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More JP jobs set to go in South Yorkshire and Midlands

Regional publisher Johnston Press has announced another raft of job losses affecting its titles in Yorkshire and the Midlands.

On Friday it emerged that 19 jobs were to go at the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post following a decision to merge the editorial operations of the two Leeds-based titles.

Now a further round of cuts is being proposed affecting JP titles in South Yorkshire and the North Midlands.

Two chief photographer roles and the equivalent of six full-time production roles are under threat as a result of the plans.

Titles affected by the changes include the Sheffield Star, Doncaster Free Press and Derbyshire Times.

The proposed cuts were outlined in two internal memos issued to staff on Friday by John Bills, managing director of JP’s South Yorkshire and North Midlands business unit.

The first said:  “The company has undertaken a detailed review of the Photographic Department and across the North Midlands and South Yorkshire Publishing Unit.

“As a result of this review it is proposed that there will be no requirement for the role of Chief Photographer in Doncaster and Sheffield.”

A second announcement stated:  “The company has undertaken a detailed review of the editorial production and planning processes across the North Midlands and South Yorkshire Publishing Unit.

“As a result of this review, and the planned introduction of a new template design workflow, it is proposed that there will be a reduced requirement for the role of production Journalist/planner across the publishing unit.”

The consultation on the photographic roles is due to be completed by 29 June and the production roles by 27 July

Mr Bills said that in the event this proposal goes ahead, the company will endeavour to minimise the impact of the proposal through voluntary redundancy and re-deployment to alternative positions within the company and the group.

The National Union of Journalists has already condemned the plans and is meeting tomorrow to discuss its response.

At the last NUJ meeting in Sheffield, journalists held a vote of no confidence in management after the Sheffield Telegraph editor and Sheffield Star deputy editor were made redundant earlier this month.

General secretary Michelle Stanistreet said:  “If Johnston Press want to turn the company’s fortunes around they have to wake up to the fact that its journalists are its best asset.

“Losing experienced, talented, loyal staff who are passionate about the communities they serve, and the consequential impact on content and quality will do nothing to make more readers turn to their local newspapers, whether in print or online.”

Julia Armstrong, mother of chapel at the NUJ Sheffield Newspapers Chapel added:  “Yet again Johnston Press staff are paying the price of poor investment decisions that have left the company at the mercy of the banks.

“The relaunch of the Sheffield Star and sister paper the Sheffield Telegraph this autumn should be an exciting opportunity but instead jobs are under threat yet again and the staff who are left are already stretched to the limit.”

14 comments

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  • June 18, 2012 at 5:45 pm
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    “Six full time production roles” to be axed with the introduction of new templates.

    This is what we have to look forward to in Leeds then, I guess. Those who keep their jobs on the production side in the current cull won’t have them long! Expect a further round of job cuts in September.

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  • June 19, 2012 at 10:31 am
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    Curious. A company that has gone web and tweet crazy spending God knows what on redesigning papers and sacking journos when most papers and web sites are staffed at crisis level.

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  • June 19, 2012 at 10:40 am
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    JP should sell up and ship out. They obviously haven’t a clue what they are doing.

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  • June 19, 2012 at 10:59 am
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    The truth is that the cadre of executives who ended up in charge of our industry were never up to the job.

    I cannot think of many other businesses in the UK were management failed so abjectly to develop a strategy for dealing with a rapidly changing market.

    They fooled us when times were easy and revenue basically fell off the trees. When the wind changed and there was a blindingly-obvious need for innovation and adaptation they were found to be asleep at the wheel.

    Now it’s too late, that boat has sailed; yet the Good Old Boys are still there and still perfoming the one trick they know by heart – making journalists redundant.

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  • June 19, 2012 at 11:46 am
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    Does anybody remember/know where this group refinanced their depts?

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  • June 19, 2012 at 1:58 pm
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    Wotho chaps! look on the bright side and all that rot, wot?

    For every worker thrown onto the jolly old scrapheap here in dear Blighty, there’s a Spanish chappy landing a new job designing templates. Wotwot!

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  • June 20, 2012 at 3:19 pm
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    Lord snot

    great name, you suit it :)

    JP are doing their best to get out of the mess created by other who have now moved on. I get the impression that you all think that every employee that works for JP is 100 worth their salt? sorry to tell you but there was and is a hell of a lot of dead wood and it’s being cleared out! out! out!! JP will be a better place to work in the not so distant future once this has been achieved.

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  • June 20, 2012 at 3:50 pm
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    Noonetoknow.

    How nice to know that you think that human beings with families and responsibilities are merely ‘dead wood’ to be cleared out. Or out! out! out! as you so strangely put it. Are you by any chance getting excited at the thought of others losing their jobs?

    Judging by your lack of humanity and your poor standards of literacy I would take a guess that you are either one of the management axemen yourself or you have attached yourself so far up their anuses that you think you’ll be safe forever. I can only hope that karma exists in your case.

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  • June 21, 2012 at 10:22 am
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    JP esacpee

    Deal with it! it’s life. I’m not excited about anyone losing their job but it clear as mud that industry change is leading to job losses. Couple that with the huge debt pile and then it’s inevitable people will have to go.

    I just can’t stand the constant battering JP gets. They either cut people loose and move with the times and survive and that means many people will still have jobs or the keep everyone in a job and end up going to the wall. JP is a business and at the end of the day they need to be profitable, clear the debt and survive. simples!

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  • June 21, 2012 at 12:47 pm
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    noonetoknow (how aptly named)

    JP may be getting a constant battering for the inept way in which its management has run the company over the past five-seven years. It has laden the firm with debt which is now killing it, its share price has plummented from £5 to 5p and they are responding by getting rid of some of their most experienced journalists like David Todd and Paul Licence. Oh sorry, the dead wood apparently.

    The management are simples.

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  • June 21, 2012 at 1:00 pm
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    Noonetoknow.

    Would you like me to sub your pieces before they go in? You know, do things like punctuate, check spellings and make sure sentences actually make sense? It might save you some embarrassment in the future. Oh, I forgot, the people who do that are just ‘dead wood’ and JP doesn’t need them.

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  • June 22, 2012 at 4:21 pm
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    Corporal Clegg

    I love your comments but you are also spot on, JP should sell off the business that they don’t seem to give a hoot about anyway, give the top dogs their bit (cos that’s all it will be by the time they’re finished, a bit) and let the loyal, dedicated employees that are still left standing pick up the pieces and build the company back up for a boss who does care about the newspapers and has experience working in the newspaper industry instead of shipping the jobs off to Sheffield (which has been a joke), Spain and now India (another complete insult to the existing artists department).

    You might call the dead wood, Noonetoknow, but I call them colleagues.

    Keep it local as you so often promote JP and give the Newspapers that are left a chance to survive.

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