How will the people of Birmingham respond to the new-look evening paper that hit their streets this week?
There’s
a lot riding on the answer, not just for new editor Steve Dyson, or his
boss Mark Dickinson, or even for Trinity Mirror. If they can crack what
is arguably the toughest regional newspaper problem of all – i.e.
appealing to a huge urban sprawl lacking a real sense of identity and
populated by hugely diverse communities, both ethnically and
financially – there will be lessons that the whole industry will be
able to learn.
Dyson and his team’s logic certainly seems sound,
and their back-to-basics approach to ultra-local news will have many
old hands nodding vigorously in approval.
There’ll be plenty in the industry who’ll celebrate if the second city’s readers do the same.
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