Recession sees more journalist jobs axed as newspapers merge newsrooms

ONE of the two regional daily newspapers serving West Somerset today announced a sweeping new round of job cuts among its journalists.
The Western Daily Press will in future be produced by a joint editorial team working also on the Bristol Evening Post, with which it shares a head office in the city.
The morning paper will become a Metro-style publication with fewer dedicated reporters and photographers, and its website will also be axed after managers decided the paper did not have a digital future.
The merging of the Daily Press and Post newsrooms will result in up to 45 of the company’s 154 editorial staff losing their jobs.
The news comes almost exactly three years after an earlier round of job cuts to save money when nearly 60 posts were axed by the group.
Staff on both papers were being briefed today about the cuts, which owner Northcliffe Media - publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday - said were necessary to safeguard the two daily titles.
Single content and production desks will produce both titles with staff ‘harvesting’ content from other Northcliffe-owned publications around the region.
Daily Press and Evening Post editor-in-chief Mike Norton said most of the cutbacks would fall on production rather than newsgathering roles.
Mr Norton said: “I have tried to do everything I can to avoid redundancies.
“However, I have no other option that will ensure the futures of the Evening Post and the Western Daily Press.
“This is about back-of-house production efficiencies and will not affect the amount or the quality of our content.
“We will continue to provide the best local news and advertising service through our print and digital platforms.”
But Christina Zaba, of the National Union of Journalists, said: “The NUJ is very concerned about these events.
“People really care about local news and they want good reliable local news.
“If a third of the journalists are removed from the local paper, then that news is not going to be the same.”
Tim Lezard, NUJ national executive council member for the South West of England and a former Western Daily Press reporter, said the union would campaign against the cuts.
Mr Lezard said Bristol News and Media, the local division of Northciffe, made profits of £7.5 million in 2007.
He said: “These are cuts that do not need to be made.
“It is an example of Northcliffe’s contempt for their readers, workers, and advertisers.
“The company would rather bow to its boardroom than serve the community it has been an integral part of for 150 years.”
Bob Satchwell, of the Society of Newspaper Editors, said: “These are very, very hard times for local newspapers.
“It is a very difficult problem. Even government minsters are now beginning to realise that they have got to try to find a way of helping those papers.
“Those papers are vital to local democracy and to help people know what is going on locally.”
Formal consultation with staff, including those represented by the NUJ, will continue until March 2.

• The Northcliffe redundancies come just a month after The Post revealed two reporter and three sub-editor jobs were being axed by one of West Somerset's weekly newspapers, the Taunton-based Somerset County Gazette. The highest-profile victim of the Newsquest-owned Gazette's cutbacks was deputy editor Bob Drayton, who had worked for the paper for 40 years and received the MBE for services to his local community and newspapers.

EXCLUSIVE: Shock at sudden job losses 'to protect newspaper profits'

A ROUND of job losses in the past week has shocked staff at the larger of West Somerset’s two paid-for weekly newspapers.
The Newsquest-owned Somerset County Gazette has made redundancies in every department to cut costs following dramatic falls in advertising revenue.
The highest profile victim was the newspaper’s deputy editor Bob Drayton, who had worked for the company for most of the past 40 years.
Mr Drayton, who lives in Ilminster, received the MBE in the Queen’s 2003 New Year Honours List for his services to the newspaper industry and his local communities of Chard and Ilminster.
He began his career as a reporter on the Chard and Ilminster News, one of the Gazette group’s titles, and went on to be editor of the newspaper before taking over as deputy group editor in Taunton in 1987.
Another high profile executive to lose his job was popular distribution manager Courtenay Popple, who had been with the Gazette since it acquired the Star series of newspapers in the late 1980s.
The Post understands Mr Popple was told at short notice to clear his desk on Friday of last week and was not even allowed to tell fellow staff that his job had been axed.
One junior reporter on the paper also left voluntarily during the week, and the Gazette is said to be looking to cut one more from its reporting staff.
Mr Drayton headed a team of nine sub-editors - the people who put the editorial content on to the news pages and write the headlines and lay out the pages - and two more are expected to be axed, leaving a skeleton staff of just six in the department.
Earlier in the year, the Gazette shed many of its sales staff and also merged responsibility for circulation with the role of the paper’s editor Ken Bird.
Newsquest has also cut more than 200 editorial jobs since June at its papers across the length and breadth of the country and in Wales and Scotland.
The job losses have affected everybody from senior management and editors to editorial assistants and librarians.
Other cost cutting measures adopted by the Canadian-owned group include closing a £17 million printing plant, shutting some of its weekly newspapers, closing district offices, scrapping some editions of daily newspapers, merging the sub-editing departments of different newspapers, imposing a pay freeze, and non-replacement for vacancies.
A common tactic has been to hand out redundancy notices to large numbers of staff and to then ask them to reapply for fewer vacancies.
Across the world, Canadian owners Gannet has been making thousands of job cuts.
National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear said journalists and editorial standards at Newsquest newspapers such as the County Gazette were being sacrificed to protect the owner’s profits.
Mr Dear said: “The companies are not unprofitable and many major analysts expect them to remain so in to the future, so the slash and burn is not about saving an industry but about maintaining artificially high profit levels.
“Owners can no longer expect to fleece the industry to the tune of 30 per cent-plus, they are going to have to accept lower profit margins.
“If they will not, they should get out and let people who care about newspapers’ public service role take over.
“Instead of greater investment in quality online content, more localised coverage, and strengthened editorial teams, for years the vast profits of local newspapers have been largely shovelled into shareholders’ pockets, directors’ pay rises, and executive pension pots, amid reckless borrowing and poor investment decisions.
“Now, the very people who plunged the industry into this crisis by demanding such excessive profits believe the solution is to axe journalists and freeze pay.
“It is a false economy to put the ability to deliver scoops, quality content, and strong local coverage in jeopardy.
“Local newspapers in print and online remain viable and profitable businesses. We cannot stand by and see this profiteering destroy our industry.”
The union has also urged newspaper editors to work alongside their journalists to defend their editorial independence and integrity.
In an unprecedented move, the NUJ is planning a ‘jobs summit’ to co-ordinate action across more sections of the newspaper industry, which will be held in London on January 24.
More information about the NUJ summit can be obtained by emailing campaigns@nuj.org.uk.