A second day of strike action was today due to take place at Newcastle Chronicle and Journal Ltd, with more than 100 journalists protesting over pay.

National Union of Journalists members at the company, publishers of The Journal, Evening Chronicle, Sunday Sun and Herald & Post series, went ahead with the first of two planned 24-hour strikes last Thursday, picketing the company’s Groat Market office.

Another 24-hour strike is set to go ahead today – and the NUJ is now deciding what course of action to take next, should a solution not be found.

NC&J father of chapel Will Mapplebeck said: “We feel we really put the issue of low pay on local newspapers in the spotlight and caused the company some problems.”

David Rowland, NC&J human resources director, said that he was expecting the strike to go ahead and that the company would continue to publish as normal.

The action follows talks between NC&J and the union where, despite going to the conciliation service ACAS, no agreement was reached.

The union, which has more than 100 members among the 170-strong editorial workforce, is asking for a four per cent increase across the board.

It says its members have had to take on additional work following recent redundancies.

But NC&J said that outside of the pay award, a major benchmarking exercise for journalists had seen an additional £140,000 invested in editorial salaries and that the pay offer reflected the challenging times the media industry faced.

Originally, NC&J put forward a two per cent pay offer, and later also offered to further increase trainee wages and raise the minimums – offers which the union declined.

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