Staff at a regional daily newspaper in the North West are being given an effective pay cut of 7pc in a dramatic bid to cut costs without axing jobs.
Journalists and other staff at the Oldham Evening Chronicle were told this week they would have to take a week of unpaid leave between 1 December and 31 March, 2013.
The move, which amounts to a temporary cut in wages of around 7pc over the four-month period, was outlined in letters sent to all employees of the family-owned title on Monday.
Bosses at the 158-year-old newspaper have opted for the move as an alternative to job cuts, with editor Dave Whaley saying this is no longer an option if the title is to remain a daily.
Dave told HTFP: “This is the last thing that a family firm with 158 years in the business wants to do, but cutting jobs is not an option for producing a five nights a week paper.”
The Chronicle has recently raised its cover price by 5p to 60p in a further bid to offset the need for job losses.
According to the most recent ABC figures, its circulation fell 11.1pc in the period January to June 2012 compared to the previous year. It now sells an average 12,849 copies a night.
The newspaper is owned by local publishers Hirst, Kidd and Rennie Ltd and has been in the Hirst family since the 1850s.
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Weekly is only option – it will come.
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I can’t see how this is 7pc… but then I am a journalist not an accountant.
That’s almost 10 per cent – a tenth of your annual salary for just a week off?
How so?
(Not nit-picking, just trying to understand!) Thanks
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Is it me and my maths?
But isn’t a week off unpaid 1/52 which is 1.92 per cent?
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Is that actually legal?
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How is the figure of 7% arrived at?
A week of unpaid leave sounds like just under 2% to me.
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Pur-leeze explain the maths! 5 working days out of a year surely can’t be 7%?
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As a mainstream journalist for more than 40 years I think this move should be commended. It’s clear that the good days have gone for a while and we should all do whatever we can……what should happen now is for all the local commercial radio stations to have restrictions placed upon them in terms of which ads they can take!!! We must be vigilant about preserrving our local press (giveaways by amateurs are not the answer) The ‘locals’ safeguard the future for communities and prevent the unwnorthy getting away with things. I speak as a locakl and regional specialist given life membership of the NUJ in 1998 for services to the industry and the union! Regards, Ken Jackson
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If it’s not legal, Newsquest would be facing a huge legal bill right now. They pioneered the unpaid leave trick – for the hacks, not the bosses, natch
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Seize the initiative and go weekly NOW
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Why the story? Nothing new here. Been going on for at least two years elsewhere.
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So KJ believes local commercial radio stations should have restrictions placed upon them in terms of which ads they can take. To which I say: barman, can I have what he’s having?
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They did something similar at the Argus, Brighton, and then cut jobs anyway!
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The maths doesn’t appear to work out. Broadly speaking there are 250 working days in a year – one per cent is 2.5 days. Multiply that by seven and you have 17.5 days. To be asked to take five days unpaid leave is getting off lightly by the sound of it. In reality, there are probably several ways of slicing this equation with each offering a different answer!
My business model would be to cut the daily publishing to twice weekly and hope to consolidate readership that way. It seems to have worked well elsewhere.
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Not like a journalist to fail on numbers. Seven per cent cut would be just over 17 days off (assuming jounalist work five days a week and not seven).
Seven days off is actually closer to a cut of 2.75%. But if you add inflation in you can round that up to 5.5 per cent real term cut. Plus unpaid overtime and you’re looking at at least 7per cent.
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Or approx 25% of your monthly salary!
Probably best quoted as part of an annual salary picture really.
Who works in 13-week periods?
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Paul,
That’s 7% over four months not a year. Ergo, about 2.3 per cent annual.
Is that right?
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Is going weekly really the answer? If it’s been a success elsewhere, surely one of the prime reasons must be the concomitant cut in overheads — and that means fewer journalists’ jobs. Be careful; for what you wish for.
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@ivylikes, yes that’s correct: 7pc over a four-month period = 2.33pc a year.
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And be careful what you type. Sorry about that mangled last sentence.
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