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Journalists pass no confidence vote over redundancies

Journalists have issued a vote of no confidence in two senior managers after redundancies were announced by a regional publisher.

Members of the National Union of Journalists’ chapel at Newsquest South West London have unanimously passed the vote against regional managing director Roger Mills and director of advertising Dene Stuart.

It came after the company announced today a three-month consultation over an unspecified number of redundancies affecting editorial staff – as part of a restructure to make the newsroom ‘more efficient’.

Titles affected by the announcement include the Sutton Guardian, Croydon Guardian and the Richmond and Twickenham Times – with two news editors in the Twickenham office already being told one of their positions is at risk.

In a statement, the NUJ said its members believe the redundancies are a result of Mr Mills taking on responsibility for Newsquest East London and Newsquest London, in addition to his role as managing director of Newsquest South London.

It added: “The redundancies have been ordered despite Newsquest recording profits of £71.7m in 2009, a third of which is provided by its London arm.”

Mr Mills was not available for comment at the time of publication.

3 comments

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  • May 5, 2011 at 12:31 pm
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    Isn’t it about time Newsquest start looking at very senior managers for cost savings. Just by sacking the board of directors would save them several million pounds a year and I can’t imagine this disjointed company actually noticing their loss of leadership. Come on Craig Dubbow stop them dumping on the little people.

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  • May 5, 2011 at 2:03 pm
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    I wonder if pack leader Mills – yes he has Scouts background has ever told his little charges of the life-changing role he has made over people he is responsible for at work.
    Perhaps he’s expecting a medal.

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  • May 6, 2011 at 5:00 pm
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    It’s constantly about money with NQ. With that said, I’ve got a great idea, instead of canning the people who actually care about their product and fill it with interesting and engaging stories, put the sales lot on notice. It’s not our job to make money, it’s the sales team’s. So why in God’s name aren’t they the ones going home worrying about how to pay the rent. Oh yeah because most of them are kids who still live at home and get paid thousands, yes thousands more than the better qualified and more productive reporters. Get a grip NQ and stop taking a @#%* on the people who constanty work beyond what they should to ensure you get that new boat and little Johnny gets to stay in a private school while your swanning about on the coast. What big man makes a decision like this then goes on holiday the day after.

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