The National Union of Journalists has accused Johnston Press of showing a “lack of respect” to staff over plans to axe its newspaper production hub in Preston.
As revealed by HoldtheFrontPage this week, the regional publisher is scrapping the subbing unit and moving its work 80 miles away to Sheffield.
Nine people in the content design unit are affected and risk losing their jobs if they are unwilling to relocate.
The move comes weeks after JP closed its Horsham subbing hub in Sussex and transferred the work to a production base in Peterborough, resulting in five redundancies.
The NUJ chapel at Preston, which covers the Lancashire Evening Post and sister weeklies the Chorley and Leyland Guardian, Garstang Courier and Longridge News has now issued a statement condemning the plan, announced shortly before the Preston Guild festival which takes place every 20 years.
It said: “Yet again Johnston Press is willing to allow decades of newspaper experience to head for the exit doors, under the misguided impression this will have no impact on the quality of the newspapers we produce.
“Valuable, experienced members of our production staff are being treated with a complete lack of respect after already suffering many years of being shown no reward for the loyalty and dedication they have shown the titles they serve, in some cases, before Johnston Press took over running them.
“The decision to drop this bombshell on Friday, August 31 – the day before the start of the Preston Guild, a once-every-20-year event with huge significance to the people of Preston and the busiest production time in the Preston office for years – is evidence that the ‘life is local’ philosophy of Johnston Press is little more than a farce.”
Johnston Press has so far declined to comment further on the issue.
Announcing the move to staff last week, North West managing director Gary Fearon said: “The proposed move will help maintain the fidelity of the designs created through the recent investment programme and will aid improvements to the newspaper titles through consistent quality controls.”
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
What a shocking disregard for the sensitivities of a newspaper office. The Preston Guild is massive in this area. It almost feels like it has been done deliberately.
Report this comment
Announcing the move to staff last week, North West managing director Gary Fearon said: “The proposed move will help maintain the fidelity of the designs created through the recent investment programme and will aid improvements to the newspaper titles through consistent quality controls.”
What a load of old tosh. That ridiculous statement shows just how little JP execs know about newspapers.
And the timing of this announcement shows not just a total lack of respect for the staff but an appalling disdain for the people of Preston and a much cherished local tradition.
But then, local isn’t a word JP care about much whatever they may say in their glossy presentations.
How can a paper be at the heart of its community when it’s put together 80 miles away, in a different county by people who probably know nothing about the area?
Report this comment
Before I was signed on as a trainee I was tested on how well I knew the area. Staff also had to live in or very close to the town.
Forty years later I became part of a sub hub which involved working on newspapers up to 50 miles away. We didn’t have a clue about names, places, etc, but were told to get on with it because there was not enough time to check.
The hub lasted for 10 months and was then dismantled, with most of the subs being made redundant. My employers were JP.
Report this comment
Soon there will be no more staff to cut, just the management feebly trying to justify their existence and fat salaries.Good websites and good newspapers need good journalists who are enthused and motivated, not downtrodden and overworked. Will JP ever realise that?
Report this comment
I’ve said this before and been moderated out of existence by HTFP, but…yes, another nail in the coffin of local newspapers and another step towards creating one big national weekly & (possibly) one big national provincial daily freesheet, slightly a la Metro, but with changed mastheads and scattered snippets of local-ish news among the at-best regional page leads and the ubiquitous paid-for features. The timing is bad because JP’s management have never heard of Preston Guild and care about it even less.
Report this comment
But the Guild supplement still came out, right? The time to take action was last Friday when the cull was announced, not by putting out a limp statement six days later.
Report this comment
Every word above is true. Readers notice when names are spelled incorrectly – and remember for decades. They are aware when long-serving staff with great contacts and local knowledge have been axed and their locally focused copy has been replaced by tawdry PA drivel about minor celebs. And they can’t abide the dull “fidelity” of the new designs, which are making every page look the darned same. Wake up JP!!!!!
Report this comment
So,how long will it be before the dailies become weeklies; next year I would hazard a guess……………………….
Report this comment
Hubslave, you’re obviously not a real journalist, otherwise you would realise the people involved are too professional to consider putting the Guild supplement at risk.
Report this comment
…or too worried about being seen to step out of line while the ‘consultation’ takes place.
Report this comment
I suspect it’s not a case, Hubslave, of being worried about being seen to step out of line…
In the words of Bob Dylan, if you ain’t got nothin’ you got nothin’ to lose…
JP have tried to strip everyone of hope, dignity, professionalism, drive, ambition, integrity and pride.
The Preston journos still hold on to those virtues that made this job something special.
We should be proud of them, not cynically dismissing them.
Report this comment
What a terrible way to treat loyal and experienced staff.
It would have served management right if the affected workers had walked out and left them in the lurch for the Preston Guild supplements and pullouts.
Luckily for them, the staff have too much professional pride and loyalty to their readers to do this.
Shame on JP.
Report this comment
‘the staff have too much professional pride and loyalty to their readers to do this’
Sadly, pride comes before a fall. You have to swallow pride and reader loyalty when it comes to fighting for jobs. Though I’m sure the readers would have been largely behind a walkout anyway.
Jobs are going everywhere because no one’s fighting.
No point dying for a principle.
Report this comment
why fight for a dead duck?
Report this comment