Posts Tagged ‘ Birmingham Mail ’

God save the Queen, but why?

From the Mail: Council street services boss Timothy Huxtable has extended the deadline for applications to hold a bash on a public highway until April 18. The local authority has so far only received 12 firm applications, while neighbouring Solihull, has received 24, despite being a much smaller council. But Coun Huxtable (Cons, Bournville) told the full council meeting that the council has also received 17 ‘expressions of interest’ over street parties from communities. Coun Huxtable said: “We have received a further 17 requests for further information and so have extended the deadline to give those people, and anyone else who comes forward time to apply. He added that social clubs, church groups, pubs and community associations were all planning their own events.” I simply can’t think of a good reason why the Council are so desperate for Birmingham to be seen as whoopingly, 30s-style, patriotic. Can you?

BiNS Advent Calendar 2008 – December 3rd

Get the Flash Player to see this content. This year’s Panto Horse Grand National, video from the Mail. See every entry in the BiNS 2008 Advent Calendar. Buy a 2009 Calendar for 365 days of Brum.

Visit Birmingham — and watch the Blues

Marketing Birmingham have signed an advertising deal with Blues and Villa to promote visitbirmingham.com on advertising hoardings and the like. That’s a sensible move, scenes from Villa Park and St Andrews must be the most often televised nationally (and internationally in Villa’s case) from Brum (plus there’s always the chance of something really newsworthy happening in front of one of the boards — remember the parachuting santa?). Of course there’s always the “visit Birmingham for three easy points” thing, but at least the message is out there. The Evening Mail’s coverage was somewhat bizarre however: “FOOTBALL clubs Aston Villa and Blues have put their rivalries to one side for the sake of the city to sign a joint £1.4 million sponsorship deal to give Birmingham a massive global boost.” Leaving aside that they felt the need to explain that Villa and Blues were football clubs, in what way could the two companies be said to be “put their rivalries to one side”?. By accepting advertising deals from the same company? “The Sun and The Mirror put their rivalries to one side and both ran adverts for Dixons.” Nonsense.

Weird, but not science obviously

The Mail reports on a clever piece of publicity (it’s all crap obviously), a report that names Birmingham the UK’s weirdest place. All sorts of odd things are revealed including an alien visit to Rowley Regis: “The strange beings told Mrs Hingley they came “from the sky” then talked about Jesus and Tommy Steele.She offered them a tray of mince pies and they took one each before flying off to their ship, which then lifted up in the direction of Oldbury or West Bromwich.”

Birmingham New Street to be redeveloped, originally uploaded by new folder. “Plans are sketchy but seem to include a high roof.”

Interesting interview on journalism.co.uk with Steve Dyson, editor of the Birmingham Mail, where he makes some points about the future of local journalism – more of that later I’m sure – but the main thrust for us now is the launch of a new Mail website BirminghamMail.net. So, set AdBlock to stun, and let’s go and have a look: I think it’s universally accepted that the icbirmingham (and other ic.. sites) are pretty poor, for navigation and layout at least, even if the content is there – so it’s nice to see a fresh screen layout with obvious catergories and – which comes as a shock – pictures! Yes, there are quite large banner ads, but so far I’ve not seen any that pop-up over the text – that’s admirable restraint, far more than The Guardian, for example, shows. Good going. One problem that illustrates the peculiarity and the difference about content online is the journalists/subs use of “today”, “tomorrow” etc. in headlines – we don’t have the context online that we have with the physical copies “is that today’s Mail?”. Use of airy times online, where content can stay on a page for longer, means that “FOUR unsigned...

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Posts Tagged ‘ Birmingham Mail ’

God save the Queen, but why?

BiNS Advent Calendar 2008 – December 3rd

Visit Birmingham — and watch the Blues

Weird, but not science obviously

Put roof here

You’ve got Mail, dot net

@onBirmingham – Breaking Brum News on Twitter