news


Merger of ‘distinct’ BBC news services called off


and BBC World News will remain as separate channels. Tony Hall, BBC director


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general, told staff that the News Channel would not be closed or merged, but both channels would have to find significant savings. The NUJ had argued that


the two offered very different services and were important and popular in their own right.


While the BBC News Channel is funded through the licence fee, BBC World News is commercial,.funded through advertising. The union argued that a merger would blur the lines between the licence fee and profit making.


Sue Harris, NUJ broadcasting


organiser, said: “This is good news and I am pleased the BBC has acknowledged that the two channels provide distinct services.


“I would like to thank


Martine Croxall and David Campanale, our reps at the News Channel and BBC World, and both chapels for their amazing campaign to save the channel, and to all the MPs, peers and other supporters who wrote to the BBC in its defence. “We are being told it will mean 10% cuts; the union is prepared to discuss with management how savings can be made without reducing the headcount. Staff at both channels are already


under a lot of strain because of heavy workloads and the effects of previous cuts.” The BBC said:“We did


detailed work on the proposal for a new single channel, including a financial model, and listened to what both audiences and BBC staff told us… We concluded that [a single channel] would not be the best way of offering a UK audience and global audiences the news agenda that is most directly relevant to them.” BBC Monitoring jobs to go, page 5


he NUJ has welcomed the announcement that the BBC News Channel


“ Strike vote over job losses at Wales daily paper ” J


ournalists on North Wales’s Daily Post have voted to take strike action over Trinity Mirror’s plans that include potential redundancies. Staff have been told that several


posts are going although new positions will be created in other areas.


The proposals will result in unfilled roles, including the


newspaper’s executive editor, and the abolition of one digital reporter. This follows two former Daily Post reporters being transferred within Trinity Mirror and not being replaced.


Members at the Trinity Mirror North Wales chapel believe the changes will result in understaffing and create unreasonable workloads, especially for print production staff who are already under-pressure. Journalists will also be asked to work additional weekend


shifts and may be required to work weekends twice as often as they do now.


The cuts at the Daily Post are part of wider job losses at Trinity Mirror’s regional papers.


INVESTIGATIVE WEBSITE EXARO CLOSES


award-winning investigative news website Exaro. The site was closed last month by parent company New


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he NUJ is seeking urgent talks after the sudden closure of the


Sparta just days after a new leadership was put in place. Exaro had announced that David Hencke, the former Guardian journalist who has been behind some of


the organisation’s biggest stories, would take over as head of the operation, sharing responsibility for running the site with another existing Exaro employee, Mark Conrad,


who was to be news editor. Laura Davison, NUJ national organiser, said: “This has been a huge shock to staff. We will be seeking urgent talks with management.”


We did detailed work on the proposal for a new single channel, and listened to what both audiences and BBC staff told us


in brief...


TRINITY MIRROR TO CUT NATIONAL JOBS Trinity Mirror has begun targeted cuts of editorial staff at its national titles including the Daily Mirror and the Sunday People. The move follows a big drop in the publisher’s share price. An email to staff from Lloyd Embley, editor-in-chief of the national titles, said the company would try to keep the cuts to a “minimum”.


AFP AIMS TO GRAB PHOTO RIGHTS Agence France Presse is demanding that photographic stringers in offices outside France sign contracts that include the full assignment of their authors’ rights without any additional remuneration. The International Federation of Journalists is advising photographers not to sign them.


HOPE FOR IRISH FREELANCE RIGHTS A significant hurdle in the battle for freelance rights in Ireland has been overcome with the all-party acceptance, at committee stage, of the Competition (Amendment) Bill. The bill, if accepted, would end the legal impediment of freelance journalists being barred from collective representation by unions.


JOHNSON QUITS TELEGRAPH COLUMN Boris Johnson is giving up his £275,000-a-year column for the Daily Telegraph after being appointed foreign secretary. Johnson’s weekly Telegraph column may have made him the UK’s best-paid journalist. He said in the register of MPs’ interests that he was paid £22,916.66 a month for 10 hours’ work by the Telegraph.


VOGUE GOES TO THE MIDDLE EAST Vogue is to launch an edition for the Middle East this autumn. Editor in chief is Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz. She told the Financial Times: “The Arab world consists of 250 million people, and they have never had a Vogue.” The magazine’s headquarters will be based in Dubai, with the aim of reaching a wider audience across the Middle East.


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TC / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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