inbrief... news


WIN FOR FREDDIE STARR’S HAMSTER ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster’ has been voted favourite Sun headline by readers. The poll marked the 50th anniversary in November of Rupert Murdoch taking ownership of the paper. One in five voted for the 1986 front page that said the Starr had eaten a live hamster in a sandwich. He later denied the story.


THE SUN EXPANDS DIGITAL FOOTPRINT The Sun is expanding its digital operation to the US, saying it has ‘ambitious plans for growth’. The title, which is the most-read news brand in print and online in the UK, revealed the US launch in a job advert for a head of audience based in New York.


AFTER-SCHOOL TV NEWS UNDER THREAT The BBC wants to cut Newsround’s after-school bulletin after almost 50 years to focus on online children’s news content. The CBBC channel now airs three daily Newsround bulletins of 5-10 minutes each to meet an Ofcom requirement of 85 hours per year. The BBC has asked for changes to its licence to require 35 hours per year with a minimum of one scheduled daily bulletin.


GUARDIAN GOES FOR NET ZERO EMISSIONS The Guardian Media Group has pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions as a business by 2030. It has also promised to ‘prioritise and give prominence’ to its environmental journalism and never allow its reporting to be influenced by commercial or political interests.


STYLIST PLEDGES A LONG FUTURE IN PRINT Women’s free magazine Stylist has a ‘long lifespan’ in print yet, its editor-in-chief Lisa Smosarski has said. She said the 10-year-old title had a solid audience and advertiser base and distributed 410,674 copies a week.


04 | theJournalist


Union condemns ‘Scroogequest’ as Christmas cuts hit local papers


NUJ MEMBERS in Cumbria and Darlington have been informed of hefty new cuts to local newspapers owned by Newsquest. The editor at the Carlisle News and Star is leaving without replacement. At the Workington and Whitehaven titles, the associate editor and content editor are at risk of redundancy, as is the editor of the Westmoreland Gazette. The arts and leisure writer at Westmorland


Gazette, journalists working on Carlisle features and the arts and leisure writer in Kendal are being consulted on redundancy. If these jobs


are cut, one group editor will remain in Carlisle to edit all the titles in Cumbria. At Darlington, home to the Northern Echo and the Darlington and Stockton Times, journalists were told the weekly multimedia content manager post was being axed, along with a sports editor (production), a freelance specialist writer and the IT technician. Since Newsquest took over the family-run


CN Group in 2018, all of the subeditors, four out of our five photographers and the


majority of the experienced reporting staff in Carlisle have left in rounds of cuts. Cuts are also being made at the group’s magazine titles, including Cumbria Life, Dumfries and Galloway Life, Carlisle Living and a business magazine. Six employees have been put at risk of redundancy and staff have been told that two jobs will remain. Most of the production work on the Cumbria magazines will move to Newport in Gwent. The NUJ is urging the company to reconsider and commit to investing in sustainable local journalism and jobs. Chris Morley,


Newsquest NUJ group chapel coordinator, said: “Yet again, as we approach Christmas as the season of goodwill, Scroogequest looms large. “The job losses most often affect older,


more experienced staff whose local knowledge and invaluable experience are being lost to the detriment of their communities.” He added: “The loss of journalists’ jobs at


CN Group since Newsquest took over just 19 months ago has been staggering.”


“ Academic: reclaim black radicalism


ACADEMIC KEHINDE Andrews made a passionate call to arms to black people who he said had been stopped by racism from building on advances made in previous decades, when he gave the NUJ’s keynote Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture in London. The Birmingham City


University professor and author, who runs Britain’s first black studies course, said: “The liberal road to reform is


a dead end. It’s not good enough to have a few black people making it when others are at the bottom of the pile.” He urged black people to get


organised and fight for their rights, including in unions. He added: “We need to


reclaim the politics of black radicalism because it’s not just an ideology in the tradition of Malcolm X but a blueprint for major change.” The lecture is held every


year as part of London’s Black History month in honour of radical journalist Claudia Jones You can watch the full lecture here: https://tinyurl.com/ ukf6546.


Time with the NME falls down the charts


TIME SPENT reading the NME has fallen 72 per cent since the music magazine went online only, according to an academic study. Authors Dr Neil Thurman


and Dr Richard Fletcher had previously shown that the Independent saw an 81 per cent fall in the time readers were spending on it when it went online only in 2016.


In March 2018, the NME ended 66 years of print publication after a three years as a freesheet. Dr Thurman said: “While a post-print existence may be


less costly, it’s also more constrained, with much of the attention simply stripped away.” Read the study at https:// tinyurl.com/spjmwpv


The loss of journalists’ jobs since Newsquest took over just 19 months ago has been staggering


Chris Morley Northern and Midlands senior organiser


HAZEL DUNLOP


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