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Sunderland journalists asked to travel to Sheffield

Johnston Press is facing more industrial strife after telling journalists at its Sunderland subbing hub to travel to Sheffield.

The newspaper publisher’s plan to centralise production for its Yorkshire operations in Sheffield has already led National Union of Journalists members at the Scarborough Evening News and Sheffield Star to vote in favour of strike action.

Now JP subsidiary Northeast Press Ltd has announced plans to make journalists at the Sunderland hub – only created last summer – to travel to Sheffield too.

The two cities are at least two hours apart by road and commuting there and back in a day will constitute a 250-mile round-trip.

Northeast Press managing director Stuart Birkett said in a statement: “Northeast Press Ltd will shortly install the new editorial content management system which will improve the way news and information is delivered to our print and online platforms.

“The system, supplied by Atex, will allow both words and pictures to be handled by one system as well as improve the newsgathering and content loading workflows.

“The installation will be phased over a six-week period and will replace the current editorial Mark IV and DTI platforms.

“Print and website production will be handled by the Atex Prestige software with Adobe InDesign delivering print page production and design. Prior to the introduction relevant training will be given to all journalists.

“As part of this proposal, the subediting and design activity currently undertaken in Northeast Press Ltd will transfer to the Sheffield Newspapers production hub under Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations 2006 (TUPE).

“Consultation with affected production staff and their representatives has commenced.”

The Sunderland subbing hub is currently responsible for JP’s three North-East dailies – the Sunderland Echo, Hartlepool Mail and Shields Gazette – together with a series of weekly titles.

It is thought that that around 18 staff members are affected by the planned move to Sheffield.

The announcement has predictably sparked an angry response from the NUJ, which is already staging a company wide ballot on strike action across the whole of JP.

NUJ Northern and Midlands organiser Chris Morley said: “Although our members knew that the Atex system was coming to the North East, the scale of the impact on jobs and lack of time to come to terms with the implications has shocked them to the core.

“How Johnston Press can proclaim with a straight face that they ‘publish local newspapers and internet sites produced by local teams of people’ when they shift production of newspapers more than 160 miles south from Northumberland to Yorkshire is beyond me.

“More importantly, we fear it will be beyond the local communities who will undoubtedly pick up on the fact that much of their local paper is fashioned outside the North East.”

Comments

hacker (13/04/2010 15:08:45)
If this is true it is clearly scandalous. If so, it makes you wonder whether Johnston Press is actively picking a fight if it is prepared to suggest this kind of rubbish. So glad I don’t work for them anymore.

Johnston Press Worker (13/04/2010 15:15:54)
During a period when Mr Fry has reportedly paid himself £1m and managing directors have recently raked in a (shh! secret’s out the bag) nice payise – while staff are kept on a pay freeze – this is yet more heart-warming news from everyone’s favourite caring publisher. Johnston Press says…um, nothing, again – and again. They just don’t get it do they? Can we have people who know how to efficiently manage a company, and know what a local newspaper actually is, in charge please?

Hacked off hack (13/04/2010 15:20:44)
Once again JP hide away instead of trying to explain their insane decisions – the company is becoming a bigger joke every day.
Their abuse of journalists and subs over the last few months has totally unacceptable – decisions being made by people who have absolutely no knowledge of the areas they’re making life-changing decisions about.
John Fry and most of the managing directors etc in JP should all be ousted immediately – how they can all sleep at night is beyond me.

Scribbler (13/04/2010 15:46:28)
Is there an escaped lunatic at the helm of JP? Are we powerless to stop this utter nonsense? Is the company about to implode? Are there any more ridiculous decisions in the offing? What a total shambles and a joke this company is.

Onlooker (13/04/2010 15:52:10)
JP – Just Pathetic.

Par for the course (13/04/2010 15:58:23)
Can anyone explain how TUPE -Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)- regulations apply, as in the MD’s comments. TUPE usually covers conditions of employment when a business is transferred from one owner to another. Since JP owns both operations, I’m puzzled.

Hacked off hack (13/04/2010 15:58:23)
Now the story has been updated to include a JP quote, all we’re given is the same claptrap we’ve heard from every other exec that’s commented each time Atex has come in.
No justification whatsoever for the nutcase decisions.
I hope they’ve got plans in place for when there’s no journalists left, because that’s what will happen when we’ve all escaped from the jobs we once loved.

JP NW Hack (13/04/2010 16:11:44)
Atex was introduced in the NW about a month ago. Since then I have gone from being a reporter to a jack-of-all dogsbody, subbing my own pages, writing headlines and saving, uploading and processing pictures. And I’m supposed to write news stories as well. My output news-wise, like the rest of my colleagues, has halved as a result. But it’s all ok, JP told us today that they plan to honour the 3-year agreed pay deal they reneged on in Dec ’08 – this December. This is what happens when a man with no newspaper experience is appointed chief exec of a newspaper company. The saddest thing is this has ruined our papers, made everyone’s lives 10 times harder, raised stressed levels in our already understaffed newsroom to boiling point, and yet to our knowledge none of the managers from anywhere in the NW thought to question the company’s motives behind introducing Atex. We now know, of course, it was to sack 20 of the 38 subs in the NW.

Slave (13/04/2010 16:15:37)
JP NW Hack – the other reason was to save having to pay for Quark anymore, despite it being a far better system and despite all the warning signs from elsewhere.

FAST WOMAN (13/04/2010 16:29:13)
Hello JP bosses!
We appear to have wasted our time trying to convert you to our love of journalism, pride in great papers and websites, and community spirit.
Let’s try this one then: Chaps and Chapesses – you are in serious danger of damaging your core product line to the point where recovery is impossible. This will impact on YOU as well as those irritating journalists.

Ess Jayar (13/04/2010 16:52:31)
Make no mistake Atex has little or no value as a subbing tool – but JP hasn’t brought it in to maintain let alone improve standards. Its primary function, so far as that nice Mr Fry and his board are concerned, is what they call ‘head-count reduction’.

Wolfie (13/04/2010 16:54:21)
Do not be conned by TUPE in what is clearly a redundancy situation.
Long-term all JP victims should tell everyone they know not to buy JP products – hit them in the pocket. They have no feelings elsewhere.

SebastianFaults (13/04/2010 17:14:07)
Please don’t be fooled by the TUPE red herring – this is JP trying to wriggle out of calling its payoffs ‘redundancy’.
This then prevents the poor devil who has lost his/her job from claiming benefits. Please beware of this.
JP has been forced to backtrack elsewhere and you should contact the NUJ for advice on how to fight it.
Quite what devious purpose of JP’s it serves, I’m not sure.
Perha
ps the top tablers are promised extra bonuses if they keep redundancies to a minimum. Who knows?
Whatever the reason, you can bet the workers’ interests are not at the heart of it.
Why don’t you kick ’em while they’re down, eh lads?

Oldhack andproud (14/04/2010 09:33:28)
Aah yes! I’ve always wanted to practice “newsgathering (sic) and content loading workflows…”
A GREAT move forward…

Weary Sub (14/04/2010 09:46:10)
One wonders what the MEN can expect now that Trinity have taken over…..

sutler (14/04/2010 10:22:13)
Perhaps the best thing the NUJ could do in this situation is to tour the colleges and newspaper training establishments and quietly advise the students to seek a different career path. In the face of such insanity, it seems there is little long-term future for the regional newspaper industry. It is in a vortex to oblivion.

barmyarmy (14/04/2010 11:05:37)
Has no-one mentioned that the new Atex publishing system is “opening up opportunities for bright young reporters who want to push on with their careers”?
This from a JP ad advertised on HTFP!
Nothing JP do should surprise anyone anymore and the reference to TUPE regulations is, quite frankly, baffling.

Thankfully ex-JP (14/04/2010 11:18:57)
Ha Ha. Loved Onlooker’s “JP – Just Pathetic” comment. How true!

Anon (14/04/2010 11:22:47)
I hear death knells. RIP Sunderland Echo. The Gazette and Mail are sure to follow.

clare mont (14/04/2010 13:30:12)
Like the majority of gaffers these days, whether in banks, football, government (add your own section to this never-ending list), the JP management have come in for the short-term, earn canny money for themselves, make a real mess of things and move on and let the workers suffer the consequences. After all, they’ll never need another job.

Redtired pedant (14/04/2010 14:12:16)
Oldhack andproud clearly isn’t old enough to have had a decent education. The verb ‘to practise’ is spelt with an ‘s’.

A plea to JP bosses (14/04/2010 15:05:21)
Why won’t the JP management consult properly with staff? Why won’t you listen to the views of the people who actually produce your newspapers? Why don’t you care about newspapers any more? Why don’t you care about the negative feedback from readers in regions which have already “gone live” with Atex?
JP workers nationwide are fearful of their futures, they are working in under-staffed offices and morale is at an all-time low – why won’t you acknowledge this?
I fail to understand just what JP is trying to achieve, they are destroying their newspapers, the website content is declining in quality and the staff have no confidence in either Atex or JP’s management. Why aren’t you listening JP?

richard meredith (14/04/2010 16:10:13)
Can I reply here to Steve Dyson’s blog advocating papers doing deals with councils over including their freesheets as special sections. Why? well it is surely the next step in Apex’s inexorable smothering of our beloved newsrooms. Yes, you can see it now: just like our reporters, the council’s PR will soon be keying his/her master’s content straight onto our pages AND presumably, the unmentionable managements at JP will charge them something for the space too. Before you know it, the police PR will be wanting to have a go; then fire and ambulance; maybe the court clerk …and why not eh JP? lots more journo salaries to be saved here. Costs down, revenue up and don’t take No for an answer. Isn’t that the name of your game?.

scouse hack (15/04/2010 11:37:49)
The answer to weary sub is probably that the MEN is facing some major upheavals if it is reshaped in the Liverpool/Birmimgham manner. Having said that,Trinity has behaved a lot better than Johnston in this matter, with (reasonably) generous pay-offs to those displaced and retaining all editorial operations in the areas they serve.

NEP bewildered (16/04/2010 11:12:27)
From what we’ve heard here, all our subs have been given their P45’s, rather than make the round trip. Wonder what will happen if the system breaks or doesn’t like local terminology?