A Newsquest-owned weekly newspaper has closed its office in the third such move by the publisher in the space of a month.
The Bridgwater Mercury has shut its base in the town, with staff moving to the Taunton offices of its sister title the Somerset County Gazette, 11 miles away.
Staff had begun to move out of the Mercury office in Angel Crescent, Bridgwater around three weeks before its closure at the end of last month.
It is thought to be the first time in 160 years that the Mercury will not have had a permanent presence in Bridgwater.
The Bridgwater Mercuy’s former offices in Angel Crescent
Three sales staff have now moved to the Gazette’s offices, but it is understood that the paper’s journalists have been based in Taunton for some time.
A receptionist took redundancy as part of the move, and a notice left in the window to inform readers, but no mention of the office’s closure was made in the newspaper.
Last month the Gloucestershire Gazette announced it was closing its Dursley office, with reporters set to meet readers in cafes instead.
The newspaper is now based at the headquarters of sister title the Stroud News and Journal, ten miles away.
The Bridport and Lyme Regis News office is also expected to close this autumn with staff working from the Dorset Echo’s office in Weymouth.
It is understood the Bridport title has been based at its current premises for around 40 years and the newspaper is thought to have had a presence in the town since it was founded in 1855.
The building has now been put up for rent for £9,500 per year and its property details say that it will be available in late 2015.
No-one from Newsquest has so far responded to requests for a comment.
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Yes, I understand Facebook, Google, Twitter and Reddit closed their offices in Bridgwater some time ago.
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Shame, looks like a ‘proper’ newspaper office. I love these buildings, there’s nowhere like them. Looks like you’ll all be spending your days like me, crammed into a big soulless office like a battery hen.
Interestingly though, we recently renamed our meeting room from ‘the creative room’ to ‘the innovation room’, but then we changed it back again.
Oh, and don’t forget to recycle your plastic cups.
Man, I wish I had a Delorean.
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“No one at the company which employs staff to elicit comments from people on a variety of subjects responded to a request for a comment.” Dont’cha just love communications companies?
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Newsquest, a communications company, are never available to comment, mind you, it looks like that they are becoming a property company…..
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The scene of the last staff reporter in town locking up the office and walking home locally or, more likely, driving or catching the train out of town for the last time is an all too painful one. The Victorian founders of these titles could never have foreseen such days.
In the meantime, paperback novels are making a comeback against electronic media and papers continue to have a core sale and bring in advertising.
Trends come and go but the printed word has been around since Caxton.
Is anyone in the driving seat able to recognise that tried and tested formats have a place and require a base in the community?
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When I started out as a reporter many years ago the subs had their own room with a gas cooker in the corner on which stood their own kettle.
There always seemed to be one of them boiling a cup of tea, though it was hard to see properly through all the clouds of cigarette/pipe/cigar smoke.
The young reporters regarded them as old fuddy-duddies, but when I look back now to those happy days and great characters I go all soppy.
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Newsquest’s Somerset operation is in a sorry state and all amid plummeting circulations. It’s all so sad.
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And so the closures begin, it’s the season of the restructure and culls after all
Last one left in the regional press put the key under the mat
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I wouldn’t worry about locking up Morgana, the burglars have already been in and stripped it bare. It was an inside job I believe.
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Newsquest business as usual then
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