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Journalists' jobs under threat in regional daily cutbacks

A regional daily is set to axe six jobs and reduce the number of change pages for one of its editions in a series of cost-cutting measures.

The Lancashire Telegraph, based in Blackburn, is planning to cut back on its coverage of the neighbouring town of Burnley with the loss of a news editor’s role and those of two trainee reporters.

Also under threat are a full-time picture desk assistant, a part-time picture desk assistant and a full-time librarian, while the Newsquest-owned title also plans to axe a vacant editorial artist’s role and reduce the hours of one photographer.

It is also understood staff were told verbally that the company would not be seeking a replacement for the currently vacant education reporter’s role.

The proposals, which have been condemned as an act of “brutality” by the National Union of Journalists, were outlined to affected staff on Tuesday by group editor Kevin Young.

In a letter, Kevin states: “Due to the need to continually review our operating procedures and manage our overheads as efficiently as possible, the company is considering a proposal to reduce overall costs within the Blackburn editorial department.”

A formal 30-day consultation period on the proposals is now under way and individual meetings between Kevin and those affected will take place over the next fortnight.

In his letter, Kevin added that voluntary redundancy requests from all editorial staff will be considered as part of the process.

The proposed cutbacks will leave just two reporters covering Burnley.

The paper’s subbing operation is already being transferred to Newquest’s central subbing hub in Newport, South Wales, with the loss of 17 subbing roles and six page planning roles in Blackburn.

Chris Gee, the Telegraph’s NUJ FoC, said: “The newsroom’s in a state of shock and people are finding it difficult to comprehend how we’re going to get a quality product out with this level of staff.”

Kevin has so far not responded to requests for further comment.

22 comments

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  • October 23, 2014 at 8:57 am
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    It is absolutely disgusting that two trainee reporters – going through their NCEs and looking for a long-lasting career in this industry – should be losing their jobs.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 9:41 am
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    Is there any positive news for newspaper journos and staff from the likes of Newsquest, JP, and TM?
    Or is the rainbow digital? (allegedly)

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:12 am
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    The only surprise to me is that the LT still employs picture desk assistants, a librarian and an editorial artist (role vacant). They obviously haven’t arrived at JP’s position on the slippery slope yet… but it seems only a matter of time. To those affected, very best wishes – and be assured, someone out there will appreciate you. Good luck.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:15 am
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    Is this the same Lancashire Evening Telegraph that was 33.9% down in the period July to December 2013 and 12.3 % down in the first half of this year ?
    It seems a really good idea to reduce editorial quality and the number of change pages. There would be no surprise if there was a cover price increase as well.
    Do Newsquest actually know what they are doing ?

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:27 am
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    The worst thing about this is that the Telegraph appointed several trainee reporters only a year or so ago as part of their relaunch. Anybody with the slightest business sense could have told you that increasing the size of the team and upping the cover price was going to be unsustainable. Predictably, sales have plummeted and now hard working people have had the rug pulled from under them. If the management had any foresight whatsoever they would have changed the edition structure a year ago, kept the reporting team the same size and avoided some of these redundancies. They’re playing with people’s lives, and should be ashamed of themselves.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:31 am
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    Only surprised roles like “picture desk assistant”, “editorial artist” and “librarian” still existed at Amy regional daily. Such jobs ceased to exist years ago where I am and, I suspect, at most regional dailies.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:41 am
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    This is the obvious happening now that the subs desks have been sorted out. Newsquest is continuing to eat itself to sustain profits, because the management is incapable – and always has been – of maintaining a viable and sustainable business. The sad thing (in fact I should say criminal thing) is that once all the jobs have gone and all Newsquest titles have been hacked back by local managers and editors attempting to save their own skins, those mediocre people at the top will still be stuffing their pockets and pension pots.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:44 am
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    “…people are finding it difficult to comprehend how we’re going to get a quality product out with this level of staff.”

    They’re not going to get as good a quality product out. End of. People’s pride in their paper is laudable but in the end quite damaging: they’ll just end up being disappointed and saddened by how unsatisfying their jobs will become. If an employer doesn’t care about quality it’s hard for staff to. Especially as no amount of hard work is going to positively affect print sales in the long run.

    If you want to work for a local news website, then by all means chance your arm and stay. Otherwise plan your exit strategy now and go and do something that people want and your employer is wholly behind.

    We can all moan about Newsquest, and others, cutting staff, but in the final analysis there’s nothing to be done about it. If readers don’t want print, and increasingly they don’t, why waste time, money and energy producing it?

    Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got ink in my veins, but for most print is all but over. And that saddens me enormously. When the time came I knew I was already bored and unsatisfied by what my job had become. I’d reached a career plateau, which made me expensive and an attractive proposition to let go, which is what happened.

    I’m now doing something else, and I love it.

    Good luck to you all, but the writing’s been on the wall for years. Adapt and survive by all means, but there’s no shame in walking away from something that’s in continuing decline no matter what you do.

    It may be time for everyone to stop wringing their hands and face reality.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 12:14 pm
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    Agree with Ex-Newsquest sub. I loved working in newspapers and still would under better circumstances, but there are many opportunities out there for writers, designers, photographers et al in the digital world. I moved on, changed the emphasis of my career, and now work at an imaginative, creative local company that has grown by a third in the last year.

    It makes me chuckle but at the same time wince when I see Dyson and co still believing that a newspaper’s fonts or layouts have any bearing on whether people will actually read it or not.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 12:37 pm
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    Back in the day, indentured (trainee) reporters were exempted from redundancy. Sad that it’s come to this.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 1:04 pm
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    Ex Newsquest sub is right. Time to stop wringing hands and face fact publishers do not want print any more. The eternal shame is that decline of print, as someone has said, was not inevitable. It was accelerated by the accountants who run newspapers. I was told by a JP manager that they didn’t mind if newspaper sales dropped because it reduced print costs. That really was the beginning of the end for some once-respected weeklies now reduced to UGC-dominated low selling rags. It was journos or readers who did this. It was senior JP managers. You never get readers back, apart from fiddling figures with bulk sales.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 1:38 pm
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    The Blackburn operation has been rolled in with the Bolton News for years now, how long can they justify two editor’s posts for a joint circulation of little more than 25,000? At this rate, there really will be more managers than grafters.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 4:04 pm
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    The Trinity Mirror ad on here for a ‘Sports Curator’ for the Brum Mail sums it all up in the wake of their recent purge. Essentially a job for somebody to trawl the web to nick stuff and put together ‘user generated content,’ it carries the giveaway qualification….

    ‘No journalism experience is necessary…’

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  • October 23, 2014 at 4:39 pm
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    I wonder if communities have any idea how near some are to losing papers. It will be no good crying after they go.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 9:35 pm
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    Was always a sweat shop but reporters made it a great read- but this news stinks. Stuck in the past and could be consigned to history.

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  • October 23, 2014 at 10:55 pm
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    I worked untold extra hours to try to keep my under staffed weekly paper afloat but it affected my health and I got out before they carried me out. A lot cannot do that, sorry to say.

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  • October 24, 2014 at 11:28 am
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    Samblue hits the nail on the head. For how long have both editors gone along with negative change-after-change? Maybe it is time their own positions were studied very closely. And then they came for me…

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  • October 24, 2014 at 9:17 pm
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    Ex Newsquest sub, please tell us what you are now doing that is so satisfying.

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  • October 25, 2014 at 10:59 pm
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    Agreed Roger Jones, but editors are like anyone else.like to keep their jobs, which are not easy to find. As a result modern editors seem mostly meek .

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  • October 29, 2014 at 12:38 am
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    Redundancies at Carlisle too, think editorial safe for now, going to overnight printing in November. Old news won’t sell will it? Sad.

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  • October 30, 2014 at 1:46 pm
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    HTFP – make sure you copy and paste this story ready for the next Newsquest paper to do exactly the same.

    And the next, and the next…

    The Knowledge editorial system does away with subs and moves all production to Newport.

    If you think it won’t happen at your paper you are very wrong.

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