inbrief... news


JOHNSTON PRESS SEES SALES FALL Johnston Press, the publisher whose titles include the i and the Yorkshire Post, saw group revenues fall nine per cent for the first five months of the year. The company said the ‘trading environment remains extremely challenging’. It warned of uncertainty over paper costs and the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation on digital advertising.


SHAH BECOMES BUSINESS EDITOR Oliver Shah, Sunday Times city editor, has been made business editor. He has worked at the paper since 2010, starting as a business reporter. While retail correspondent, he became business journalist of the year at the 2017 London Press Club Awards and the National Press Awards for his investigation into Sir Philip Green’s £1 sale of BHS.


KRIEL MOVES TO A ROLE AT SKY FROM AP Caro Kriel has become Sky News’ head of international news. She moved from Associated Press where she was Europe news director. She has 20 years’ experience in foreign reporting.


INSTYLE UK IS SHUT DOWN COMPLETELY Time Inc UK has shut down women’s lifestyle website InStyle UK less than 18 months after it stopped publishing the title in print. The last print issue of InStyle UK appeared in December 2016 after 15 years on sale, and it was relaunched as a digital title. The website had a major revamp in March last year.


PESTON GOES FROM SUNDAY TO MIDWEEK ITV’s current affairs show Peston on Sunday is moving to a new midweek slot in the autumn. ITV’s political editor Robert Peston’s weekly 10am show will move to Wednesday night after ITV News at Ten, putting it up against BBC Newsnight. It will be called Peston.


04 | theJournalist


Call for shows with disabled performers to tackle stereotypes


NUJ delegates at the TUC disabled workers’ conference called for more representation of disabled actors and musicians on stage and screen to address stereotypes of people with disabilities and lead to them being offered more work. An NUJ motion, proposed by Natasha Hirst,


said that, too often, people with disabilities were shown in the media as ‘tragic, scroungers or superhuman’ and that this allowed the government to put in place policies that made the lives of disabled people considerably worse. The motion was passed unanimously at the conference in Bournemouth. Mik Scarlet spoke to a Musicians’ Union motion about the importance of supporting disabled musicians and making venues accessible, especially for those gigging early in their careers, when most performances are held in basements or rooms upstairs. He also lent support to an Equity motion that outlined the importance of drama in portraying deaf and disabled people authentically. Natasha seconded an USDAW motion that


called on unions to work with organisations that supported members with learning disabilities. The motion noted that people with learning difficulties were one of the most marginalised and discriminated-against groups in society. The conference voted to ask the TUC in consultation with its disabled workers’ committee to develop practical guidance for reps to use in campaigns to raise awareness of learning disability. The TUC published a report showing the pay gap between people with and without disabilities is at its widest. In 2017, this reached 15 per cent, its greatest since 2013 when the government began publishing comparable data using the 2010 Equality Act definition of


disability. The average hourly pay for disabled workers was £9.90, compared to £11.40 for non-disabled workers. More workers with disabilities are part time


(36.4 per cent) than non-disabled workers (23.4 per cent), which partly accounts for the gap. The gender pay gap is 13 per cent for disabled men and 22 per cent for disabled women.


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Women in the media industry are losing out to men in pay, with their male colleagues earning more, occupying more senior roles and receiving bigger bonuses, the government gender pay reporting service has revealed. An analysis by Press Gazette showed that 91 per cent of


UK-based media companies paid men more than women on average, based on the mean hourly rate, and 85 per cent paid men more in bonus pay. The union is encouraging chapels to carry out their own pay


audits to find out how pay is distributed across employees, including by age, ethnicity and length of service. The Telegraph has one of the widest gender pay gaps in the industry with women getting paid 35 per cent less than men on average.


Union tackles Trinity Mirror bosses


The NUJ sent a delegation to Trinity Mirror’s AGM with a letter to shareholders outlining concerns about the level of redundancies, the digital strategy, the gender pay gap


and failure to protect journalists’ sources. The meeting provided an opportunity to question the board of the company, which has changed its name to father of the chapel at the


Reach group, asked how the board intended to reconcile the difference between print revenues falling by £86.4 million in 2017 while the income from digital operations was £4.9 million.


Chief executive Simon


Fox said the group believed that print losses would match digital gains in between three and five years’ time but ‘would like this to be faster’.


Too often, people with disabilities are shown in the media as ‘tragic, scroungers or superhuman’


Natasha Hirst NUJ delegate


PR and communications pay gap widens


TERRY MATHEWS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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