Mail Trust set to benefit from art confiscated by Nazis
You just couldn't make it up...
After a sunny break in Spain, I've returned to a legal tangle of immense proportions.
As blog readers will know, I also chair the Birmingham Mail Charity Trust, a fund of 100-years+ standing, raising money in the city and making grants to volunteer community groups.
Occasionally, we receive bequests in wills of those we have helped, (there was £10k from one such donor earlier this year).
Now we are one of 26 potential beneficiaries in a will that is set to benefit from the restitution of arts and music originally confiscated by the Nazis in 1939.
I kid you not!
Basically, what seems like a refugee from Germany in World War 2 came to Brum, was helped by many including the Mail's Trust, and left a huge chunk of his will to the charities in the 1980s.
It's now come to light that many fine pieces of art and music once owned by this chap have now been reclaimed from Germany, after they were originally confiscated by Hitler's government.
All this means the will is under reexamination, and beneficiaries are making legal claims over further potential shares.
Details have to remain sketchy for now, as there's a lot of legal work to do, a few disputed claims, and a lot of other charities involved.
But to whet your appetite, one piece of art involved alone may be valued at anything between $625,000 and $1,250,000!
What a story it will make when the whole thing is settled.
Fingers crossed for a good share of any such assets which the Trustees and I will ensure makes it to needy causes across Birmingham.
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Steve Dyson - Blog from the Editor on recent issues and events.
ha, ur back! first ou slink off to bask in the sun during what could have been strike week, then you come back to profit from from monies meant for a charity! disgusting. (Only joking, Mr Dyson, welcome back!)
I see that Trinity have confirmed its is considering cutting the Post back to a weekly and switching the Mail from an afternoon to morning paper. Presumably you'll be blogging about this and the 'inevitable' loss of jobs as revealed by your bosses.
Here, Here, lets her it Mr Dyson, you've shrugged off the inevitable on previous blogs regarding the Post going weekly and the Mail going down the plug hole lets here your views on Trinity Mirror Management and how they've single handedly dragged the the Midlands Titles down the gutter with their in-defensive miss-management!
Former employee, I couldn't agree more, will the big man answer your comment, I very much doubt it?????????????
In case blog-followers are wondering what the latest three comments refer to, there's a fairly accurate summary of today's announcement by Trinity Mirror at www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk. What the company has announced is an early consultation with relevant parties about potential changes in publishing strategies at the Birmingham Post and Mail. Most importantly, this invitation is to all staff, individually and/or through staff forums and unions, as well as other parties (eg: newsagents, local organisations, etc). As soon as I find out the formal route(s) for this consultation, I will post full details, probably tomorrow. I would imagine, however, that anyone genuinely interested would need to take part with a little more finesse and style in their approach than the 'Former Employee' displays above...
Former employee, you have to be realistic about what can be blogged about. I think you would be the first to jump down SD's throat if he were to start blogging about issues which will have a huge impact on staff before they had been spoken to in person. For the record, I am no apologist for Steve Dyson. I am, however, a former Trinity Mirror employee and found them a pretty terrible company to work for.
Steve might be the public face of the Mail, but believe you me - very few editors like to cut staff. Most editors, with a few exceptions, got into the profession for the same reason as the rest of us - a love of news and newspapers. If cuts have to be made I'd rather have a news man making the painful decisions than a consultant. Sure, any editor could take a principled stand and resign - but then what do yo think would happen? The cuts would still be made with zero editorial input.
Beware he who proclaims "I'm a born and bred Brummie!". You've heard this before and you'll hear it again. Closely followed by a sharp pain between the shoulder blades...
N95 anyone?
The company has created a mailbox for anyone wanting to get involved in the above-mentioned consultation. It is ideas@trinitymirror.com
I really hope the Brum Mail does not go overnight, it will be the final nail in a coffin I care about, the Express and Star will be laughing all the way to the bank.
To save the marketing whizzes at TM a job I've already come up with a new slogan
'Get yerr Mail - Yesterday's News Tomorrow'
Steve Zacharanda I presume! As I live and breathe. Now that's a fella who could have helped the Mail adapt to the 21st century without alienating your core readership. Sadly you not only let him take redundancy but chucked your toys out of the pram by trying to take his redundancy off him when he posted something on the web that gave you international exposure and coverage that not even Sly LoadsaMoney Bailey could buy.
Seriously though, who on earth is going to buy the Evening Mail the next morning? You are not putting on new readers. That is a fact. The only hope, until the web can be monetised, is to do everything you possibly can to hold on to the ones you've got. And you are not going to do that by giving them an inferior, out of date product for the same money.
Wouldn't it be better to drop the first editions and just have one, evening edition? That way you aren't competing with the national morning papers in a market that's already saturated. You really don't stand a chance.
And no Mr Dyson I won't email my thoughts. This time Trinity Mirror needs to do this in the open, as your eloquent opposite number at the Post Marc Reeves said, with readers not only submitting their views to your hatchet men but to each other as well.
"The company has created a mailbox for anyone wanting to get involved in the above-mentioned consultation. It is ideas@trinitymirror.com"
The electronic equivalent of speaking to a brick wall.
For 'Dane', 'Forsooth' and other interested parties, a new blog on 'The future of the Birmingham Mail' has now been posted.
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