Birmingham Post takes 'bold step' with new tablet edition

The Birmingham Post has launched a business-focused tablet edition to be published daily, in what the Post's editor describes as a "bold step" for the newspaper.

Business Daily, which is available for £9.99 a month, has its own editorial team at the Post, headed by editor Stacey Barnfield and deputy editor and regional head of business Graham Brown.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, Barnfield said Business Daily is "a completely standalone tablet edition", offering "bespoke" content across 30 pages.

"We think it's a first," he said. "We can't see any other people doing this at the moment."

Three quarters of the content will be business-focused. "It's aimed at the business community," Barnfield explained. "It's briefings, it's need to know information. Short, snappy pieces about appointments in the city, the key movers and shakers, what they're up to, and insights into the business world."

The tablet edition, which is run on PageSuite, includes a 'leads & deals section', on which Barnfield said the team were "pinning quite a bit of hope".

The section will outline "planning applications and tenders and that kind of information that gives a businessman or woman, a lead or some kind of opportunity to get into business", he said. These pieces will also include relevant links to guide the reader to further useful information online.



"A lot of these hyperlinks and that information, we wouldn't really carry in some traditional print stories," Barnfield added. "But because we want this to be useful, we want this information to be another click away almost, we can do that in this."

The remaining 25 per cent of the content will include "some civic news", he said, as well as other reporting which could appeal to the business audience, as well as What's On information.

Reflecting on the launch, Barnfield said it has "been a big step" for the Post, in part because of the shift "back to that daily thinking again" for the weekly Post's newsroom.

"So that was a big thing for us. I think it's something we've pulled off and we'll get better, we'll fine-tune it. This will evolve."

Articles written for the tablet edition will be "shorter and snappier", while the newspaper "will continue to be – and will grow into – the home for analysis and opinion and follow-up articles. More in-depth reads about anything we might have carried in the daily".

And the Post is confident this approach will be complementary to each product. "The two can work alongside each other", Barnfield added.

As well as a more concise approach to the content, in time the Post wants to build in more interactive elements to enhance the experience further.

"We're keen, for as many stories as possible, to link through to galleries, to videos hosted on our website and through our social networking, through Pinterest and through other relevant accounts," Barnfield said.

"So it's very much part of the thinking and it will evolve and there'll be much more of it as we go forward."

The app can be downloaded on Apple and Android tablet devices.

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