The Birmingham Post
| Type | Weekly printed newspaper with daily tablet edition |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact |
| Owner(s) | Trinity Mirror |
| Founded | 1857 |
| Political alignment | Free market |
| Headquarters | Birmingham, England |
| Circulation | 6,667 (June 2015) |
| ISSN | 0963-7915 |
| Website | www |
The Birmingham Post is a weekly printed newspaper based in Birmingham, England, with a circulation of 6,667 and distribution throughout the West Midlands. First published under the name the Birmingham Daily Post in 1857, it has had a succession of distinguished editors and has played an influential role in the life and politics of the city. It is currently owned by Trinity Mirror. In June 2013, it launched a daily tablet edition called Birmingham Post Business Daily.
The Birmingham Journal was a weekly newspaper published between 1825 and 1869. A nationally influential voice in the Chartist movement in the 1830s, it was sold to John Frederick Feeney in 1844 and was a direct ancestor of today's Birmingham Post.
The 1855 Stamp Act removed the tax on newspapers and transformed the news trade. The price of the Journal was reduced from seven pence to four pence and circulation boomed. Untaxed, it became possible to sell a newspaper for a penny, and the advantage lay with smaller, more frequent publications that could keep their readers more up to date. Feeney and Journal editor, John Jaffray initially contemplated a second mid-week edition of the Journal, but the launch of Birmingham's first daily newspaper by prominent radical George Dawson – the short-lived Birmingham Daily Press – provoked them into launching their own daily title, The Birmingham Daily Post, on 4 December 1857.
Historical copies of the Birmingham Daily Post, dating back to 1857, are available to search and view in digitised form at The British Newspaper Archive.
From the outset the Post became closely associated with radical politics and intellectual movements. The newspaper played an important role in the calls for radical political and social reform in the rapidly expanding industrial town. In 1869 Birmingham Daily Post editor John Thackray Bunce was instrumental in getting Joseph Chamberlain elected to the Town Council for the first time. The newspaper remained a staunch supporter of Chamberlain helping to take the town with him as he pushed for municipal reform. It printed informed articles on the ideals of the Civic Gospel, and gave a platform to radical figures such as John Bright, George Dawson, Robert William Dale, and William Harris.
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