Who We Are //
A team of journalists started Birmingham View in 2003 to present a Birmingham-based perspective on the city’s transformation, from urban blight to urban renewal, through high-caliber news feature writing and timely commentaries from political and community leaders. We also wanted a magazine that provides practical information for better urban living, as well as entertaining information about city living.
Editor-in-Chief
VICKII HOWELL is the principal visionary behind Birmingham View. She has been an award-wining reporter at The Birmingham News for 13 years. In that time, she wrote about issues spanning courts and crime, city and county government, education, and public transportation and housing. She is a past vice-president of print in the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists. In that role, she helped plan and organize community and professional events and has a network of media contacts locally and throughout the country.
She is responsible for steering the overall editorial direction of the publication and for oversight of its business operations. She is also one of the magazine’s principal writers and editors.
Contact her at editor@BirminghamView.com
Executive Editor
PATRICIA DEDRICK LLOYD is a 19-year journalism veteran with an extensive reporting background and media management experience. An award-winning reporter, she has worked at The Huntsville Times, The Montgomery Advertiser, where she was the business editor, and The Birmingham News. At The News, she covered Birmingham City Hall and the state Legislature as the News’ Montgomery Bureau Chief. She managed writing staffs at both the News and the Advertiser. She has received a graduate’s certificate from the Zenger-Miller management training course.
She is responsible for directing the magazine’s editorial content, developing story ideas and managing overall editorial operations and staff development. She is also a principal writer and editor.
Contact her at plloyd@BirminghamView.com
Graphic Design/Art Direction
IVAN G. ROBERTS, graphic designer and art director, has designed everything from corporate logos to publications and websites for more than 20 years. He has worked at several Birmingham advertising agencies where he created and supervised the production of marketing materials for broadcast and print media.
He works with the magazine’s top editors to direct the conceptual designs, page layout and featured art work for stories in each issue.
Contact him at ivan@ivanroberts.com
What We Do at Birmingham View //
Birmingham View reflects the true diversity of Birmingham. It brings readers news and lifestyle features on a wide variety of people, issues, events, and trends that pertain to the Magic City’s revitalization. Already, the city’s emerging community and economic renaissance is underway, through the revitalizing work of the public and private sectors, of neighborhoods and citizen groups, and of the non-profit sector and social agencies. This magazine will advocate their efforts.
Our goal is to make Birmingham View THE source for information and features on the urban lifestyle in the new, revitalized Birmingham. It will be a magazine for a diverse group – urban pioneers, creative professionals, entrepreneurs and inner-city residents, whom other publications have over looked in favor of over-the-mountain suburbanites. These groups usually don’t find the information they need nor do they see stories that truly reflect their lifestyles and values in existing publications. Birmingham View will deliver that to them.
Magazine Content
Birmingham View presents a Birmingham-based perspective on current events and issues that affect the city and its residents. Each issue contains a mix of city stories built around four main feature categories:
- Intown – City neighborhoods, community redevelopment and policy issues
- Downtown – City Center redevelopment issues and urban living
- Uptown – Issues dealing with upscale urban living and big business
- Underground – Diverse arts, culture and entertainment in the city
Our magazine also focuses on economic issues by highlighting Birmingham-based entrepreneurs and small businesses as well as on businesses relevant to the city’s economic well-being.
Each issue also contains regular departments/columns on:
- Home decorating on a budget (Cheap Chic)
- Personal finances (Mo’ Money/Yo’ Money)
- Consumer advocacy (Buyer Beware)
- Interesting news or historical tidbits on neighborhoods, happenings or other city-specific information (City Notebook)
- Profiles of people making a difference in their communities (Everyday Angels)
- Magic City movers and shakers age 30 and under (Birmingham Futures)
