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Regional daily shuts down Sunday edition with loss of five jobs

Bill MartinThe Sunday edition of a regional daily has been scrapped with the loss of five jobs, a little more than 18 months after it first hit the streets.

The Western Morning News says there is “not sufficient demand” for the format, first launched in June 2014.

At the time, seven new editorial roles were created at the Plymouth-based title in order to accommodate the move to seven-days-a-week.

However, five jobs are now at risk of redundancy following the Sunday edition’s closure.

The closure comes two months after the WMN’s former owner, Local World, was taken over by Trinity Mirror in a £220m deal.

The process of integrating the LW newspaper group within TM began in December, but it is understood that the decision to close the Sunday title was taken locally.

Editor Bill Martin, pictured, said: “We are sorry to announce the end of the Western Morning News Sunday edition but accept there is not sufficient demand for that format.

“The changes announced today are to ensure the newsrooms are adapting to the continually shifting media landscape.

“There will be an impact on some editorial roles as a result of these changes and we are speaking directly to those affected employees.”

Most WMN staff worked across all seven of its editions but a small number formed part of a specialist Sunday team which included both reporting and production roles.

A Twitter account for the Western Morning News on Sunday was still active as of this morning.

David Cameron was interviewed by the Western Morning News for its first Sunday edition

David Cameron interviewed by the Western Morning News for its first Sunday edition

29 comments

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  • January 6, 2016 at 12:03 pm
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    Give LW their due – they were prepared to have a go at a new publication when many others wouldn’t have dared. Huge shame for the staff involved, who I know put a load of sweat and blood into the WMN on Sunday.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 12:11 pm
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    Expect a “local decision” on the Monday decision of the Express and Echo next then?

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  • January 6, 2016 at 12:15 pm
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    Few of these titles have sprung up and for me they don’t seem to have the Sunday format quite right. People read Sunday papers for features and escapism, whether that’s a two page spread about the national trust in the Observer, or celebrity tattle in the Sunday Mirror.

    These new locals Sundays though just seem to carry Sunday’s version of the daily news, crime etc.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 12:48 pm
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    A great shame. The WMN on Sunday was a three Act play. Act 1 was the launch, when it looked like it had been designed by some whizzes with a Mac and a paintbox and edited by committee. Act 2 was re-launch when it finally admitted it was part of the six-day operation and journalists from the other DC Media titles were pressed into supporting it over their day jobs so story and feature count went up and it was a good package. Act 3 was realisation that the mistakes of Act 1 had holed it below the waterline and so we saw it being run down and padded out with agency filler and the magazine was shifted into the Saturday edition. A three-Act tragedy really, especially as the mistakes made will no doubt put other publishers off investing in quality print which, despite the naysayers, absolutely DOES have a future.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 12:55 pm
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    Fair play, they tried their best. I suspect, however, that this announcement is just the first of many about the effects of TM’s takeover of LW. Let’s note this story and revisit the scene in December – I wonder who and what will still be with us then.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 1:25 pm
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    Bill is right that the media landscape is continually shifting. What he is too diplomatic to say is that it’s a never-ending procession of non-editorial new brooms who are doing more than anyone to shift it, which I should imagine applies to TM/LW just as it does to every other group in the country. My sympathies to those who will lose their jobs as a result of this failed vanity project.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 2:41 pm
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    By lack of sufficient demand I wonder if they mean from a sales perspective or actual readership take up?

    Good job for trying though, got to be worth testing the water.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 3:43 pm
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    A very brave try in such testing times, and it’s always sad when a title closes. However, maybe more research before lanch would have shown there is probably no room for two regional Sundays in the westcountry. The Sunday Independent (established around 1800) is the go-to paper for the area, especially for sports fans.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 4:51 pm
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    Bill Martin says there’s ‘not sufficient demand’ for the format, yet, unless I’m missing something, that format is the exact same format [tabloid newspaper] as the WMN itself, not to mention pretty much every other title in the Local World / Trinity Mirror stable.

    Frankly, I think this is a complete red herring – the WMN on Sunday was doomed from Day One because, despite all the hullabaloo, it was almost completely devoid of any compelling content. Yes, the magazine was half-decent, but that alone was never going to be enough to make people buy a paper that rarely, if ever, had a splash worthy of the name… can you remember one, I can’t?!

    If the WMN on Sunday had set out to break the kind of stories which would have set the Westcountry news agenda over the next seven days then it might, just might, have stood half a chance, but instead it chose to concentrate its efforts on colour pieces about Agas and wood-burning stoves. You get all that in The Observer and The Sunday Times and a whole lot more besides!

    It’s unfortunate that some good journos will lose their livelihoods as a result of this decision while the highly paid executives who oversaw this whole car crash seek to cut costs in a bid to impress their new paymasters.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 8:06 pm
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    There’s a lot of the bitterness of the truth in Sid Vicious’s comment. Bravely said, mate.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 8:33 pm
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    Perhaps a fatter Saturday paper might work, with more investigation, news in focus , columnists, a good meaty read, topped off with a large property supplement.
    It’s what they do in Australia and New Zealand to some success.

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  • January 6, 2016 at 10:22 pm
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    I’m sorry but the concept of Sunday paper is completely alien to me. It’s not a day of rest, where my wife I sit around for three hours sharing and reading all the various supplements and inserts. It’s a day of going out with the kids and enjoying ourselves as a family!

    I think the days of popping to the newsagent at the weekend are long gone for most people and, with them, the sales figures for Sunday editions (even Saturdays too!).

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  • January 6, 2016 at 11:51 pm
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    Five redundancies are nothing compared to how many have been made redundant or left LW’s Plymouth centre in the last year or so.

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  • January 7, 2016 at 12:57 am
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    To launch a newspaper in the current declining market ( even back in 2014) is folly and smacks of yet another ill thought out vanity project and another failed attempt to grab a readership that’s not there.
    My guess is that one if its primary objectives, if not THE main reason, was simply to add another days revenue into the sales periods total take. Certainly the content of the issues I saw was the exact same as the daily paper but with a Sunday masthead and without any of the lighter, more lifestyle themed content that makes people buy a Sunday.

    So no, sorry I don’t say well done on having a go I say you’ve put jobs at risks in a foolish and poorly planned launch that was always doomed to failure by being driven by commercial revenue reasons rathe than fulfilling a genuine need
    Condolences in those likely to be losing their jobs, and I’ll bet it will be editorial rather than sales of managerial roles that will be the ones to go

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  • January 7, 2016 at 1:27 am
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    I don’t subscribe to the school of applauding something which was always doomed to failure from the off and patting the suits on the back for ‘having a go and trying’
    Anyone launching a local Sunday without first establishing a genuine and real need for such a publication should not be surprised it has closed. Had this launch been fully researched and with a full feasibility study done , as one would expect when launching any new business or extension of an existing one as in this case, the signs would surely have pointed to a thumbs down from the off.

    The editor citing lack of demand indicates the purpose of producing this edition was simply as an ad grabber for more commercial ad revenue rather than any real demand or interest from the local public.
    One seasoned ad rep once told me that if the product is right and the audience is there then the ad revenue will follow, if it’s not then No amount of puff and bluff and blunder would make it commercially viable.

    As ever it looks like editorial jobs will go but not the people responsible for its launch or those who gave this foolish project the go ahead.
    Same old same old

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  • January 7, 2016 at 10:54 am
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    Agree with those views pointing out the foolishness of launching a Sunday paper with no credible research in a declining market and it’s those who are ‘ in consultation’ who I modt feel sorry for. In my opinion whoever comes up with these ideas should have their name against them and if it succeeds they benefit, if it fails they take responsibility , only then will those responsible give proper thought and consideration to new launches before adopting yet another ridiculous car crash idea where those least responsible are the ones who pay the price

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  • January 7, 2016 at 2:36 pm
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    Our management have had to go public on these job losses due to the public nature of the closure. But what about our other colleagues elsewhere in this business also under consultation for redundancy? At the whim, once more, of those who value a calculator and their own career prospects above all else.

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  • January 7, 2016 at 5:28 pm
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    The trouble is Sid Vicious that “results” up to now – i.e. transfer of profits to HQ – have been deemed a big success. The fact this has been primarily based on cost cutting and a ‘pile it high, never mind the quality’ attitude to the DC Media portfolio was of no consequence to the short term merchants in charge of the handcart. I had hoped that after the takeover TM execs would a) see through this and b) apply some kind of medium term strategy and standards to the management of the business. This hasn’t, frankly, been the best of starts, but if the decision was indeed made locally then perhaps we need a bit more intervention from the direction of London.

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  • January 7, 2016 at 6:40 pm
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    Resources put into the WMN on Sunday could have been better used elsewhere within the company. The amount of experienced people who have been shown the door or opted to leave Plymouth recently because of poor decisions is shocking.

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  • January 7, 2016 at 8:05 pm
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    Yes, I am a WMN reader and was a reader of the WMN on Sunday. I am sorry to see the paper go, there was some good content in the paper, although it did feel a little padded out when the magazine went to the Saturday edition and the Saturday Homes section was published again in the Sunday paper – I guess that was the writing on the wall. Also the change in masthead didn’t sit well with the ‘traditional’ readership, although I personally liked it. Research? Well I responded to a couple of survey’s back in early 2014, so perhaps blame those nodding dogs who said that they would love to have a Sunday edition of their favourite paper, and then didn’t buy it!
    It was telling that the Sunday paper had a break over the Christmas/New Year period, so the last edition was on the 20 December 2015. Sorry to hear that 5 people will lose their jobs, for what it’s worth, I enjoyed the paper and valued your work – good luck for the future if you happen to read this.

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  • January 7, 2016 at 8:36 pm
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    Sunday paper was always doomed to failure, it seems to have been a pet whim of an exec locally who didn’t bother to actually cost it etc.
    I wonder how much the sales dept was also to blame. When I was at SWMG as was they were more worried about the cost of pulping returns than risk trying to sell extra copies. My thoughts with all journos affected by this and the fresh redundancy crap.

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  • January 8, 2016 at 6:59 am
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    Staff cuts enacted on their Cornish titles too.

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  • January 8, 2016 at 8:07 am
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    We have to make those big numbers we promised somehow so Mr Fox will feel fantastic about us. New year, new budget, same old.

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  • January 8, 2016 at 9:44 am
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    Sad to say this was a turkey-in-waiting that didn’t survive its second Christmas.
    I feel sorry for the small staff who faced an uphill battle on content from day one, with no obvious Sunday experience to call on.
    A key issue was the failure to reflect in-depth sport as a traditional Sunday USP. The established privately-owned Sunday Independent, with a staggering 90 per cent sports content, dominates the market for results, reports and comment from Bristol to Lands End.
    Weakness on hard news and investigations, plus a county magazine approach to features, only hastened the paper’s demise.
    No blame attached to axed staff – too few to make a difference to a poorly researched management project.

    to staff – too few to make a difference to a poorly-thought-out project.

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  • January 8, 2016 at 12:23 pm
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    This announcement will come as no shock to any LW employee (or ex-employee for that matter). I can’t think of one person who said, “this is a great idea” when it was announced.
    This isn’t to discredit the teams who have no doubt worked tirelessly on this title but we knew this would be the outcome. I’m sure we all wanted to be proven wrong for the sake of the industry but, alas, we were not.
    As Rob has pointed out, staff have left/ been made redundant in Plymouth; this isn’t limited to just Plymouth, however. I think all centres have suffered as a result of this, which can only leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those chasing their tails tasked with creating an ever-increasing number of bricks with an ever-dwindling supply of straw.
    I have to question how detrimental has this been to the other DCM titles? How many centres have been left with reporters struggling to cover numerous patches due to management’s reluctance to replace staff? How many other jobs have gone as a result? I know of one centre where the company opted not to cover a staff member’s maternity leave, which only impacted on the rest of the team. How can any of this be of benefit to the other papers?
    It is always a shame to hear of redundancies, and I wish those losing their jobs the best for the future.

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  • January 12, 2016 at 8:16 pm
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    Happy and motivated bunch at DC Media, ain’t they?

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