news


Strike ballot on threat of job cuts in Scotland


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ournalists working on the Herald, Evening Times and Sunday Herald have voted unanimously to ballot for industrial action,


including strike action, following Newsquest’s announcement it is to cut editorial jobs by 20 per cent on the Herald & Times group. Up to 20 jobs could be affected. This is the third round of redundancies in the group in the past ten months. The Scottish announcement is the latest


round in Newsquest’s summer of sacking, with jobs also going in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Bournemouth. The newspaper group also announced it


intends to implement cuts of 20 per cent in the Romanes Group, its new acquisition. This small but successful publisher turned a deficit to a profit of over £4m in the past five years, using traditional methods of selling newspapers and advertising space. The group, owners of the Greenock Telegraph, Dunfermline Press and titles across Ayrshire and the central belt, had not made any editorial redundancies in recent years, but


now faces adapting to the Newsquest culture of meeting new budgets by cutting jobs and introducing damaging savings which will have a severe effect on editorial. More details are expected following talks tomorrow. NUJ national organiser Paul Holleran


said: “This treadmill of redundancies cannot continue. I have told Newsquest it is not sustainable to keep cutting jobs without putting a robust alternative structure in place. In response they said they will be coming back to us later in the year for a fundamental restructure in editorial areas and they wonder why people are so angry. They should just seek an interested buyer and sell the titles if their plan is to shrink the business to nothing.” In a letter to the union, the company said:


“Newspaper revenues are declining and there is a need to cut cost and increase efficiency.” However, staff said the current lack of efficiency, with many journalists working excessive hours because of serious problems with staffing levels, was a result of poor management.


“ TUC TO DISCUSS QUALITY LOCAL JOURNALISM ”


Brighton this month, to win the support of organised labour in Britain at the TUC conference. An NUJ motion to be debated by delegates at


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he NUJ is taking the campaign for quality local journalism to


the annual union gathering repeats the call made by the TUC last year for an inquiry into the future of local newspapers. The NUJ motion says that


Government proposals to support local newspapers through business rate relief,


currently under consultation “fall far short of the inquiry into the future of local newspapers called for by Congress in 2014. “Congress calls on the General Council and affiliates to support the NUJ’s Local News Matters


campaign and its call for a short government inquiry focussed not only on the immediate needs of the sector, but also on promoting greater plurality and supporting local communities trying to protect titles from closure.”


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Union resists ‘rip off’ at Notting Hill carnival NUJ opposition to the


hotographers and other journalists welcomed a campaign launched


by the NUJ against a ‘rip off accreditation fee’ of £100 being imposed by the Notting Hill Carnival organisers on those wishing to cover the bank holiday weekend event last month.


charge was backed by the News Media Association which represents UK publishers and national and international news and photographic agencies. The carnival organisers,


London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust’s (LNHCET),


also sought to impose a new policy of taking access to material produced in covering the two-day festival. The £100 accreditation form states: “In exchange for providing a media accreditation pass, LNHCET requires and the recipient agrees to share their blog, video, article, write-up, recap, review or coverage of the events attended within three weeks of the conclusion of the event.”


It is not sustainable to keep cutting jobs without putting a robust alternative structure in place


in brief...


GOOGLE TOLD: FORGET PAST CONVICTION The UK Information Commissioner has instructed Google to remove links detailing an individual’s criminal conviction following last year’s EU Court of Justice ruling on the “right to be forgotten”. The court had ruled last year that individuals have the right to request the removal of links to articles about them from search engines if they feel it breaches their right to privacy.


PACT BETWEEN TUC AND STUDENTS’ BODY The TUC and the National Union of Students have signed an agreement for joint campaigning between the trade union and student movements for the coming year. The accord will see the TUC and


the NUS commit to work together to fight discrimination on campuses, in workplaces and in wider society, and to defend further and higher education from privatisation.


NEW WAVE OF PRINT FOR LLOYD’S LIST Historic shipping industry publication Lloyd’s List is increasing its editorial staff and launching a new magazine which will be published 10 times a year. The former daily newspaper for


the shipping industry went digital- only in 2013 after 279 years in print.


CORBYN HAS EYE ON A MURDOCH WATCH Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn has signalled his wish to keep a close eye on Rupert Murdoch’s concentration of media ownership in the UK. Corbyn told the Financial Times::


“I think there is far too much concentration in the hands of too few. “


BELFAST TELEGRAPH CLOSING PRINT SITE The Belfast Telegraph is to close its printing site on Royal Avenue, transferring printing operations to Newry, with a loss of nearly 90 jobs. Journalists are to move from Royal Avenue elsewhere in the city. Management blames a sales slump and loss of a major UK contract.


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