with links?
I thought very highly of the Birmingham Post website when it was launched eight months ago - it looked and felt smart and impressive. Today's relaunch is disappointing. It somehow seems more ordinary and less substantive. Something has been lost, and so soon... A bit of a shame, really.
Have just read your new format paper - what a load of rubbish. The things I look forward to most days are:-
Coffee Time crossword.
Radio Listings.
Football league tables
4 day weather forecast.
None of these daily features were listed.
Can't see the point in buying it anymore.
Also we used to enjoy reading a paper each ie. one of us read the business whilst the other read the regular post and we then swopped - can't do this anymore.
Also you are now having to use staples to hold the paper together - what a waste.
Mike Wilson
Jean-Luc Fournier, I love your drop dead gorgeous name. Please do come to one of my parties: if only for the pleasure of my introducing you to everyone.
Mike Wilson, you think you have got problems. I have posted today, and the BP is blanking me. As to staples: They are insidious and have found their way into many a not-so-broad-any-longer sheet over the years. Irritating, when lighting the wood burner.
U
On http://www.birminghampost.net/ the headings 'Post Supplements' and 'Business Diary' are chopped off at the top (using Safari/Leopard).
Thank you all for your comments.
As you have pointed out, we were suffering some problems implementing the new website layout yesterday. Apologies.
Most of the problems have now been resolved. Those using Internet Explorer should now see the website as it was intended to look. We are still tweaking it for Safari/Leopard, Chrome and Firefox.
Over the next few days the blogs (which are run on a separate server to our website)will also be updated with the new masthead.
I am interested in dp's comment that the homepage included "things that were not news".
The design changes have been put in place because we believe the Post website has much to offer people that they may not be aware of.
We hope to use the new area next to the scrolling top stories to highlight content that may not make it into "latest news" but we think is still interesting and relevant.
Poorly conceived and as I expected poorly executed.Thirteen and a half pages of mostly press association news and virtually all the rest free advertising for people who spend too much time at corporate golf days and company receptions.
Hello Kev,
Sorry you didn't like the newspaper, but are you sure you were reading The Birmingham Post?
Monday's newspaper was 52 pages of business, news, features and sport. Only two pages (p19 and p21 - the national and international pages) were lead by Press Association stories. The rest were stories written and sourced by our own team.
Tuesday's newspaper was 48 pages with four pages lead by PA, the rest by our own writers.
Also, just to clarify: ALL advertising that appeared in the newspaper was paid for.
Jo, I meant that the Google search bar, the login/RSS and weather info, the ads down the left, ads at the bottom, and some of the static feature links (the supplements, Forum, photosales) are visually overpowering the headlines.
I've put up a screenshot here with a red box around the part of the page that I regard as the most important. This is the stuff that's getting lost in the clutter of ads, links, and incidental features.
What a great disappointment the new paper is. Gave it till my second copy to react. The staples !!!! Make it difficult to read and deny us the pleasure of sharing bits !
Overall news content just reads as if you had downloaded it from the net. Whatever happened to real journalism ! I can see why the likes of Pat Murphy left !
Print quality is cheap and tacky in appearance - just like The Evening Mail ! I suppose the production savings are enormous. Sadly, quality and style cannot be done on the cheap. Sorry, but its The Times or The Daily Telegraph for me. Very sad as I have loved The Post for many years.
Well - i gave it three days to settle down. Print quality is poor - not sharp on pictures. The staples - non on Monday, well off centre Tuesday, better on Wednesday but Pages not level. What is Page 47 all about? - it is the same today as yesterday, is it an advert?. And then today a bad spelling error on the top of the front page.
Dp: Thanks for the feedback - I shall certainly pass it on to our website designers.
As I have said we felt the new layout is much cleaner and allowed for more content to be visible than the old one - this is especially the case for people who have smaller screen resolutions.
However, as you probably know, all website designs are a work in progress to some degree.
We will be continuing to develop Birminghampost.net over the coming months and I will be taking what you have said into account.
Derek and Mike: I can only say I am sorry you do not feel the paper is any longer for you.
There have been many different reactions to the re-design and I will be writing a post about them shortly.
Please forgive me that I can't double check at the moment, but I am assuming the static page Mike talks about is the "We've Transformed" page.
I can assure you that page is not an advert. I wrote it myself. It outlines the many ways that you can get news from and interact with The Post - online as well as in print.
I like to hope that amongst them you may find a method that you enjoy.
Joanna, I feel for you. Didn't I recently advise you to go into farming instead?
As much as it pains me, I do agree with dp's second comment (22 Oct). One's eyes and attention are drawn all over the place with the new design. It's annoying - and believe me: I do multi task with the best of womenfolk. Worse, a magnifying glass has to be at hand at all times to find what one wants to read. Maybe those web site designers can take their eyes off the screen for a moment and actually listen to comments instead. Guys, guys, guys ...
Joanna, good luck with task in hand. Not everything will come out in the wash, but some teething troubles will abate.
U
Joanna, i did not say the paper was not for me, i was just offering some comments. Thursday and Friday the staples are spot on!!. Also the news content seems to have increased over the week - much better. But that static page is still there - its the DNA one - what on earth is it all about - a lot of very technical information that may be of interest to someone, it has not changed all week and seems like a waste of a page to me.
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