Around 14 editorial jobs are set to be lost at Trinity Mirror’s newly acquired titles in the South-West of England with 13 websites being merged into three.
A group of former Local World titles in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Somerset will see their online channels consolidated into three new digital offerings, while the Bristol Post and Western Daily Press will move to a single production structure.
The websites of eight weekly newspapers in Somerset will be condensed into a new offering called Somerset Live, while those of the Gloucestershire Echo, Stroud Life and Gloucester Citizen will be merged to form Gloucestershire Live.
And the Daily Press site will be incorporated into that of the Post, in line with a similar switch made in February which saw the Western Morning News’s website shut down and merged with the Plymouth Herald’s.
Trinity Mirror says some new digital roles will be created, but the changes will see a net reduction of approximately 14 roles in the region, with staff affected now in a formal consultation period.
The eight titles affected in Somerset are the Central Somerset Gazette, Cheddar Valley Gazette, Frome Standard, Somerset Guardian, Wells Journal, Western Gazette, North Somerset Mercury and Shepton Mallet Journal.
A Trinity Mirror spokesperson said: “Somerset Live and Gloucestershire Live will focus on rolling local news, weather, traffic, what’s on and lifestyle and much more.
“We will be providing the same hyperlocal news, and more, on a bigger, better and more accessible digital platform, as we aim to grow a local and engaged audience.
“This template has worked well at Trinity Mirror titles across other areas of the UK, where local readers are increasingly coming to our platforms first for their news and showing loyalty to our strong brands.”
The company said the move was in line with its approach of creating regional digital hubs with localised news and information sections.
The latest proposals follow last week’s announcement of a “digital-first” restructure at former Local World titles in Devon, which will see up to eight editorial jobs lost.
The move will see the websites of the Exeter Express & Echo and the Mid Devon Gazette series merge under the former’s brand.
The company has also announced the departures of three former Local World editors – Paul Brackley, of the Cambridge News, the Leicester Mercury’s Kevin Booth and the Derby Telegraph’s Neil White – over the past 10 days.
It is understood that at least one editor role could be at risk as a result of the proposed South West changes, but Trinity Mirror has refused to confirm this.
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Great start to the week for TM people in that neck of the woods. I note these are all editorial jobs but I also sympathise with the executive/admin staff who will inevitably be going too but aren’t reported here. Good luck one and all.
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‘A spokesperson said: Somerset Live and Gloucestershire Live will focus on rolling local NEWS…We will be providing the same hyperlocal NEWS, and more…coming to our platforms first for their NEWS…’
And 14+ EDITORIAL jobs are set to go? Go figure!
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kick in the teeth to start the week with for TM staff in the west buit nop doubt they saw this coming ,reading the HTFP comments last week reagrds smiling assins and lip service by the bosses.
i also think there needs to be something other than the “consultation process” which everyone know wont make a jot of difference once the decisions have been made,it just extends the execution
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You can’t beat newspaper spokespeople when it comes to spouting doublespeak.
However, I don’t believe that any of their target audience (gullible investors) will believe a word.
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Dreadful news. To those who are leaving, my sympathy. To those who are staying, my sympathy, as there lies ahead the prospect of even longer hours for the privilege of even more unpaid overtime.
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Here we go again, HTFP readers commenting on things they don’t know about. This announcement was made LAST WEEK so the news hasn’t come at the start of this week. Why do you have to comment on this anyway if all you’ve got to say is something like “oh that’s bad news”? Of course it’s bad news and your comments don’t offer any real support. Please stop and let everyone affected get on with coping.
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well what a surprise
Its those who haven`t been offered a pay off i feel sorry for,a year or two of constant over the shoulder looking ,wondering when and where the next axe will fall,at least those who are “in consultation” will find a job elsewhere with less stress, likely better managers to work for and with a future
all good wishes to those left there or leaving
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Jabob’s Ladder: I think the comments on here reflect people’s sympathy for fellow professionals and come in the general category of free speech. If you have any ideas as to what “real support” can be offered please enlighten us.
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Sick of it. We’re constantly having it drilled into us just how forward-thinking and ingenious we are as a company, yet we hear stories like this every week.
Whether you’re an employee of Trinity Mirror or not, you have to wonder why we continually accept having the wool pulled over our eyes by the bosses.
It’s time the directors started to direct instead of leading us over the edge of a cliff.
Newsroom of the future? My fat backside!
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All I can say to Mr Ladder is that there is a big wide world to be explored beyond regional journalism.
Sure it’s a shock when they announce that your services are no longer required, and I know because I’ve been there.
You move on after the initial shock and explore something new like I did. I’m far happier now than at any time during my last three years of trying to cope with the ever increasing demands of the regional publishing company where I worked.
I think Mr Ladder’s comments came out of anger at TM rather than anybody on here and he will probably look back at them with regret in a few days.
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I have to confess that anything would be better than the current dreadful Citizen/Echo offering, but I sympathise with the other comments on here…and as far as Gloucestershire papers go I fear it will be the thin end of a very painful wedge…
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Strange to merge WDP with the BP, two entirely different purchase geographies.
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@jacobs ladder
I assume you’re from cheddar by your pen name?
Can I suggest you read the comments again, all the posts are in support of those affected and questioning and reviled at the decisions so easily taken by TM which affect people’s livelihoods,we are all fed up of BS and spin from those wielding the axe.
We can only comment when something is published,we cannot know a story is a week old if its appearing on HTFP on a Monday, if you’re close to the story and are affected you will have prior knowledge, and if you can think of a better way to show support I for one would be interested to know.
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Dick Minim, you always seem to be the first in the queue when it comes to giving your opinion on something which doesn’t concern you. Evey time there is something bad you have to have your say. Do you work for TM in Somerset, Bristol or Glos and is your life being turned upside down by this? No I thought not. So please just keep your thoughts to yourself. Real support would be sending a letter to TM or starting a petition urging a change of heart, or writing to the NUJ or MPs. Perhaps you could try it. You don’t seem to have any real concern for the people affected. If you did you’d do something of substance.
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I’ve worked for a few corporates, both media (including T-M) and other, and I can safely say that the organisations that are successful and actively looking to develop their businesses are those that are hiring, and proud to say so. Obviously there are ‘restructurings’ but on the whole a hiring company is a happy company. Outfits like Trinity Mirror who are constantly firefighting a shrinking business, shedding their overheads, people, premises, even papers, as fast as possible (yes, you too, Johnson Press, NewsQuest) are merely putting off the inevitable: That their entire business model is doomed because they lack the strategic direction, foresight, senior people, skills and investment that’s needed to dig themselves out of the hole that is declining print and rapidly expanding online services that deliver little in the way of reliable returns and show little sign of doing so in the future.
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Jacobs ladder whilst sorry for your predicament m, I’ve been there too,if you think a letter to TM or campaigning a local mp for what is entirely a business decision and one they’re quite at liberty to make, will have any effect whatsoever then i feel you are being very naive.
You would be better off venting your anger at those at TM who have come to this decision or those who’ve say back and allowed it to happen, not people showing suppor on here.
The damage is done and the decision has been taken and your anti support comments on here are doing nothing to help garner support or sympathy. Take a look at what people are saying before damning them, they’re all on your side, or were!
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Jabob’s Ladder: anything in our field of work concerns me very directly and, as I say, I am only exercising my right to free speech in commenting, as you are yours in responding, the core principle underlying journalism itself surely. I sense real frustration here and if you have been affected by this then you have my genuine sympathy. I have been there too and it’s painful but we all survive. As Kenny says all the posts here are supportive, and those who are still in work won’t be for much longer.
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I think Mal Content has the best steer on this. I was shown the door when Local World moved in back in 2013, but quickly discovered there was more to life than working for a pittance in the regional press.
You can start petitions, write to MP, even the Queen, but these big media groups have an agenda, which means squeezing as much work out of as few people as possible, all in the name of profit.
I am sorry Jacob’s Ladder and his colleagues are going through what I did three years ago, but it does get better. I can assure them of that.
P.S.: If Jacob’s Ladder can feel free to have a go at me if it makes him feel better at this time.
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Staff at Western Gazette and Soms newspapers were only told their jobs were at risk on FRIDAY. Paper has been hiring new reporters and now threatens to leave them jobless. Redundant at 20. What a joke.
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Interesting to see that Mr Jacob S. Ladder is seeking to limit free speech. Perhaps he just wasn’t cut out for a media career.
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Yet another kick in the teeth for staff since TM moved in. Sounds like a big step back to the ‘This Is’ websites with no newspaper branding. Where exactly does this leave the Western Gazette which covers both Somerset and Dorset?
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Not only are TM returning to the regional structure of management which Northcliffe had, they’re now merging titles online. Anyone remember ‘thisis…’? I wonder if they’ll set up a company called TM Digital and repeat the process in full?
It would appear that Local World was just a useful method of speeding up the process of cutting staff.
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We need all comments on HTFP, the good, the bad, and the ugly, because that is the only way employees can get a fuller picture of what is really going on in the industry (you won’t get it from management as their comment indicates).
Journalism is a dog-eat-dog business. Very sad, but that’s the reality brought about by the corporate system of media ownership in the U.K.
To change that you would have to turn upside down the entire political, economic and cultural outlook of the country.
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Anyone spot the comparisons here between TM’s actions and those of the big brewing conglomerates in the 1990s when they moved in on the Somerset cider makers?
Then the big boys from hundreds of miles away looked at a map, saw efficiencies (i.e. bigger profits from already nicely profitable businesses) and did away with distinctiveness and customer choice as part of the process.
The increased profits element worked but only because costs were driven down. The audience (drinkers) actually hated the uniformity and product sales fell.
It took a change of policy and the return of old brands to suit differing tastes, plus sheisds of marketing spend to get the industry back on track to the success story it is now.
By then those behind the crackpot ‘one size fits all policy’ had moved on, having nearly killed off the cider industry down here with their ideas.
I only hope these fine newspapers down here outlast those attempting to whittle away at their distinctiveness in pursuit of excessive short term profit and a misguided attempt to choose something for the audience which they audience would not choose for itself.
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I can’t believe that ( at the time of writing) three and five people have liked Jacobs ladders post,seems you cant help some people but hey that’s free speech for you.
If his or hers take on those commenting is typical of the rest of those affected then I don’t think they are helping their cause by criticising and alienating supportive people within the industry,sympathetic to their plight,
I wonder what action he or she have taken locally to challenge the real villains in this piece,the TM decision makers themselves, maybe a letter or a word in the local politicians ear?
Good luck with that and all good wishes to those affected
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So how long before we hear of an exciting new Kent Live website being launched down here in the Garden of England – along with the inevitable casualties in editorial?
Doesn’t seem all that long ago that LW put This is Kent and the rest to the sword, telling us that local websites were the way forward. Funny how the old ideas always seem to come back round as the industry runs on the spot while the rest of the world moves on.
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Welcome back thisisgloucestershire.co.uk and thisissomerset.co.uk
Wasn’t someone joking about this last week?
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Happy Vale and RDG are spot-on – it’s back to the ‘This Is’ concept that LW so roundly condemned and scrapped. But LW also proudly boasted it was free of the legacies (debt, property, printing presses, overstuffed hierarchies, and so on) hampering the old-style corporate dinosaurs, an agile, fit-for-21st-century outfit blazing new media trails. Oh well, it sounded good at the time.
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Of course TM are the villains in all this, but it’s just what we’ve come to expect from them and their like.
It is sad, however, that Jacobs Ladder chooses to turn his obvious anger on those sympathetic to his cause rather than the ones responsible for it.
I’ve always believed that you need to muster all the support you can get at times like this. Many people on here are willing to offer it because they have been through the same scenario.
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My sympathies with those affected. I hope those of you who remain get a move that suits, and those facing redundancy are able to find work again soon.
However, closing the WDP website seems quite a short-sighted move. So instead of having a large regional website with a name people know and recognise, the wisdom is to have a large regional website with names people don’t recognise (e.g. Somerset Live)? Or have I missed something?
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@anon london
a terrible situation but being laid off at 20 may well be a blessing in disguise,at least they will have years ahead of them to carve out a decent career as opposed to the older ones who remain and who will find opportunities in local publishing few and far between,especially those of a cetain age and with traditional news print skills,and lets face it those people must be living on the edge wondering when the next announcement will come.
At least the “young uns” will be ahead of the game when it comes to job seeking
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Re Sunset’s comments: I agree we need all types of comments on here but the problem is we seem to hear the same comments from same people who have been out of the business for many years.
Can’t help but think if these commenters despise the state of regional journalism so much, perhaps they should enjoy they’re freedom and keep their negativity to themselves
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@penman
True in some respects but we have no idea where the industry is going and don’t know how to equip ourselves for its future. Not all of us want to succumb to the listicles and ‘how to’ guff that earn a few clicks from gormless online audiences. Local news used to be the traditional training ground for young journos. Where will they go now?
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Pete’s comments do an injustice to people who truly care about the state of a once great industry.
Just because somebody has been out of the business a couple of years (probably not through their own choice), it does not mean they should stop caring about it.
As for the nature of the comments, well it is very difficult to say anything that is remotely positive, other than to wish all the best to those in the firing line.
I would also suggest that if Pete was working on a story about job losses in any other industry, he would be seeking comments from as many angles as possible.
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I hope Pete isn’t working on any stories if he can type “perhaps they should enjoy they’re freedom” and not notice anything wrong. Saints preserve us!
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Fewer journalists to go and report local news…. perhaps the remaining staff could write “viral content” that doesn’t involve making contacts, interviewing people, going to events, taking original photographs etc etc.
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Jacob’s Ladder, I read your comments in the voice of Rik Mayall circa The Young Ones. Now unbuckle your yellow dungarees and calm down, kidda.
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