I Go Jobhunting

Off work for a few days, which means I no longer have any excuse for failing to fill in forms for the party conferences later this month.

The pass for Labour's event has already arrived and the Tory equivalent should be in the post, but I won't have anywhere to sit unless I book myself desks at both events.

It also means I will get round to filling in my response to Trinity Mirror Midlands' consultation document and confirming that yes, on reflection I would like to apply for a position in the new structure.

Specifically, I'll be applying for the job I am currently doing, which still exists. In principle (actually, in practice) anyone else in the company can apply for it too, although I guess I am at a slight advantage over any rivals out there. We'll see.

There's been a lot of comment on local interweb sites about the changes, including a bit of stick aimed at journalists who aren't happy.

Of course, the issue people aren't happy about is the prospect of 70 positions being made redundant. That's the figure over all the affected papers - Coventry and weeklies as well as the Post, Mail and Mercury.

It leaves us with 230 people covering news, features and sport, as well as photographers, various editor types and production staff.

I have as much as idea as any other blogger whether that's the optimum number of people for four papers + weeklies or not, ie very little (with two obvious exceptions).

What I am sure of, and what I imagine most commentators are really most interested in, is the decision wholeheartedly to embrace new ways of delivering the news.

Of course we should be trying to reach readers any way we can, or, perhaps a better way of putting it, any way they want to be reached.

That includes using web sites and other internet applications, mobile phones and anything else that comes around in the future.

It's a pity in some ways that the job cuts and the multimedia strategy have had to be packaged together like this. When you hear disgruntled hacks or NUJ reps complain, remember that they're not "resisting change" except for the specific change of potentially losing their jobs, which people tend to resist in any industry.

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