Dear Birm­ing­ham Weekly Readers,

It is with great sad­ness that I announce that I will be step­ping down as edi­tor of Birm­ing­ham Weekly. It has been my great plea­sure over the last year to edit this won­der­ful paper, and to inter­act with the city of Birm­ing­ham in ways I only dreamed pos­si­ble. Birm­ing­ham has grown so much since I took the reins here, and I am so proud of the amaz­ing place our city is becom­ing. I will miss my incred­i­ble staff, the late nights careen­ing into a dead­line, the sense of won­der at each new amaz­ing story we uncovered.

Unfor­tu­nately, over the last few months, things have taken a turn for the worse. I am still proud of the qual­ity paper we have put out each week, but the cli­mate in which we are work­ing has steadily grown unten­able, and I can no longer ask myself, my employ­ees or my writ­ers to con­tinue to work with­out the com­pen­sa­tion and com­fort they are due.

I have offered two weeks notice, with the con­di­tion that out­stand­ing debts to my writ­ers be paid now, but that offer has been declined. Because of this, I can’t say my farewells in the paper and so I am say­ing them here. I hope each of you will con­tinue to sup­port qual­ity local jour­nal­ism in what­ever form it takes, and con­tinue to strive towards a bet­ter Birm­ing­ham. I know I will.

Love,

Sam George