Birmingham Post

It was originally published as the Birmingham Daily Post in 1857, but switched to its present title in 1918. It absorbed the Birmingham Gazette (founded in 1862 as the Birmingham Daily Gazette, renamed the Birmingham Gazette and Express in 1904; the Express was dropped in 1912) in 1956 and was known as The Birmingham Post and Birmingham Gazette from then until 1964.

In the late 1980s it made a bid to break into greater national prominence in much the same way as The Guardian had done some thirty years earlier, by printing the word “Birmingham” in smaller type on its masthead. However, the idea of calling it simply “The Post” never really caught on.

It’s changed hands several times during its history, including a spell when it was part of the Iliffe newspaper empire, but is currently published by BPM Media (part of the Trinity Mirror group’s Trinity Mirror Midlands division), who also publish the Birmingham Mail and the Sunday Mercury.

After 150 years as a broadsheet, it switched to tabloid format in 2008. In the same year it moved from its premises in Colmore Circus in the city centre to another landmark building – the redeveloped Fort Dunlop former tyre factory in Castle Vale, in the city’s eastern suburbs.

In October 2009 Trinity Mirror announced that the Post would switch to weekly publication on Thursdays from 12 November, following a steady decline in sales in recent years, with the Mail taking its place as the city’s daily newspaper.

A substantial proportion of its print run is sold in bulk to airlines.

A companion freesheet for Harborne, Edgbaston and Moseley, the Birmingham Post Lite, was launched in April 2010 but withdrawn not long afterwards.

It’s fairly middle-of-the-road politically.