The Birmingham Post Lite will be delivered free to around 18,000 homes in the south Birmingham areas of Harborne and Moseley, and will contain editorial content produced by the Birmingham Post team and include the Post Property magazine.
Tomorrow (April 23), Midlands newspaper owner Chris Bullivant will launch The Birmingham Press, which will be a part paid-for, part-free newspaper targeting the same market.
The Birmingham Post, formerly a morning newspaper, relaunched as a business-focused weekly newspaper last year, following a number of changes in the Trinity Mirror Midlands operation, which included the Birmingham Mail switching to a morning from an evening paper.
The Birmingham Press will be edited by former Trinity Mirror weeklies editor Tony Lennox and willl be aimed at the high-end audience of the Post, but with less of a focus on business.
On the 'Today' programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning, Bullivant said The Birmingham Press would not have an office, but will instead be produced by reporters working from home.
The paper is not part of Bullivant Media, of which Bullivant is chairman, but is instead owned by a separate company he has set up called CJB Media.
Bullivant's son Chris, also called Chris Bullivant and managing director of Bullivant Media, said: "We're not looking to launch anything at the moment."
Bullivant Media announced it was planning The Birmingham Press to serve a "gap in the market" in March. Trinity Mirror retaliated last week by announcing it was planning the Birmingham Post Lite.
The Birmingham Post Lite includes a combination of south Birmingham news with features and leisure content but it does not contain the Post's specialised business and financial news.
John Griffith, managing director of BPM Media, Trinity Mirror, said: "Birmingham Post Lite will deliver a quality title to a quality audience and we are confident it will prove hugely attractive to advertisers, and build on the successful relaunch of the Post in 2009."
.jpg)
.jpg)