I
t’s been a difficult time for editors at what was Local World in the past few weeks, with some ruthless restructuring by new owner Trinity Mirror.
Those leaving the business to ‘seek opportunities elsewhere’ or ‘for personal reasons’ have so far included: Paul Brackley of the Cambridge News, Kevin Booth of the Leicester Mercury, Dave Atkin of the Scunthorpe Telegraph, Neil White of the Derby Telegraph, Lynne Fernquest of the Bath Chronicle and Rob Stokes of the Western Daily Press.
This is the sort of thing that happens, of course, whenever a large company takes over a competitor: the new owner understandably seeks immediate conformity from senior management of the absorbed party, and acts quickly to exit anyone who’s not 100pc up for it.
Trinity Mirror’s executives even created their own informal saying for this in the early 2000s, and while I can’t fully spell it out here, the acronym was FIFO.
On a personal note, I know how the above ‘are you in or out?’ process works: in 2009 the company decided to make serious savings at its Birmingham division, after years of cuts, and I no longer wanted a part of it. Cue redundancy, and a form of coded words that told the world why I was off.
And so I’ve felt for each of the ex-Local World editors who’ve left in recent weeks, while at the same time knowing that the departures were, probably, at least partly their own doing, and that some might have been able to stay if they’d enthusiastically played ball.
But I was particularly saddened to read the news that Trinity Mirror was cutting three out of five staff, including the editor, on the Dudley-based Black Country Bugle, and moving production 30-odd miles away to Tamworth.
Why? Because I remember the day well back in 2013 when what was then the new Local World was casting around for a new editor for the Bugle.
One of its executives called me as part of their search for an experienced hand to carefully refine operations at the niche product, (not to ask me to edit, by the way, but to get me to open my contacts book for people that might fit the bill).
They found what they were after: John Butterworth, a cracking editor, one of the Midlands’ most experienced journalists, and a gentleman to boot, and they tempted him out of semi-retirement to run this little jewel of a ‘nostalgia news’ paper.
And the thing about John is that I knew, personally, just how much he was enjoying himself, and how proud he was of the way staff on the Bugle responded to his call to lift themselves and their output.
This blog reviewed the Bugle back in January 2014 and noted how even David Montgomery “must have been inspired” by such an “old-fashioned newspaper, serving an extremely traditional marketplace”.
It was pleasurable to see, I commented, how content had been “maintained in quality, with modern developments only adding to the title’s continuing appeal”.
The Bugle, you see, has great reader loyalty, finds some amazing little stories and creates a brilliant read for its largely Black Country audience every week.
John himself was the biggest champion for this, as can be seen in this hand-written letter on Bugle-headed notepaper that oozed with his enthusiasm only last year:
“Hi Steve, You very kindly did a great review of The Bugle in my early days as editor last January. I thought you might be interested to see this week’s paper which I think is our best yet. All the best, John Butterworth, Bugle editor’
And it was a great read. But I tell you – and I’m a regular reader – it’s no pushover of a job.
While there are many memories which some might consider ‘UGC’ and publish immediately, there’s so often the need to examine readers’ content properly, making it read better, teasing out the best angles and asking for more and better pictures.
Yes, I suppose it’s more of a curator’s job than traditional news journalism, but it calls for curators with a real handle for words and story-telling, and for planning the structure of an excellent weekly read.
It was done well by an enthusiastic team of five, and I fear the quality could plummet in the hands of just two.
When news of John’s departure first broke, HoldtheFrontPage headlined this: ‘Black Country Bugle editor to go in Trinity Mirror cuts’.
At the time, I wasn’t certain of any detail of personal intentions, but I strongly suspected John would be against the proposed 60pc cut in resources, and I felt it a crying shame that it had come to this for such a well-respected editor.
Now, of course, the detail of that story has changed, and ‘At-risk editor set to fight plans to close weekly’s office’ is now the headline.
John can’t say too much, of course, but he bravely gave HoldtheFrontPage a snippet of what was going on with his carefully worded quote:
“I am in consultation discussing alternative ideas to the company plan for the sake of the Bugle and its staff.”
Exactly what this means is not known: it’s probably internal negotiation to change Trinity Mirror’s plans; or a long-shot is that there may even be a potential buyer on the sidelines who can keep the Bugle in the Black Country.
That’s just speculation, and we’ll have to await developments for the full story, but what John’s comments portray is an editor who doesn’t want to and – more importantly – doesn’t have to play the usual ‘silent’ game.
John’s had his career, he’s got his pension and he was back in the game mainly for the sheer pleasure of it, and so he isn’t the kind of editor nor is he at the stage of life where he has to depart quickly, quietly and with minimum fuss.
My very best and sincerest good wishes therefore go to John and his team as the Bugle’s fate is haggled over. You all did a great job of refining the Bugle, and I hope that Trinity Mirror listens to all positive options with a very open mind.
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In my experience once a decision is made and plans are put in place no amount of reason,well thought out alternatives or obvious step are considered, it’s just a rule book process companies go through to tick a box as part of the redundancy process, so whilst applauding anyone in the ‘consultation process’ stepping up and offering their views once a decision is made it won’t be unmade even though time has shown many restructure plans to collapse or change again once things start going wrong
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“I hope that Trinity Mirror listens to all positive options with a very open mind.” Ha, ha, you’re such a wag, Steve. At least John is in a financial position where he can afford to take a principled stand, unlike most of the mortgaged wage slaves at TM. I wish him all the best and let’s hope someone can find a “mind” to prise open.
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They should sell it.
They don’t understand it as a product.
They will mess it up and it will be dead within 3 years if they continue to own it. A bean counter will apportion corporate overheads to it , decide it doe snot make money and then close it. Happens all the time when corporates don’t understand niche products.
Hell, they launched the new day, so they can mess anything up, the CEO clearly has no publisher nous in him.
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This is a tragedy for the Black Country Bugle and for its Black Country readership.
‘The Bugle’ is a great read, and it has chronicled all that was good in the Black Country, not only in a historical context but in a social context as well.
Printed and run from Tamworth! Hardly the Black Country. Having local people just come in and ‘drop story’s’ off isn’t going to happen in Tamworth is it?
Just a month or so down the line the full closure of the paper must be on the cards. This is a cause that all four Black Country Councils should be fighting hard against. Trinity Mirror must quickly understand that this is a valued Newspaper.
I wish the current editor well in his plans to oppose Trinity Mirrors ridiculous suggestions. I hope that the Black Country Councils will raise their voice in opposition to this move. If you do not want the Title Trinity Mirror sell the Newspaper! Don’t kill it by indifference.
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The fact he’s an ‘outsider’ willing to stand up for his paper illustrates perfectly why they’re trying to get rid of him.
The pogroms carried out in TM’s newsrooms over the last decade were probably just as much about getting rid of people who’d stand up for news, newspapers and their colleagues as they were about saving money.
TM’s staffing structure now occupies three tiers from my experience. A senior management of last men (and women) standing who are trying to limp towards early retirement, London-based New Media luvvies with a penchant for Pret A Manger and reeling off tiresome traveller anecdotes, then a vast (or not so vast as the case may be) pool of early-20s journalism graduates who dream one day of working for the New York Times, but will probably end up writing press releases for Domestos.
The outcome being that nobody is left to call a spade a spade.
It’s like when Caligula made his horse a senator of Rome. The building would have been packed to the rafters with people thinking ‘this is ridiculous’. The reaction was probably the same when TM said it was launching a new daily newspaper with a staff of 25. In both instances though, people were too scared to say anything.
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Can’t be councils orbit add his weight and undoubted influence to get a wider review of how the regional press has been mismanaged in recent times?
There are so so many examples of bad decisions,board members receiving huge bonus payments despite their staff salaries pit on hold and their titles suffering huge sales and revenue declines, closures, mergers, nest feathering and More
This needs looking at at a much higher national level
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Sorry
Should read ‘ can’t the councillor’
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Jeff Jones: Absolutely right but it’s easy to call a spade a spade when you have no fear of the financial consequences. Ensuring people don’t do that, and call spades trowels, for example, is how corporations (or Roman empires) work. That well-known journalist Mr George Orwell explores just this theme in 1984. Fear is the key.
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Jeff Jones – how long is it since you worked at TM? Very dismissive of some very talented journalists there. Surely you should attack the issue, not the people trying their best?
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Curious – you’re right there to be fair, I didn’t mean it to be dismissive, I know there are some extremly talented people working under very pressurised conditions. It is the treatment of those people that gets me angry so often.
The thing I loved the most about working in newsrooms was being around other journalists. People with keen minds who were interested in the world, and I hate seeing them treated so shoddily.
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I don’t know how long it is since Jeff Jones worked for Trinity, but it’s three years since I took voluntary redundancy from a big Trinity publication, and I reckon Jeff hits the nail on the head. I was fortunate enough to be in my mid-50s with a decent pension fund accrued and some guaranteed freelance work in prospect when I opted to fall on my sword. If I was 25 years younger, attempting to buy a house and/or start a family while working for Trinity, I reckon life would be somewhat fraught.
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Sound like you’re looking a life through sepia-tinted glasses OldCynic. There are many good people working at Trinity Mirror, and it’s sad that ex-journos choose to diminish the efforts of those working at places where they’ve chosen to move on from.
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Curious…you’re missing the point. I have the greatest respect for the talents of those still working for Trinity. I just think they are neither well-treated nor properly rewarded by the company. And at management level, they don’t like anything which smacks of dissent or even independent thought, as Steve Dyson’s reference to the FIFO rule reminds us.
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Curious: no doubt good people work at TM, but there used to be many more busy and talented writers, designers and photographers, something that’s very obvious when looking at the current portfolio.
I think you’re missing the point that people sympathise with the situation. Your efforts are not being diminished, but I’m afraid the overall quality of the products (those that haven’t been closed down) certainly has.
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Curious, you’re doing ‘that thing’ again of shifting the goalposts to make it sound like everyone who isn’t down with the new order is some kind of old fogey. Reminds me of the time they turned my TM newsroom into a ‘digital news hub’, this involved installing three wide screen TVs to watch cricket on, one of which broke instantly and stayed broke. Anyone who didn’t get onboard was branded some kind of has been, they were then promptly axed, and the people doing the axing were then axed too.
Let’s not patronise people who can see TM for what it is, regardless of what talent may or may not be still present.
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@jeff jones
You and your mates on here wrote the book on patronising people who don’t agree with you.
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Steve, I echo all you say about the.Black Country Bugle and John Butterworth’s editorship. We need a concerted campaign to support him in his efforts to save the paper. Altogether now: Keep the Bugle Blowing!
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I don’t know about moving the goal-posts Jeff Jones, you were pretty patronising about people working at TM. I know talented editors there and (shock horror) talented, committed, hard-working people who you dismiss as ‘new media luvvies’.
As for you OldCynic, giving the impression the only people staying in newspapers are those with mortgages does a grave dis-service to those people as most are committed to doing the very best they can, and have talent in abundance to work in other industries if they were minded to.
All I’m saying is that if you love the industry as much as you say you do, try being a little bit more careful with your criticism. A lot of what a lot of you say sounds very out of touch, and just a little bit ‘phew, glad I’m out of there.’
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Curious: I know from personal experience that there are a good many people at TM who are talented, hardworking and committed. I sit next to a few of them.
But maybe you should be asking yourself WHY some posters write in the ‘phew, glad I’m out of there’ vein. And why there are so many of them.
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If no one takes the Black Country Bugle on it will be the death after 40 odd years.These people at Trinity Mirror are not interested in people just money as they sit in there ivory tower down south of Watford.
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