news


Job losses at Mirror and Express after merger


Reach, the owner of the Mirror and Express newspapers is cutting 70 jobs at its national titles and closing the weekly celebrity magazin`e Star that could result in further job losses. Reach, which was renamed from Trinity


Mirror after the group bought Express newspapers, said its eight national titles had started to pool staff and resources. The move to pool


resources includes establishing a general content feed for all titles of non-exclusive news and other items such as arts reviews. The company said that it expects to make


£20 million in savings by 2020, with £12 million coming from cuts to editorial staff and the sharing of content and resources. But it has also said that it will retain the distinctions between the titles in politics, exclusive stories, investigations and columnists because there is little crossover readership between the titles. Simon Fox, the chief executive of Reach, has pledged that the national newspaper titles, which are at opposite ends of the political


spectrum, will remain editorially independent. A number of long-term casual editorial roles will also be converted into staff positions. The company also plans to introduce more


collaborative working between Express and Star’s daily and Sunday ediions. It said: “We will be making every effort to


achieve as much of the required savings as we can through voluntary means.”


In July Reach posted


a pre-tax loss of more than £100 million for the first half of 2018. This came after the business wrote down the value of its regional


newspaper business by £150 million because of a challenging trading climate. Laura Davison, NUJ national newspapers


organiser, said: “There is a sense of unfairness at the cuts given the meagre resources journalists have been labouring under for so long under the Desmond era. Members still remain to be convinced about Reach’s future strategy for investing in and sustaining the titles and fear this is a simply a cost-cutting exercise, with more to follow.”


Fresh cuts at many Newsquest titles


More job cuts have been announced at Newsquest titles. The cuts will affect Swindon, Oxford and the Stourbridge centre that produces the Kidderminster Shuttle, Stourbridge News, Halesowen News, Dudley


News, Bromsgrove Advertiser, Redditch/Alcester Advertiser and Droitwich Advertiser.


In Stourbridge up to six editorial jobs will be cut but two new audience and content editor roles are being created so this may reduce


the net staff redundancies to four. At the same time, three senior reporters, out of a total of eight, have already given their notice to leave the company. In Wiltshire, Newsquest is cutting two members of the features department and the


sports editor. In Oxford the publisher intends to cut one staff member from the features department and another from sport. The assistant editor’s position would also be cut, to be replaced by a new audience and content editor.


“


The NUJ has won recognition at Springer Nature, the academic publishing group. The move came after the union secured membership density of 51.5 per cent in a bargaining unit of 375 staff. Fiona Swarbrick, NUJ senior national


organiser, said: “We’re delighted by this outcome, which reflects the will of the majority of employees to have collective bargaining and is testament to the hard work of our


There is a sense of unfairness at the cuts given the meagre resources journalists have been labouring under for so long


Laura Davison, NUJ national organiser


inbrief...


REPORTER KILLED IN BULGARIA Victoria Marinova, a 30-year-old Bulgarian journalist working for regional TV channel TVN was brutally murdered. She is the fourth journalist killed in the EU since 2017 after Kim Wall in Denmark, Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Jan Kuciak in Slovakia.


COSTELLO’S CHARITY TRIP TO TIMBUKTU Journalists Eugene Costello and Nick Redmayne are to embark on a road trip to Timbuktu to raise funds for charities including NUJ Extra. Eugene decided to raise funds after receiving help from NUJ Extra following his heart attack. https:// www.gofundme.com/uk-to- timbuktu-by-road-challenge/


BBC EXTENDS FUND FOR DISABILITIES BBC is to invest another £1 million into recruiting journalists with disabilities to tackle under- representation in the corporation. The Extend in News scheme, which received £1 million last year, is open to those with a hidden or visible disability who are interested in journalism or production.


INDY PUTS UP A PARTIAL PAYWALL The Independent is offering exclusive editorial content, an ad-free live website and closer interaction with journalists in a new partial paywall. Readers will pay £55 a year. The part paywall is similar to the one operated by The Telegraph. News, page 5, Raymond Snoddy, Page 19


Recognition win at Springer Nature


wonderful union committee, particularly the joint Mother and Father of Chapel. The next stage in the process is to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with management, and we look forward to developing our relationship with the company in a positive and collaborative atmosphere.”


IAN BELL PRIZE OPEN FOR YOUNG WRITERS Aspiring young writers in Scotland can enter the Ian Bell award run by the NUJ in Edinburgh in memory of the radical journalist and author. Entrants should be aged 30 or under and live, work or study in Scotland. For more details email hilaryhorrocks@ btinternet.com


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