Stop the presses! Old-fashioned newspaper war in Birmingham

An old-fashioned newspaper battle has broken out in Birmingham. Following the decision to turn the Birmingham Mail into an overnight title, the Wolverhampton-based Express and Star has relaunched its Birmingham edition in a bid to win over traditional Mail readers - and, presumably, advertisers. The Express & Star, with a sale of 128,000 across its 11 editions, is far and away the highest-selling regional evening paper in the UK. It is also one of Britain's few family-owned newspapers, having been owned by the Graham family ever since 1902. The Mail, owned by Trinity Mirror , sold an average of 56,500 in the first six months of last year, 14% fewer than in the same period the year before. It became an overnight (ie, morning) title late last year when its sister morning paper, the Birmingham Post , was switched from daily to weekly publication. Its sale had fallen at the time to less than 12,000. Ad revenue had also declined. The Express and Star remains a same-day evening paper, publishing its final edition well into the mid-afternoon. Though its heartland is Wolverhampton, Dudley and the wider Black Country, it has always had a presence in Birmingham. It no longer has an office in Birmingham's city centre but some of its journalists are based in nearby Sandwell. In a separate development, in the Manchester area, five former MEN Media staff are using some of their redundancy money to launch a series of free monthlies. The first title, the Rochdale and Heywood Independent , is due to be distributed in 10 days' time. It will be compete with MEN's weekly, the Rochdale Observer . Source: holdthefrontpage