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Weekly editor made redundant in Yorkshire shake-up

A weekly editor is being made redundant and three newspaper offices closed as part of the ongoing restructure in Johnston Press’s Yorkshire operation.

Brighouse Echo editor Stephen Firth’s role is to disappear and his newspaper’s offices are to be closed along with those of the Todmorden News and Hebden Bridge Times.

All three titles are to be run in future from the offices of the Halifax Courier, which has itself just announced it is converting to weekly publication.

Halifax is ten miles from Todmorden, seven miles away from Hebden Bridge and three miles away from Brighouse.

Johnston Press has not so far responded to requests for a comment on the proposed changes.

The move, which was announced to staff last Friday, is the latest in a series of restructuring announcements across JP’s Yorkshire business.

Last week the company announced it was combining the editorships of the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post in a single role, with YP editor Peter Charlton and YEP editor Paul Napier both been placed at risk of redundancy.

It is also understood the company plans to centralise the features departments of some of its Yorkshire weeklies at the offices of the Wakefield Express in Wakefield.

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  • April 17, 2012 at 10:39 am
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    So Johnston Press are losing a good journalist, a man of integrity, a man with high standards and a good-hearted person. They don’t deserve him anyway. Good luck for the future Stephen – there is a whole new world out there for you to enjoy. You are only on this earth once so go and spend quality time with your family. I have yet to meet someone on their death bed who said: “I wish I had spent more hours flogging my guts out for Johnston Press.”

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  • April 17, 2012 at 1:41 pm
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    It leaves the door wide open though for someone to dive in and set up a small independent weekly that would actually be based somewhere near the towns it will be writing about – or “communities we serve” as the accountants like to say.

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  • April 17, 2012 at 2:02 pm
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    Rumours of another big JP announcement end of this week – goodness only knows what about. Probably yet more dailies becoming weeklies. JP has only guaranteed the safety of the Scotsman and Yorkshire Post. It is hard to concentrate on work when you just feel sick all the time.

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  • April 17, 2012 at 3:29 pm
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    “It leaves the door wide open though for someone to dive in and set up a small independent weekly that would actually be based somewhere near the towns it will be writing about – or “communities we serve” as the accountants like to say.”

    Good luck with that.

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  • April 17, 2012 at 3:52 pm
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    @Scaredforfuture

    If i was an editor at any of the Scarborough Evening News’ sister titles I would be getting my CV up to date

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  • April 17, 2012 at 4:16 pm
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    Yeah well, no one said it would be easy. I reckon if a few old-school style local newspapers set up shop in areas abandoned by the likes of this lot, then advertisers would ditch the big corporates quicker than you could say “annual rate rise”.
    Get a slick website, some proper journalists doing proper stories and it’s game on.
    To the barricades.

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  • April 17, 2012 at 5:20 pm
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    As a former Jonhston Press employee, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that nothing this company does surprises me.

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  • April 17, 2012 at 6:04 pm
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    Diane Crabtree – who has loved her job and pulled in the stories for the Halifax Courier for a lifetime – also gone in an instant in this madness which saw Stephen Firth lose his job. The Courier’s very heart has stopped beating! But there’s always platform neutral to look forward to!

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  • April 18, 2012 at 9:02 am
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    “I reckon if a few old-school style local newspapers set up shop in areas abandoned by the likes of this lot, then advertisers would ditch the big corporates quicker than you could say “annual rate rise”. Get a slick website, some proper journalists doing proper stories and it’s game on.”

    I think that’s naive. The start-up costs will be unquestionably high and the returns – from newspaper sales and advertising – debatable. I wouldn’t be confident that readers would flock to buy this old-school newspaper if they’ve not been buying the current title, regardless of any improvement in quality.

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  • April 18, 2012 at 10:22 am
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    I feel very sorry for all JP staff, as well as the newspaper business in general. Where is it all going to end?
    Unless the government steps in I can see only a handful of regional papers surviving past 2020. And even then, it may only be online versions that keep going.
    I hate to say it, but print as we know it is finished.

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  • April 18, 2012 at 12:37 pm
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    If any sacked JP staff want to collaborate on launching a low-cost, locally-driven product into Brighouse, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Huddersfield or wherever, they can contact me and I will be more than willing to help. I can provide production, back office, print and distribution if they can provide a bit of local passion, pride and someone on the ground to write stories and flog local ads – at properly affordable prices! Just get in touch.

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  • April 18, 2012 at 5:54 pm
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    Danny Lockwood,
    Please can you let me have your email?

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