Tributes to former Post business journalist
TRIBUTES have been paid to former Birmingham Post business journalist John Cranage, who has died at the age of 68 after suffering a stroke.
Mr Cranage had more than 40 years of experience in regional newspapers including the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post and Express & Star.
His in-depth knowledge of the region’s automotive and manufacturing sectors was second to none.
Born and bred in Walsall, Mr Cranage began his career on the Walsall Observer, followed by a spell in the South East working for the Evening Post in Reading.
He then returned to the Midlands to join the Express & Star in 1976 as a news reporter, including stints at the Walsall and Lichfield district offices, before moving to the Birmingham Evening Mail to cover the Dudley patch where he spent many years.
Mr Cranage later decided to specialise in business journalism and moved to the main Birmingham office, where he was Industrial Correspondent and later Business Editor for the Birmingham Evening Mail.
A spell of freelancing saw him contribute regularly to the Birmingham Post’s business supplements alongside a wide range of publications including the highly respected Investors Chronicle.
He later rejoined the Birmingham titles to spend ten years covering the city’s business community, in particular corporate finance and the automotive sector.
Mr Cranage, who in his youth was a fine water polo player, took voluntary redundancy in December 2009 and retired to Lichfield where he concentrated on writing books.
Birmingham Post & Mail act- ing executive editor Graeme Brown, said: “John was a fine journalist and a beautiful writer.
“During his time at the Post, he showed a verve for producing often quite technical pieces in a way which engaged his audience.
“His brilliance on the page didn’t just stop at newspapers as he was also a talented author who penned several books.
“He was also a lovely person to work with – a strident but friendly man who knew his own mind and had an infectious passion for things that really mattered to him, like the written word. He will be sorely missed.”
Birmingham Post & Mail editor-in-chief Marc Reeves added: “He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the automotive and wider manufacturing industry in the city and could always be relied upon to put a story into its historical perspective.”
Other former colleagues also lined up to pay tribute to Mr Cranage.
Former Birmingham Post Business Editor John Duckers said: “His copy was always diligent, reliable and comprehensive. You could throw anything at him and he would produce.
“He worked on many notable stories in his time and was a real all-rounder.
“Be it car accidents, murders, business appointments or the demise of Rover and LDV, big and small, nothing fazed him.
“John was a lovely guy and will be sadly missed.”
Friend and former colleague Ian Strachan, who started work on the Express & Star on the same day as Mr Cranage, said: “He was a journalist of the old school and understood the value of contacts.
“He had a healthy cynicism for the world around him and an opinion on just about everything, which he was never afraid to express.
“A lunchtime or evening in his company was never dull.”
Mr Cranage is survived by his sister Jane Wainwright. His funeral will be at Streetly Crematorium, near Walsall, on December 9 at 10am.
He was a journalist of the old school and understood the value of contacts Former colleague Ian Strachan