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.

Iceland moves to turn Woolworths into frozen food store

THE now-closed Woolworths store in Minehead is to be reopened as a branch of the Iceland frozen food chain.
The property, in The Avenue, is among 51 former Woolworths stores which are being bought nationwide by Iceland, and one of only two in Somerset, the other being in Frome.
Iceland said it planned to create 2,500 new jobs across the country – as against the 27,000 jobs which were lost when the last of 807 Woolworths stores was shut on Tuesday.
The Minehead Woolworths was in the final batch of stores which remained open until the very end.
Woolworths had traded in Minehead since 1937 and had nearly 30 staff at the premises, some of whom had worked there for more than 20 years.
The staff are understood to have been offered an opportunity to move across to Iceland as their new employer.
An Iceland spokesman said: “We are confident we can help to support the local community in these towns who have lost a major High Street retailer in Woolworths.”
Woolworths went into administration with debts of £385 million in November and administrators Deloite were unable to find a buyer to take over the chain.
Iceland, which already has 682 stores, previously offered to buy all of the Woolworths chain last summer but the bid was rejected as ‘unacceptable’.
The frozen food retail business was founded in 1970 and was taken over by a consortium led by Icelandic investment group Baugur in 2005.

The firm already has stores in Taunton, Bridgwater, and Barnstaple.

Extra day for Woolworths to sell off stock before closure

STAFF in the Minehead branch of Woolworths have been given a 24-hour reprieve on the store’s closure.
The shop, where prices have been slashed to mere pennies during a closing down sale, was last night due to be among the final 200 to close their doors to the public for the last time.
But administrators Deloitte said it was allowing the stores to remain open for an extra day in an effort to sell off the last of its stock - and even fixtures and fittings if people would buy them.
Deloitte said the additional day’s trading would also allow more time to make ‘final arrangements’ for winding up the business.
Woolworths went into administration in November with debts of £385 million and efforts by Deloitte to find a buyer came to nothing.
More than half of the 807 stores nationwide have already closed, and the Minehead store is in the final batch to be shut.
Woolworths, which has nearly 30 staff in Minehead, first opened in the town in 1937.
All 27,000 remaining Woolworths employees nationwide will be made redundant after the closures.
Deloitte has been in talks with other retail chains with a view to selling the leases on some of the Woolworths premises, and rumours have surfaced in Minehead of a clothing company showing an interest in the store once it has shut.

Closure date is confirmed for Woolworths in Minehead

ADMINISTRATORS overseeing the winding-up of the Woolworths chain of stores have confirmed that the Minehead branch will be among the last to close.
Deloitte has published individual dates for the final closure of each of the 807 stores nationwide
Up to 200 are due to close as early of December 27, and all of the remainder will be shut by January 5 at the latest.
The Minehead store, in The Avenue, is among those which will remain trading until January 5.
A countdown poster showing the remaining number of trading days for the store is on display in the shop window.
Woolworths has traded in Minehead since 1937 and the branch employs nearly 30 staff, most of them part-time and some of whom have worked in the store for more than 20 years.
The staff are due to be kept on for an additional three days after the closure before their jobs come to an end along with the other 30,000 Woolworths employees.
Woolworths went into administration in November with debts of £385 million and Deloitte has been unable to find a buyer for the group, although expressions of interest have been made for parts of it.
It is likely that up to 300 of the stores will be reopened by other retailers which want to buy the leases of certain locations, but there has been no confirmation of the future of the Minehead site.
Deloitte partner Neville Kahn said it was unclear how much of the company’s debt would be paid, but it was ‘clear the creditors and suppliers will not get paid in full’.
Woolworths’ staff will be entitled to compensation under the statutory redundancy payment scheme.
Ironically, Woolworths has been enjoying record sales in the past few days as bargain hunters flock to the stores to take advantage of the firm’s biggest ever sale with discounts of up to 50 per cent on offer.
Some trade press reports have suggested former Woolworths chief executive Sir Geoff Mulcahy could be talking with the company’s largest shareholder, Ardeshir Naghshineh, about a last-minute rescue package for the group.
Sir Geoff was earlier critical of the way Deloittehad handled Woolworths, describing it as ‘disgraceful’.
It was also suggest Mr Naghshineh had approached the Government about the possibility of bailout funding to save Woolworths.
The shopworkers’ union Usdaw has also criticised Deloitte’s decision to close all the stores and make staff redundant without allowing them an opportunity to transfer to any news owners who may purchase individual store leases.

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.

Last rites administered for Woolworths jobs

THERE will be no Christmas cheer for staff of Woolworths’ in Minehead as the town’s store is set to close in the next three weeks, according to the company’s administrators.
Deloitte said today that failing a last-minute purchase of the firm, all 807 Woolworths stores around the country will close by January 5.
The first stores will start to close on December 27, with all 30,000 employees eventually losing their jobs.
Neville Kahn, a partner in administrators Deloitte, said some interest had been shown in parts of the business but the administrators were not even close to finding a buyer for the company outright.
Offers to take over the leases of around 300 Woolworths stores had been received from a range of food, clothes and ‘value retailers’, and Deloitte said it would try to ensure those losing their jobs were put in touch with the potential new employers.
Mr Khan said staff would be paid until the end of the month, after which they would need to apply for statutory redundancy.
He said: “It is a very difficult situation for people, particularly the employees, and we are trying to deal with it in as sensible a way as possible.”
Last week, Woolworths saw record sales as it began a closing down sale with up to 50 per cent off items - its largest ever sale.
And even larger discounts of more than 60 per cent are being planned in order to shift remaining stock.
The Minehead store will display a countdown in its shop window showing how many days were left before it closed.
Following the closure, some of the Minehead staff will be retained for a few days before their jobs go.
Woolworths went into administration three weeks ago with debts of £385 million.
Millionaire entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, one of the stars of BBC television’s Dragon’s Den series, initially showed an interest in buying the company but quickly pulled out of any deal.

More Minehead staff fear for jobs as recession bites

MORE job worries hit workers in Minehead yesterday as Spanish banking giant Santander announced it was axing 1,900 jobs across three of its British businesses - one of them being the Alliance and Leicester Bank.
Alliance and Leicester has for many years operated a branch in Minehead in a prime site location in The Parade.
It was unclear where the Santander job losses would be made, but it was believed the brunt was likely to fall on Alliance and Leicester employees and particularly those in the cities of London, Leicester, and Bradford.
The company refused to rule out the possibility of compulsory redundancies.
Unions described the news as ‘a bitter blow’ for staff before Christmas.
It follows a 50 per cent fall in Santander’s share price since June.
Santander aims to save £180 million by the end of 2011 while having ‘minimal impact’ on customer-facing roles in its branches.
It said the focus of the reductions was on back-office jobs and across operational and head office sites, although some smaller offices could be consolidated into larger sites.
Santander UK business chief executive António Horta Osório said yesterday: “Today’s announcement shows we are on track to fulfil the commitment we made at the time of the Alliance and Leicester acquisition to grow our UK business while ensuring we meet our cost-saving targets.
“Santander is committed to its branch network in the UK, reflecting its status as one of the world’s leading retail banks, with the largest international retail branch network in the world.
“The combined UK business now has nearly 1,300 branches, which we expect to maintain or slightly increase in the near term.”

Job losses shock at dairy as recession hits yoghurt buying public

THE first major round of West Somerset job losses was announced today as the recession began to bite at Cannington organic yoghurt producers Yeo Valley Farm.
The family-owned company shocked the local community by saying 100 out of 250 jobs could be lost next March at its Cannington dairy site, which it bought from Dairy Crest 11 years ago.
Yeo Valley said it was restructuring because it was being affected by increasing production and raw materials costs at the same time as consumers were showing in the recession and spending less on its products.
West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger expressed his shock at the news.
Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “I am absolutely horrified and obviously very concerned by these job losses.
“I understand things have not been good for anybody lately, but I would not have expected Yeo Valley to have been hit by the economic problems.
“Yeo Valley is an exemplary employer and I am very worried about these figures of 100 jobs to go.
“I will be in touch with the chief executive to find out exactly what is going on.”
The Cannington redundancies are likely to be across the board with both operational and management posts affected.
The plan is to move the factory from a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week production cycle to a 12-hour shift pattern.
Yeo Valley director Graham Keating said: “Trading within the dairy market is currently very tough.
“Although we saw an increase in sales over the last 12 months of seven per cent, our raw materials and production costs have rocketed significantly.
“Our organic milk sales continue to grow strongly but within the highly promotion-driven and price sensitive yoghurt market, we have seen consumers become more cautious with their spending over the last three months and this trend is set to continue into 2009.
“It is imperative that we restructure our business in order to remain competitive and we are therefore left with no alternative than to reduce production in the parts of the company most affected by this buying downturn.”
Mr Keating said every effort would be made to offer alternative employment within the company to those affected by the job cuts.
The company has now begun a 90-day redundancy consultation period with staff.
Yeo Valley also runs two other dairies, in, Blagdon, North Somerset, and Newton Abbott, Devon, and a distribution warehouse in Isleport, near Highbridge, with a total of 1,300 employees.
Cheese and other dairy products have been made at Cannington since the 1930s, and today it produces Yeo Valley Organic’s big-pot yogurts, as well as those for a number of retailer brands, plus the innovative ‘Yeos’ organic children’s yogurt tubes.
Despite its 24-hour production cycle - which was necessary to meet demand - Yeo Valley boasted that its small-batch production methods ensured its yoghurts were ‘untarnished by modern processing aid ingredients - they simply are not necessary’.
The firm is part of a family-owned farming and dairy business founded by husband and wife Roger and Mary Mead, who started making yoghurts with milk from their dairy herd in 1974.
Organic yoghurt production started in 1993 after an approach by local farmers who were producing organic milk but could not find a regular demand for it.
Last year, the firm welcomed the Queen to its North Somerset headquarters after the firm was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its contributions to sustainable development, including the long-term, fair-trading support it had given to organic dairy farmers.
In October of this year, Yeo Valley closed its luxury organic ice cream and frozen yogurt dairy near Bovey Tracey, Devon, and transferred the 50 staff to Newton Abbot because it said demand was so great that it needed larger production facilities.

• Our photograph shows Yeo Valley’s Cannington factory. Photo submitted.
  

Prices slashed in Woolies sale as Dragon pulls out of rescue bid

MILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Theo Paphitis has pulled out of a possible deal which could have saved the jobs of employees of the Minehead branch of Woolworths.
The troubled retailer went into administration last week with debts of £385 million and receivers Deloitte was immediately approached with several inquiries about purchasing the chain.
Mr Paphitis, a star of the BBC Dragon’s Den television programme, was said to be interested in bidding for some of the more profitable Woolies stores and maintaining the Woolworths brand.
However, the Dragon has now pulled out and said in a statement: “Unfortunately, the constituent parts of Woolworths are more valuable than the whole.
“The administrators have a difficult job to do and I appreciate they need to get the highest cash value for the business.
“I hope that an alternative proposal succeeds in securing the future for the many Woolworths employees involved.”
Mr Paphitis has previously revived troubled brands such as La Senza and the stationary chain Rymans.
His withdrawal leaves the future of 30,000 Woolworths jobs in doubt, although Deloitte said the stores would continue throughout the Christmas period and money had been ring fenced to pay salaries.
It is now expected that most of the stores will be sold in small groups to a number of different bidders.
The deadline for bids for single or small groups of stores was 4 pm on Wednesday.
Supermarket firms Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, the Co-op, and discount chain Poundland were all said to be interested in some of Woolworths’ prime high street locations.
The largest shareholder in Woolworths, Ardeshir Naghshineh, was also reported to be preparing a bid for the company.
Woolworths will tomorrow start its ‘biggest ever’ sale in an effort to shift large volumes of stock, slashing prices by up to 50 per cent across its product range.
Deloitte partner Neville Kahn said: “We anticipate increased footfall in the stores and have hired additional staff to cope with increased demand.
“Additional goods have been moved to all stores and further stock will be added in the coming days.”
Woolworths Group, which has a 40 per cent stake in 2Entertain, a joint publishing venture with the BBC, is also likely to be placed into administration.

Dragon's Den star Theo gives hope to Woolies staff

BBC Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis (pictured) may launch a buyout of Woolworths which could save the jobs of dozens of workers in the company’s Minehead store.
Woolworths went into administration last week with £385 million of debt, but administrators Deloitte said it was hopeful of finding a buyer for the chain, which has 30,000 employees and 815 stores.
Mr Paphitis is said to be one of several people showing ‘substantial interest’ in the firm.
The millionaire businessman said in a statement: “If we were successful in our negotiations, then it would be my priority to safeguard the future of as many of the employees as possible.
“I would want to keep the Woolworths name alive as it is held with such deep affection, and I would of course want to keep trading as many of the high street stores as possible.”
Mr Paphitis said a speedy resolution was ‘absolutely crucial’ to keeping Woolworths together.
“I have a great belief in the Woolworths brand and would love to see the name remain on the high street,” he said.
Deloitte’s Neville Kahn, Nick Dargan, and Dan Butters have been appointed joint administrators to Woolworths plc and Entertainment UK (E UK) Ltd, the wholesale division on Woolworths.
Mr Khan, the reorganisation services partner, said: “Woolworths has suffered a number of cash flow problems.
“Strenuous efforts over recent weeks to keep these companies going have unfortunately failed and the businesses are now looking to be rescued under the administration process.
“The company will continue to trade. Stores will remain open past Christmas and employees in stores will be paid.
“We have mobilised a large Deloitte team to stabilise the business, and have hired Hilco as our agent to assist in the management of the retail business.
“We appreciate the co-operation and support from the management and staff.
“We are glad that arrangements are in place to ensure that all wages will be paid in full this week.”
Mr Butters said: “We are working hard to ensure that any sale of the business, whole or part, will preserve jobs.”
As well as trying to find a buyer for Woolworths, Deloitte will also be seeking to retrieve something for those owed money by the company, including banks and suppliers.
Mr Butters confirmed how within 24 hours of Deloitte’s appointment as administrators, expressions of interest in Woolworths had been received from ‘a number of parties’.

Woolworths asked to protect Minehead jobs over Christmas

WOOLWORTHS was reported this evening to be going into administration, putting 30,000 jobs under threat in more than 800 stores, including in Minehead.
Accountancy consultants Deloitte was being appointed as administrators to the company, which would have celebrated its centenary in 2009.
A spokeswoman said Minehead and the other stores would remain open and keep trading for the time being.
Money had been ring-fenced to ensure staff would be paid as normal on Friday.
It was understood that Woolworths had been asked to do what it could to protect its pension fund, and to keep the stores open if possible during over Christmas.
Woolworths had £385 million of debt and had been in ongoing discussions with its two main bankers.
Usdaw, the shopworkers’ union, called the collapse of Woolworths ‘devastating for staff’.
A spokesman said: “We were hopeful that a last minute deal would be done and will want to meet with the administrators as soon as possible.”

More bad news for Woolworths employees as shares suspended

EMPLOYMENT fears among dozens of West Somerset shopworkers worsened today with the news that shares in troubled retailer Woolworths have been suspended.
A Woolworths statement said the firm had requested the suspension of trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange while it continued discussions relating to a potential sale of its retail business.
Woolworths, which has a branch in The Avenue, Minehead, said it was also discussing the possible sale to the BBC of its 40 per cent interest in the 2 Entertain joint venture with BBC Worldwide.
The firm said both sales were subject, among other things, to winning approval from the group’s lending banks.
Restructuring firm Hilco was said to have offered to buy Woolworths for £1, but could not agree how much of the retailer’s £385 million debts it would take on.
Analysts have said Woolworths was likely to go into administration with the loss of 20,000 of its 30,000 jobs unless some kind of a rescue deal could be agreed.

Woolworths employees in West Somerset fear for their jobs

DOZENS of shopworkers in Minehead were this week left to fear for their jobs as troubled retailer Woolworths fought to avoid going bust.
Woolworths, which has a branch in The Avenue, Minehead, is said to have been offered for sale for £1 to restructuring firm Hilco.
But it has debts of £385 million and has been holding emergency talks with its two main banks.
Analysts said Woolworths was likely to go into administration with the loss of 20,000 of its 30,000 jobs unless some kind of a rescue deal could be agreed.
Minehead is just one of 840 stores in the Woolworths UK portfolio, which also includes a distribution business and a DVD publishing business.
The company’s shares have fallen by 92 per cent in the past year as it suffered record first-half pre-tax losses of £90.8 million in September and scrapped its dividend to shareholders.
Only in August, Woolworths rejected a £50 million takeover bid for its stores from a group headed by the founder of the Iceland frozen food chain, Malcolm Walker.
Woolworths was due to celebrate its trading centenary in 2009.
A statement issued by Woolworths said: “The board can confirm it is in preliminary discussions regarding a possible offer for the retail business. There can be no assurance that any offer will be forthcoming.”

More jobs go as second Minehead business in a week collapses

WELL-known West Somerset printing firm Friday Print went into liquidation yesterday with the loss of around 12 jobs.
The Minehead company, based in Mart Road, ceased trading immediately when Taunton insolvency experts Albert Goodman were called in.
Friday Print was owned by former West Somerset district councillor Mike Padgett, who is also a vice-president of Minehead Harriers.
Mr Padgett, a former newspaper executive, had run the firm since relocating to West Somerset nearly 30 years ago.
He was undergoing treatment in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, for a heart condition when the company’s liquidators were called in.
Through Friday Print, Mr Padgett was well-known for its support of local community and charitable causes, often helping by subsidising the printing of programmes and tickets for fund-raising events.
Last week, 14 staff lost their jobs in Minehead with the closure of the seafront Queens Hall, owned by district Councillor Kate Kravis and her husband Marcus.