January 2009 Archives

Delighted to be joining forces with MacMillan Cancer Support again for the 2009 Birmingham Mail Fun Run.

Last year saw more than 2,000 runners raise £73,000 for charity - most going to MacMillan, with around £10,000 raised for the Birmingham Mail Charity Trust.

With things as they are in the economy, these funds were much needed by both MacMillan and the Trust, and the latter's share has already been distributed to needy community causes around the city.

We're hoping to see a big increase in entrants this year... hopefully raising even more money for cancer support and the Trust's small grants.

It's only 5km... even I managed it last year!

Click here for more details.

We're still VERY MUCH in early days at Fort Dunlop, and there is much improvement and consolidation needed to make it really work.

But I was pleased to see one expert leave fairly enthused after his visit last Friday.

The Guardian's Roy Greenslade, for info, was there for five hours, and walked freely and spoke to whom he wanted.

His verdict is here.

I RANT often enough on here, in the Birmingham Mail print editions and, when they allow me, in national newspapers about the annoying London-centric attitude of this country.

And, in the main, my knocks include 'meejah' commentators.

But fair is fair, and today, after many invites, the acerbic Roy Greenslade turned up at our new premises to see the Birmingham restructure. (For those that don't know him, check out his regular, much-watched blog here.)

God knows what his verdict will be. And to be fair, I really don't mind now, because he came, he spoke, he toured and he listened, which is far more than any other critics!

In the five hours here, RG talked to many hacks, attended the joint 12.30pm news conference, listened to digital strategy and... I loved this bit... took a trip across the road with me to tour our printing press.

And here he is, at 1.55pm on Friday January 23, picking the first of the Birmingham Mail's late night finals off the presses, this one splashing on the eight-year sentence doled out 90 minutes earlier to Karen Matthews.

What was interesting was listening to RG reminisce on the Fleet Street days of print once he had the smell of ink in his nostrils and the rumble of presses reverberating through his toes.

As the UK and world enters a deep recession, he genuinely came across as a real champion of newspapers - in print and online.

Let's see how he reflects this passion and anything he picked up from his visit on his blog next week...

The Birmingham Mail is well-known for its campaigns.

Sometimes to criticise, often to try to force change, at other times simply to highlight issues readers feel strongly about.

A recent inquiry about one of our campaigns triggered me to update my internal list of live issues, ones that are dormant and those that deserve a revisit.

It's not a fully comprehensive list, and is always one that needs updating and reprioritising. But I thought Editor's Chair readers might be interested.

As you can see, visitors to this blog have even been treated to a sneak preview of the credit crunch campaign we're due to launch in a coordinated way in February.

Birmingham Mail current campaign update

Live issues

• Beat the credit crunch/ Birmingham Mail credit cruncher... tbc NEW IDEA

• Support Jaguar Land Rover Now!

• Keep Our Children Safe (call for more lollipop wardens/championing the oldest, the kindest, etc)

• Stop the Bullies! (start of school year campaign, award-winning and now in its 4th reincarnation)

• Save Our Small Shops (corner shops/community shopping centres)

• Go Green (environmental campaign linked to commercial income/project)

• Respect the Ref (local football campaign to respect match officials, printing details of offenders in a name and shame, etc)

• The Cerys Campaign (campaign for new laws of young drivers after little Cerys left paralysed by new driver)

• The Letisha and Charlene Education Awards

• Save our Post Offices

• Local Heroes (community champions)

• Badge of Honour (Local support for servicemen)

• SORTED! (Watchdog-style success stamp on sorting readers consumer issues)

Revisits needed

• A&E: The Big Debate (representing locals concerns on controversial changes to Hearttlands Hospital)

• Eyes on the Buses (campaigning for local bus service improvements, anti-crime measures, etc)

Dormant

• Let the People Decide (campaign for referendum on elected mayors) PARTIAL SUCCESS. 15,000 signatures achieved. No immediate action but Tory pledge to enforce if they win election and Labour pledge to lower petition totals need to trigger referendum.

• Wake Up to the State of New Street (call for government funding for New Street Station) VICTORY WHEN FUNDING ANNOUNCED

• No More Chinese Whispers (campaign to make Nanjing speak to us about Longbridge plans) VICTORY WHEN FIRM GRANTED 1-1 INTERVIEWS AND ONGOING OPENNESS

I thought Editor's Chair watchers might be interested to watch news-making at work.

The growing Jaguar Land Rover petition made enough waves to Number 10 on the for the PM's spin doctors to arrange an interview this morning.

Once a pic for the front page with yours truly had been taken, I then whipped out the N95 to show our wider team at work.

Seen shorthanding to the right of GB is Jon Walker, the Political Editor for the Mail and Post. To the right again is Marc Reeves, Post editor, and on the far right is handsome Video Editor Phil Vinter. The back of photographer Trevor Roberts can also be spotted in the foreground.

Do you remember the phrase 'the power of the press'?

We don't hear it so much now because newspaper brands are not just printed, but are online, downloading to mobiles, broadcasting video, etc.

But together, the traditional printed editions AND the web can make the 'press' even MORE powerful.

Take the campaign to 'Support Jaguar Land Rover NOW!', launched this Tuesday.

In print, there was not only the Birmingham Mail shouting from page one to kick the government into action. Thanks to the forward-thinking of my fellow editor Marc Reeves, the co-ordinated campaign was simultaneously published by his Birmingham Post, down the road in the Coventry Telegraph, and up the M6 in the Liverpool Echo and the Liverpool Daily Post.

And on ALL those papers' websites... see here, here, here and here.

Not to mention on video broadcast over the web.

And did I mention the campaign's Facebook site and petition on Number 10's website, all linked from each of the papers' sites?

At the last count - 7.40pm, Wednesday January 7, just two days into the campaign - there were 3,223 e-signatures piling up on that site.

And guess what? The grapevine now tells me Gordon Brown is coming to town on Friday to find out what it's all about...

Watch this space...