Journalists at two Midlands newspapers have been told their offices are to close, the National Union of Journalists has claimed.
The NUJ said staff at the Bromsgrove Advertiser and Kidderminster Shuttle were told last week that their offices are being axed.
Editorial staff will transfer to the sister Newsquest centre at Stourbridge, West Midlands, the union claims. It is not immediately clear how many employees are affected.
Nobody was available to comment immediately for Newsquest.
The move from Bromsgrove to Stourbridge is about 12 miles and to Kidderminster about eight.
The NUJ said it does not have negotiation rights with management at the two sites marked for closure but the union has recognition at Stourbridge so will be contacting journalists based at the Bromsgrove Advertiser and Kidderminster Shuttle to offer NUJ advice.
Chris Morley, NUJ Northern and Midlands organiser, said: “Both Bromsgrove and Kidderminster are very much distinct towns with their own identities – something that their local newspapers must reflect if they are to succeed. Unfortunately, this retreat by Newsquest is just one more attack made by the corporate hierarchy on local quality journalism.
“This is driving the heart and soul out of local papers and puts a damaging distance between journalists and the community. What would be unforgivable however, would be if Newsquest went even further by trying to create a reporting hub in an effort to force still more cost-cutting.”
“Subbing expertise in the county was removed last year and placed into the care of the ‘factory’ subbing hub in Newport.
“Now reporters struggling to cope with the severe limitations of this new editorial system will have a round trip of more than 25 miles to see readers and meet contacts face-to-face.”
Last month HTFP revealed plans to switch production of Newsquest’s Yorkshire and North East newspapers to South Wales had been hit by delays of up to a month.
The regional publisher is moving production of all its York, Bradford and Darlington titles to its subbing hub in Newport, South Wales with the potential loss of up to 25 jobs.
As previously reported on HTFP, the Gazette and Herald in North Yorkshire was the first title to move over to the new system in February.
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Ah, the emergence of the “reporting hub”. How much simpler and more cost-effective things would be if, instead of messing around with the production end of things, Newsquest created an “editorial-executive hub” and thinned out the top-heavy management structure which has been allowed to develop in recent years on certain Newsquest papers – The Northern Echo in particular.
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I did my first-ever work experience week at the Kidderminster Shuttle office in 1979 (I think). Things have changed a bit since then.
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Typical HTFP commenters seeing only the negatives!
We are forgetting that the good folk of Bromsgrove and Kidderminster ‘will now be seeing much more of reporters out and about on their patch’.
‘Thanks to technology they do not need to be based in an office but can now be freed up to create and curate content for all platforms 24-7 wherever they are, be that in a library, a café, on a settee watching Homes Under the Hammer or rattling a few pennies in a tin cup sitting on a bench in the precinct.
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It was not a case of if, but when this would happen.
The Stourbridge office has plenty of desk space due to the number of staff that have been laid off there already – it’s a vicious circle.
Newsquest are determined to kill off all these once great titles.
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I wasn’t being in the slightest bit negative. Journalists working from home has been happening for years and can be a good thing. Weeklies such as these, however, need somewhere which can be a focal point within the community; to where readers can bring potential stories. Every weekly which I have seen try to do without one has regretted it for that reason.
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I’ve said it here before – shutting offices is not just about losing a base in the community and being accessible, important though that is. It also demands extra mental toughness from employees, as working ‘remotely’ can be isolated and depressing. Offices comprise a whole daytime life and lifestyle for many, with friendships, rivalries, jokes, the encouragement and stimulation of colleagues, shared experiences, just simple conversation and so on. Local journalism as a career is appealing more and more to loners who get their fix talking to indifferent or hostile strangers in coffee shops and shopping malls. Thanks but no thanks!
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No surprise there! Stablemate Evesham Journal decamped to Worcester some time ago, which is presumably why the Journal website is filled up with all sorts of rubbish including a national story about Caffe Nero not paying corporation tax, a Hanley Swan house being burgled (this village is actually near Malvern miles away) and Worcester rat-run drivers fined. Worcester is 16 miles from Evesham.
I used to look at the Journal website every day. I no longer bother because so much of it isn’t relevant. I suppose most of the stories are got on the phone. Former editor Bill Clarke must be spinning in his grave.
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