Journalists at Johnston Press are suffering “dangerously high” levels of stress according to a survey carried out by the National Union of Journalists.
The union carried out a confidential online survey of JP staff earlier this autumn amid concerns at rising workloads and job cutbacks.
The results have now been published and show that 82pc of those who responded believe they have been subjected to unrealistic time pressures, while 80pc said they had been forced to work long hours.
The survey also revealed that 86pc of respondents felt there was a lack of consultation over changes being introduced by the company.
According to the union, some 15pc of JP editorial staff took part in the survey which was carried out in September and October.
It was launched shortly after JP announced plans for new-look newsrooms at a series of titles in Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire which could be rolled out across the company.
Since the survey there have also been further restructuring plans announced with up to 45 jobs due to go in Scotland as a result of plans to merge the operations of The Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday.
And the cull of staff photographers in the group has been extended across three more regions with titles in the North-East, North West and Yorkshire all affected.
The NUJ has now called for a moratorium on further cuts. Its JP group chapel said in a statement: “The results of this survey add to growing evidence of dangerously high stress levels in Johnston Press newsrooms.
“We hope Johnston Press management will take the results on board and work with us to alleviate the intolerable pressures being placed on our members.
“Alarmingly, however, the survey results come at a time when the company is making even more cuts to editorial jobs.
“We call on Johnston Press to halt any further job cuts and invest to bring staffing up to adequate levels.”
Laura Davison, NUJ national organiser added: “These stark findings echo the anecdotal evidence from newsrooms across Johnston Press.
“Its chief executive officer, Ashley Highfield, has accepted that morale has been affected by the cuts but this survey demonstrates that urgent action is needed to address workloads, work intensity and breaks.
“It is not sustainable for the company to rely on people’s professionalism to be always picking up the pieces and filling gaps where colleagues have left.
“There should be a moratorium on any further job cuts, and vacancies should be filled as a priority. We want to work with the company on addressing these critical issues and this needs to be started speedily and be based on meaningful consultation with the workforce.”
Johnston Press has not so far responded to requests for a comment on the survey results.
When the survey was launched, it said: “As a responsible employer we take the welfare of our staff extremely seriously and have a wide range of options available to support and advise them.
“We are also fully committed to ensuring that all of our staff, including our team members who are represented by the NUJ, have a voice and are listened to – which is why we encourage open dialogue and actively seek feedback from our teams on an ongoing basis – both face-to-face and anonymously.
“We have recently undertaken an extensive and well-publicised programme of improvements to ensure all of our teams are working in environments that are fit for purpose and we’re absolutely committed to ensuring our industry continues to thrive despite the challenges all local media faces.”
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Where’s the stress in copying and pasting police, council, NHS, government, etc. press releases then? JP is right to refuse to comment on the survey as it’s all a plot by militants to destabilise their fine business. Now, back to my work… “Barsetshire County Council made a well-reasoned and financially responsible decision to close its remaining youth centres at a cabinet meeting last night…”
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At our office – not JP, but another major name – we’ve seen people working 77-hour weeks.
The lucky ones are ‘getting away’ with 46 to 50-hour weeks.
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All I can say is my health has been much better since I left. Working at least 15 unpaid hours a week to plug holes in reporter and snapper cover
Really not good. And i was one of many.
The JP response shows how pathetically little its HR dept knows about real life on a lot of JP papers. No idea.
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Simply put the journalist shouldn’t do it. They have a contract, probably for 37.5 hours a week. They should work to that contract and do no more. They cannot be disciplined for breach of contract. Everybody do what you can within those hours and go home home – if there are gaps on the pages then so be it. They can always put another house ad in. It’s not worth the stress, there is life outside the office (assuming you still have one). Management don’t appreciate and respect their staff so why should you respect them. Happy to be out it.
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Its just not the journalist who are suffering from high levels of stress every department is ran on a shoestring and everyone is working in stressfull enviroments
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Cut n pasting PR fluff isn’t stressful but trying to do your job and organise a photographer’s diary (without a dedicated photographer) can be. Not to mention the web and social media rubbish as well.
A couple of years ago we were a small JP title with four reporters a snapper and a dedicated editor. Now we have three full-time journos, no dedicated snapper, a harassed part-time editor and the pagination has nearly doubled.
The readers are not daft either. They can see standards are dropping all the time and are not happy that they no longer have a point of contact in any of the towns we cover since we were centralised.
It’s not all gloom though. I see the share price has soared since this week’s shares reshuffle!
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As above these sad stress levels are not just in editorial, I work in advertising for JP and I can say most if my colleagues are feeling it too. I’ve see alot of staff either leaving or getting signed off. The expectations coming from the top are too high and quite simply often client expectations are met through things like a poor production service from outsource (constant inaccuracies), having to sell to many products at one time. Staff morale is pretty poor in the office I’m in.
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Dick Minim. That comment is offensive. The reason JP staff are working long hours is because they are responsible and take pride in their work. The people, who work with me certainly don’t do what you say, preferring to do the job properly.
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Took VR from JP in a round of cuts back in October. I’ve never looked back – a deeply miserable and shabby company to work for. The bean counters only care about cutting costs. And, of course, they aren’t the ones who will have to deal with the consequences of their indiscriminate cuts.
The desperately inept de facto middle managers are happy to cull any workers around them so they can cling onto their own ill-gotten jobs.
The whole firm is culturally bankrupt and workers there are treated with little more than contempt by an increasingly out-of-touch upper management.
A big house of cards with a joker on the top.
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My JP weekly editor has tried to use some of his holidays before the Dec 31 deadline.
But despite taking Wednesday to Friday off- he dare not take off longer breaks- he came into the office on Wednesday for a training session which led to other work.
And on Friday, he laid out the pages of those awful centrally-produced advertising features that no local firm wants to advertise around.
Still, it meant he didn’t have to do this work on a Sunday afternoon/evening.
Poor lad!
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I think Dick Minim is being ironic Grafter. Looking at my weekly, it is a shambles from a style and grammar point of view. One sports report talks of we, we, we, with no byline or indication it was sent in. Just amateur, but I do not blame hacks. Not enough staff or experience to do job as professionals.
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JP Zombie – I can imagine your stress. I have been out of JP for over two years, but heard from sales reps complaining about the standard of creative work they were having to get used to. They had no pride in showing a client a visual or artwork. Some said they disliked their role, but would not leave as they’d be hanging on for redundancy. Morale must have gone down since then as JP continues with round after round of redundancies. The inaccuracies you mention are clear to see: “dinning” in furniture ads is common, but where does the fault lie? Is that copy sent directly by a rep to India, or the ad not being proofed here? Free For Errors must be at an all time high. If reps are having to send images and copy to India, plus a detailed layout, no wonder it is bad: that should not be the role of a sales exec. The creative layout, headlines etc. should be from the designer. Seems to me that what you in India is a Pre-press department, not a Studio. House ads are particularly poor, when these should be the best. The new Chief Creative Officer (Andrew Cunning) needs to take a good look at the quality of high-end creative work. As a qualified graphic designer, with considerable experience, he should be able to see how poor it is.
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exevening/Grafter: I had just decided to reply to the latter’s post with this: ‘Irony is not what the missus (call the PC Police now!) does with the washing when it’s come off the line’. But the former beat me to it – thanks exevening. Flossie is also spot-on: one of my colleagues on The Idler (look it up) regularly works 65-70 hr weeks (contracted for 38) just to get their pages done. Our sport, too, serviced by a sterling crew of Year 6 primary school bods – and, tragically, some of them show much greater promise than the adult contributors we choose to use. (That’s ironing too, Grafter.)
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thanks Dick Minim. I know ironing when I see it, so I am just off for a walk.
It is clear that employers are taking advantage of the still very poor jobs market.
They know people are working maybe 20 hours extra overtime, but they also know these unfortunates with bills to pay cannot afford to quit. That’s capitalism at its finest.
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Morale desperate in editorial teams at JP titles in Leeds – but management oblivious to this.MD Helen Oldham implementing cuts in Scotland while editor Jeremy Clifford’s priority is JP’s editorial review board.
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