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Regional publisher to cut up to 19 subbing jobs

NewsquestUp to 19 jobs are at risk as part of a regional publisher’s restructure of its production operation.

Copy editors working for Newsquest were informed yesterday they are under threat of redundancy.

The company says there is now a “reduced need” for the number of copy editors employed at present, owing to “improvements in work flow”.

Those affected are currently working at the company’s production hubs, based in Newport and Weymouth.

In recent years, the company has switched much of its subbing operation from individual offices across the country to the two centralised hubs.

A consultation has now been launched with staff affected by the proposal.

A spokesman for Newsquest said: “Improvements in work flow have reduced the need for as many copy editors in the copy editing hubs, and therefore a consultation has been started about a possible reduction in staff numbers.”

The National Union of Journalists has hit out at the plans.

A statement issued on behalf of the NUJ’s Newsquest group chapel reads: “The announcement of job cuts at Newport and Weymouth appear to mark the beginning of the end for a strategy that was misconceived from the get-go.

“Since the implementation of central copy-editing the casualties – skilled production workers throughout the UK, readers and advertisers and the latest staff facing redundancy – have far outnumbered the benefits.”

22 comments

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  • August 18, 2016 at 12:29 pm
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    Yep, don’t need ’em in an environment where no-one senior gives a hoot about quality, or even has a clue about journalism. But what are these “improvements in work flow” that suddenly entail the quality control aspect of our undertaking is seen as superfluous? Why not just be honest and say the whole thing is stuffed!

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  • August 18, 2016 at 12:53 pm
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    One of these days I’ll wake up and find out that 90% of the executives are being axed as they are surplus to requirements.
    How many of them do we need to make us all redundant?

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  • August 18, 2016 at 2:49 pm
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    Will they be “superfluous” to requirements when the libel notices come in? It is often the “subs” or whatever they are called these days who can spot the libels/howlers etc. An experienced editor I once worked with landed the paper with a libel bill – so if it happens to someone with quite a lot of experience then heaven help the infantry.

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  • August 18, 2016 at 3:21 pm
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    Words fail me. Wordsmith is so right and I am dying to hear a publisher’s defence against libel in court, along the lines of: ‘Sorry, didn’t know we’d got it wrong because we sacked all our subs.’ It would be funny if I were not so sure that one day, it’s going to happen.

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  • August 18, 2016 at 4:17 pm
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    Judging by the poor quality of editing in NQ at the moment I was not aware they had any sub editors. I guess they can always get some cheap kid still wave his or her fresh qualification papers to run the rule over copy.
    To be fair NQ are not the only ones. JP and TM papers are nothing like the quality they were. Grammar gaffs and style errors abound, I can only imagine all the true professionals who knew what they were doing have left or been discarded.

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  • August 18, 2016 at 4:31 pm
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    >Judging by the poor quality of editing in NQ at the moment I was not aware they had any sub editors

    Up to 19 people about to lose their jobs, and it didn’t take long for a snide comment.
    Classy.

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  • August 18, 2016 at 5:29 pm
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    Paperboy – thanks for rubbishing all the subs at various newspaper groups. I work at one of them. I also work for a well-known national newspaper, where they seem happy enough with the quality of my work. You might like to look up the difference between ‘gaffs’ and ‘gaffes’ before you start criticising others.

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  • August 18, 2016 at 5:42 pm
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    I was tempted to copy and paste my previous posts around ‘another day another round of cut backs job losses and redundancies’
    Words really do fail me to think of all the decent staff thrown aside in an effort to balance books and justify the salaries bonuses and packages enjoyed by commercial ad reps and managers. When will someone in s position of authority stand up, look at those who are not contributing to the company and take direct action?
    More journalists and togs deemed surplus to requirement while the pen pushers push pens,the managers manage other managers and the sales people continue to lack sales and underperform
    At this rate there’ll be no regional press to speak of in a years time
    Incredible mismanagement

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  • August 18, 2016 at 8:15 pm
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    “Judging by the poor quality of editing in NQ at the moment I was not aware they had any sub editors”

    I think you’ll find the worst cases are where the local centres are not using the hubs. The Dorset Echo is shocking these days

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  • August 18, 2016 at 8:26 pm
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    @Paperboy: I think you meant gaffe.
    Gaff is a thing you land a fish with.
    Apart from missing the word “to” out of your comment as well, it was otherwise a reasonable if snide effort.
    Maybe you could get someone to copy edit your next submission before hitting the send button.

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  • August 18, 2016 at 10:03 pm
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    Correct Ho Hum, people are losing their jobs, give them some respect. I wonder when the Newsquest Gods made this decision. Up until quite recently they were recruiting quite hard.

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  • August 19, 2016 at 7:07 am
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    Ho hum
    That doesn’t make sense? Unless the comment you refer to has been deleted or I’ve missed it

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  • August 19, 2016 at 9:26 am
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    Employee X: paperboy’s post has been deleted but it wasn’t all that helpful, to be honest. You are spot on with your comments re dead wood. Imagine a hard-pressed office where many talented editorial staff have been jettisoned but one or two non-productive bods still sneak in late most days, do FA for seven hours, and then sneak out an hour early if their manager’s on holiday. I say “imagine” because no well-run media company with its priorities right would allow such an abysmal situation, but you get the drift.

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  • August 19, 2016 at 10:15 am
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    >Employee X

    Yes, I was responding to someone called Paperboy. Whose comment has vanished overnight.

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  • August 19, 2016 at 10:22 am
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    Why has Paperboy’s comment been wiped? I think we should be told.

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  • August 19, 2016 at 10:34 am
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    It is interesting that the number of job losses has been set at 19. Had it been 20 the law requires 90 days’ consultation.

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  • August 19, 2016 at 10:45 am
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    Apologies to the good and over-worked NQ subs I slighted. I was rather clumsily, and too hastily perhaps, making the point that NQ did not have enough subs.
    As for the “gaff” I put my hands up, but I wasn’t aware HTFP was an arena for perfect writing and pedants. In future I shall get a sub to look at my copy….now where can I find one?

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  • August 19, 2016 at 11:14 am
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    Either way yes there are good subs , many unappreciated with a vast number of ex subs now enjoying life in the independent sector often working against their ex employees , so it’s not all bad news, in many ways the ones cast aside will have the last laugh in time once those left eventually join the exodus away from an industry on the brink of collapse

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  • August 19, 2016 at 11:46 am
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    Spare a thought for those Newsquest subs who were persuaded to up sticks from their newspaper and move these subbing hubs in the hope of protecting their careers. Well, they have served the management’s purpose now, so off they go . . . Newsquest management’s cynicism beggar’s belief.

    It strikes me that the only people with futures in the regional press are those fluent in technobabble with a master’s degree in UGC. Clickety-click: that’s the trick.

    As Private Fraser from Dad’s Army was wont to say:

    “We’re doomed I tell ye. Doomed!”

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  • August 19, 2016 at 11:49 am
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    This is a robust, old-style HTFP debate with many good points being made. Paperboy has apologised for what was a clumsy construction actually in defence of subs, and that’s OK with me. But I would like to hear from NQ what “improvements in work flow” have to do with quality-controlling the products it sells to its customers (readers). Surely, any company that sells to the public wants its products to be the best there are, or at least crafted to an acceptable standard? Look at what happened to TM and the Dover Express this week. No amount of apologising to the customers (readers) – which must surely be forthcoming – can make amends for that. Will anyone resign or offer an explanation for such appalling carelessness? And if they do, who should it be? Questions, questions…

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  • August 19, 2016 at 12:14 pm
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    Further to my comments yesterday I am beginning to wonder if the powers that be who call themselves management but often lack any newsman’s blood in them have heard about libel. Many of them will have grown up in the era of social networking etc and when you see some of the “nasty” comments posted on the various sites you realise they are hiding behind a wall of anonymity on the one hand and the fact they think they can get away with name calling of the type that, if it appeared in a paper, would soon result in a lawyer’s letter to the editor suing them for libel/defamation etc etc.

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  • August 19, 2016 at 4:22 pm
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    Brighton Argus called ‘ Brighton’ ‘Brighten’ not so long ago, papers on its knees. We have just had a week long daily splash about the Shoreham Aircrash, just tooooo much to for over it all again, everyday of this week.

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