It is thought that Marc Reeves, former editor of the Birmingham Post, is to launch a West Midlands franchise of TheBusinessdesk.com.

First publicly reported on Jon Slattery’s blog and on the Drum (in a story with a dead link), the news follows industry speculation and hints of pastures new on Reeves’ blog.

Journalism.co.uk has learned the site will be run by Reeves – who left the Post at the end of 2009 when the the Trinity Mirror title went weekly – and two other journalists. One of the journalists involved is believed to be the former Birmingham Post deputy business editor, Duncan Tift.

It is understood that Reeves has begun offering banner advertising for the new site.

Reeves, who we were unable to contact today, was recently appointed to the panel to decide the Independently Funded News Consortia pilots.

The Business Desk, who could not be contacted for comment today either, was launched in 2007 as business online-only news site for Yorkshire, by former Yorkshire Post business editor, David Parkin. Former Yorkshire Post journalists Ian Briggs and Anastasia Weiner also joined the site.

In 2008, the Business Desk also launched in the north west. At the time Parkin told Journalism.co.uk:

“We think it can work in every region in the country. We’ve got to see how it goes in the north west, but we don’t want to stop here.”

“We are purely online, that’s all we do. All the other players in the area have a print product to support,” he added.Similar Posts:

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The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) reports that journalists were due to hand out thank you letters to the people of West Yorkshire today.

“NUJ members from the Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post and Leeds Weekly News want to show their appreciation for the support they received during thirteen days of strike action over compulsory redundancies.”

Full release at this link…Similar Posts:

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Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post will enter ballot over strike action after Johnston Press announcement of redundancies.

Read the full NUJ release at this link…Similar Posts:

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• NUJ Release: Johnston Press strikers go south

The Yorkshire Post is using an interactive map of local petrol stations’ fuel prices to help its readers in this time of credit crunchiness.

Built using data from whatgas.com, the map flags up petrol stations in the paper’s readership area and allows users to update the current prices of unleaded, diesel and LPG fuel.

Even better the feature is tied into a news article reporting on fuel prices in the region – nicely done.

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