AddThis SmartLayers

Up to 50 jobs to go at West Midlands publisher

The publisher of two of England’s biggest regional dailies has announced it is to axe up to 50 jobs across all departments.

Midland News Association, which publishes the Express and Star and Shropshire Star, has told staff it is looking for up to 50 voluntary redundancies from next month.

It comes on top of 90 redundancies announced at the Wolverhampton and Telford-based titles earlier this year which saw overall headcount reduced by a tenth.

It is not clear how many of the new job losses will be editorial, but journalists currently make up around 20pc of the MNA’s 800-strong workforce.

The announcement was made to staff councils at the Express and Star and Shropshire Newspapers earlier this week.

Managing director Alan Harris told HTFP he is hoping most of the cuts will come through non-replacement and voluntary redundancy, but says he cannot rule out compulsory job cuts.

Said Alan:  “This comes a against a difficult trading year in the past year and we’re expecting 2012 to be just as challenging.

“We are hoping to get this through a strict non-replacement policy and voluntary redundancies.”

No specific posts have currently been identified for cutbacks but heads of department are now reviewing their operations in a search for efficiency savings

A formal 30-day consultation period with staff has begun.

The earlier cutbacks, announced in April last year, eventually saw more than 40 compulsory job cuts made after not enough people volunteered for redundancy.

National Union of Journalists’ members held a ballot on strike action at the group but in the end no action was taken.

5 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • December 7, 2011 at 11:07 am
    Permalink

    Yes, we had the little note referring to “a difficult trading year in the past year and we’re expecting 2012 to be just as challenging.”
    Obviously Newspaper Society template.
    And our place doubled profits, doubled dividends and our leader’s salary rose by 30 per cent..

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 7, 2011 at 11:30 am
    Permalink

    Old Hack – the last statutory accounts available in the public domain for the Midland News Association were for the year-ended 1st January 2011 and appear to show a loss on ordinary activities of £3.562m and suggesting that trading is indeed difficult.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 7, 2011 at 12:15 pm
    Permalink

    Am I reading it wrong or are there really 800 staff at two papers??

    If so, they can lose about 600 more of those and see what its like for the rest of us!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 7, 2011 at 2:32 pm
    Permalink

    ”but journalists currently make up around 20pc of the MNA’s 800-strong workforce”
    Methinks you read it wrong old chap, the 800 figure is across all MNA operations and titles.
    Still, that’s 160 journalists who must now be worried if current trends are anything to go by……….

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 8, 2011 at 11:38 am
    Permalink

    Total losses of more than £6 million over the last two years show that it is the bank now dictating the news content. To add further insult, even the bank has problems, with its share price plunging. ‘Steve of 100 days’ (former chief executive Steve Brown) warned in March last year after his short-lived stay that if a proper business plan was not put in place the MNA would be in serious trouble within two years. Sadly, his prophecy seems true.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)