Trinity Mirror Regionals: Vote of no confidence in management is ‘publicity-grabbing stunt’

The National Union of Journalists announced yesterday that its members at Trinity Mirror titles in Birmingham have ‘unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in the company’s management of its regional titles.’ NUJ members at the Birmingham titles are currently balloting for action, following the announcement of  job cuts and closure of weekly titles.

Trinity Mirror responded in a statement, accusing the NUJ of undermining efforts for the two parties to work together.

“This is yet another publicity-grabbing stunt by the NUJ which, once again, does absolutely nothing to address the commercial challenges facing our Midlands businesses and completely undermines their claims to be working constructively with us,” said Georgina Harvey, managing director at Trinity Mirror Regionals.

“A point further proved by the fact that, to date, we haven’t received a letter from the NUJ themselves and have only been made aware of its existence by the trade media.

“The NUJ’s constant claim that we are making cuts in the pursuit of short term profit is frankly laughable and insulting. The bottom line is the Midlands business is no longer profitable – it’s running at a loss. Our first priority has to be to stop the losses and reverse the trend. That will involve some hard choices; difficult decisions but necessary ones if we are to save our businesses in the Midlands.”

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NUJ Release: Trinity Mirror to axe eight Birmingham weekly titles

National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has learned of plans to reduce frequency of the Birmingham Post and potentially cut eight weekly titles from the region.

Full release at this link…

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‘Blood, Sweat and Media’ – BCU graduates exhibit final projects

Birmingham City University’s School of Media will exhibit final projects from its media and communications students at an event this week – viewing on June 11 for media professionals; public view on June 12 – at Fazeley Street Studios in Birmingham.

The event will highlight the skills and abilities acquired by this year’s graduates during the three-year course.

Students will show their final year production projects from their specialist areas, which include television, radio, PR, journalism, photography, new media and music industries.

“I think this is a good opportunity to make ourselves known to the media industry and to meet potential professionals who are interested in our work,” says Mohammed Adnan (final year student on the media and communication degree).

For more information contact Fatima Laheria at fatimalaheria@yahoo.co.uk or telephone 07802 687349.

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Nicky Getgood on being a community blogger who is Not Stupid

Nicky Getgood who blogs about the Birmingham district of Digbeth, at Digbeth is Good,  has been a little riled of late, by some members of the mainstream media and their perception of bloggers. She cites a few particular examples and speaks up for the local blogger:

“I’m not mad (eccentric yes, mad no). I’m not a liar (too much Catholic guilt for that). Most importantly, I’m Not Stupid. I actually don’t think I’m that unusual in being Not Stupid. A lot of bloggers are Not Stupid enough to realise filling a blog with personal gripes, neighbourhood wars, scurrilous rumours and conjecture makes for a miserable read and isn’t going to get them or their blog very far.

“[Local bloggers] tell stories about our community from our own personal perspective, admittedly – I have never made any claim that Digbeth is Good is completely impartial – but by in large we keep things real.  And as we go on telling local stories using our own, personalised voices people reading them get to know us, talk to us and hopefully, if we’re doing it right, trust us.”

Full post at this link…

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Advertising: Newspapers sign up with Zillow.com and Politico; UK radio station launches motor ads site

A series of major advertising deals have been signed this week, starting with the creation of a national online real estate ad network between 282 US newspapers and Zillow.com.

The agreement, Editor&Publisher reports, will see the papers and Zillow sharing each other’s advertising inventories and splitting revenue.

Politico.com has opted for a selective approach in creating an ‘advertising and content distribution network’, says an article in MediaWeek.

US newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, aggregators, and local TV news websites are among 40 outlets signed up to the network.

Under the partnership the media organisations will carry Politico content on the political sections of their websites and feature ads sold by Politico’s sales division. The outlets can also run their own ads alongside Politico content.

Meanwhile in the UK, Birmingham radio station BRMB has joined up with classified advertising site AdFlyer to create a website for motoring ads targeted at the west Midlands. Users can upload an ad for the first week free of charge, a release from AdFlyer said.

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Birmingham Mail looking at developing community-based sites

In addition to the launch of a new website, The Birmingham Mail is looking at developing and hosting a series of community-based education websites.

In interview with Journalism.co.uk, editor Steve Dyson said the newspaper was looking at a range of options for local community sites.

One of the options, he said, was to host sites for local educational institutions, where students would write the content.

“What we are planning further down the line is local community websites, again hosted by the Birmingham Mail, but they may well be sites in their own right,” he told Journalism.co.uk.

“We are looking at a variety of community sites, mainly around schools and media courses in schools, where they have asked if they can fill a local community website for us.

“We are talking to educational groups about it. There are about 15 schools around Birmingham that are developing media courses and as part of the courses they have to have websites which have to be updated daily by students. What we are talking to them about is hosting it for them.”

Dyson stressed that these sites were very much in the early planning stage but were being considered along the same lines as the series of community sites launched last year by the Teesside Gazette, another Trinity Mirror paper.

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