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Publisher completes deal on moving jobs to India

Regional publisher Johnston Press has signed a deal which will see half of its ad creation work outsourced to India.

The company announced plans last month to transfer work away from centres in Leeds, Sheffield, Peterborough and Edinburgh to a partnership of the Press Association and Express KCS Ltd, with the loss of around 60-70 jobs.

The contract has now been signed by Johnston Press, despite discussions still taking place between the regional publisher and affected staff.

A number of workers are believed to have expressed an interest in transferring to India but have only been offered salaries in Indian Rupees which are the equivalent of of around £2,000 a year – compared to their current wages of around £20-25,000.

Robert Berkeley, CEO at Express KCS, said: “The newspaper industry is in the process of transition. Express KCS’s world-class advertisement experience enables publishers to benefit from the economies of outsourcing at a time when cost reduction is high on the agenda.”

Express KCS and PA signed a partnership deal last November to offer creative production services to newspaper publishers in the UK from production centres in India.

The deal with Johnston Press is the first one signed since then and it will see Express KCS produce adverts for the regional publisher’s portfolio of newspapers.

The work will be carried out at Express KCS’ three production centres in India, which produce thousands of print and digital advertisements daily for brand owners and publications around the world.

As part of the contract StudioOnline, Express KCS’ cloud-hosted production workflow system, will be integrated with the Miles33 advertising databases used by Johnston Press.

Johnston Press’ announcement about the plans said it would expand its service desk in Sheffield with seven new roles in traffic and workflow management and affected staff could apply for these vacancies.

The company plans to retain its creative services teams at Carn, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Preston.

Johnston Press has declined to comment further.

16 comments

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  • July 19, 2012 at 9:34 am
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    Salaries of £20k – £25k? Thats news to me!

    I see now why they were the first go. Much cheaper to keep (for now) their lower paid colleagues in Preston, Sunderland etc…

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  • July 19, 2012 at 9:53 am
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    If you want to place an obituary notice in the Sunderland Echo advertisers have to ring an office in Leeds.

    If readers have queries about deliveries of the Sunderland Echo they have to contact an office in Peterborough.

    Now, although not as yet confirmed, it looks as though display ad make-up for the Sunderland Echo will follow its sister papers under the umbrella of Johnston Press to India.

    Do JP believe in ‘Keeping It Local’ or should it be ‘Keeping It Global’?

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  • July 19, 2012 at 10:19 am
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    Surely under TUPE law any staff transferring over to the new company would have to have the same benefits, including the same wage?

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  • July 19, 2012 at 10:34 am
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    Re; Jonny’s boss

    I wonder this too. For example if a JP employee was to transfer, and wished to continue paying into a british pension pot, how much of his/her 2000 Rupees would a suitable contribution?

    Farce.

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  • July 19, 2012 at 10:48 am
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    Does anyone know if anyone has involved an industrial tribunal over any of this? And if so, when is the hearing?

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  • July 19, 2012 at 10:55 am
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    This downgrades the customer relationship that the artists and other employees have with the customer. Guess this isnt the last of it and that the artists left wont be here after xmas.

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  • July 19, 2012 at 11:47 am
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    If the ad staff are on £25k a year there will be a journalist mutiny at JP

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  • July 19, 2012 at 12:05 pm
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    As usual the regional press are bloody years behind as many companies are now re – re locating back to the UK!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Costs in India are moving up fast as the Indian employees are starting to demand higher salaries (as they should) while the economy continues to grow! On the up side can you even start to imagine the error/query rates – wow that’s going to cost.

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  • July 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm
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    Not only is this thing being executed in an appalling way but JP are putting things “offshore” just when other companies are starting to bring work back. As ever, JP are off the pace.

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  • July 19, 2012 at 1:53 pm
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    “The company plans to retain its creative services teams at Carn, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Preston.”…..

    for a month or two?

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  • July 19, 2012 at 3:22 pm
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    The offered £176 per month indian wage also includes an increase in hours to 45hrs/week… no-one can follow their contract to India as a work VISA would never be granted on those terms.

    As for industrial action, nothing is taking place as yet, as there is still negotiations in place.

    BTW, Ad-creation wages are much less than the quoted figures.

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  • July 19, 2012 at 3:30 pm
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    Someone’s got their figures wrong, £20 to £25k? …. I wish. Knock £10k off the highest more like!

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  • July 19, 2012 at 4:19 pm
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    £179 per month? So a single ad can cover the cost of an employees monthy salary. They’ll be asking for an increase in no time and so they should.

    Are Express KCS’s British born, Indian based employee’s on this same salary structure I wonder?

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  • July 20, 2012 at 1:43 pm
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    Ask me… there are no British born Indian based employees at KCS, they are all local nationals. This is because it is impossible to obtain a VISA to work in India on KCS wages.

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