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Former editor takes on Brum Post with web launch

By Dominic Ponsford

Independent regional business news website TheBusinessDesk launched a third regional edition in Birmingham today with Marc Reeves as editor.

The former Birmingham Post editor left the business and public affairs daily in January after it was turned into a weekly. He will now be in direct competition with his old paper.

He is joined at TheBusinessDesk by Duncan Tift, a journalist with 20 years experience covering business in the West Midlands, who was previously deputy business editor of The Post.

TheBusinessDesk, which has regional editions in Liverpool and Leeds, was launched by former Yorkshire Post business editor David Parkin in 2007.

Reeves told Press GazetteTheBusinessDesk West Midlands would be recruiting another journalist. This would give the site a headcount of ten journalists working across its three editions.

He said: “I’m getting in local investment so that the local business community has a real stake in what we are trying to build.

“TheBusinessDesk is small and lean, all we need is three brains and three laptops – as along as those brains are good, solid journalists.

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“Because our costs are so low, with none of the legacy costs of printing presses and pension liabilities and so on that established media businesss have, we can go into the market place with a very compelling commercial proposition for advertisers.

“We’ll be focussing mainly on the daily morning email – but we’ll also be keeping the site updated throughout the day.”

When asked how his current pay package compares to that of the editor of a regional daily, he says: “Let’s just say I will be cycling to work to begin with anyway.”

Reeves, 44, began his journalism career in 1985 working on the Soho Star, a local community newspaper in Birmingham.

He has held a string of senior positions in regional newspapers, including working as deputy editor of the News and Star in Carlisle and editorial director of Trinity Mirror Southern.

Along with Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson, he took redundancy as part of a wave of cutbacks across Trinity Mirror Midlands at the start of this year.

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