Journalists at Johnston Press have been hit with a six-month pay freeze after the company shelved pay review discussions until the summer.
Staff at the regional publisher were told this week that all annual pay reviews in editorial have been postponed as the company seeks to cut costs.
The move has sparked protests from National Union of Journalists, which claims the deferral amounts to a real-terms wage cut in 2017 and follows years of below inflation increases.
But the company has responded that the decision has not “been taken lightly”, blaming the economic climate for the need to constantly review its costs.
A JP spokeswoman said: “The economic climate continues to challenge us and we need to constantly review our costs to ensure we safeguard the security and future of our business.
“We have balanced our need to meet our costs challenge against our desire to be able to give editorial staff some recognition through a pay review and have taken the decision to defer pay discussions until July.
“It’s not a decision that’s been taken lightly as we try to continue to manage the costs against the revenue challenges we face.”
NUJ reps at Johnston Press are now consulting their members on the pay deferral.
A Johnston Press group chapel spokesperson said: “News of this six month pay freeze has come as a huge blow to beleaguered editorial teams who put their hearts and souls into producing quality journalism for their readerships in the face of continued cuts, dwindling staff levels and increasing workloads.
“Instead of being rewarded for their loyalty and hard work, they now face the prospect of an effective pay cut in the year ahead. We hope the impact of this week’s announcement on ordinary working journalists will not be forgotten by shareholders when it comes to deciding whether top executives should get bonuses this year.”
Andy Smith, NUJ assistant organiser, added: “Johnston Press’s best asset is its staff. These are the people who have recently produced an excellent investigation into the state of the NHS and others have won awards for their journalism.
“They do not need this slap in the face. They are already struggling to get by on their present salaries and the prospect of no more money when the cost of living is rising and inflation looks set to increase will hit them hard. The company’s latest trading statement said that increasing their audience was essential to the future of JP, but the only way to do that is to invest in quality journalism.”
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Presumably this also applies to the many commercial middle managers and directors? Not that they’d need another increase.
As for investing in quality journalism forget it, these days it’s all about unskilled content keyboard rappers churning out generic twaddle of little interest to local people, there’s no interest in quality journalism,only getting the job done as quickly and cheaply as possible
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I wonder how many pay rises and those percentages that JP staff have had over the past 6-7 years. I bet it is far less than inflation, so effectively a pay cut.
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If they would forget about the crazy digital strategy that clearly isn’t working and invest in good quality products and not rags full of blurry readers phone pics and generic rubbish that no-one wants to read then they might see their revenues rise again. Quality seems to be a word that JP do not recognise. It’s not rocket science…DIGITAL ISN’T WORKING, readers phone pics aren’t working and quality has completely gone. If anyone else did what JP bosses are doing they’d be sacked right away.
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On the contrary dead digital horse they’d be given a bonus and many are.
Most of the ones making the decisions ( not the yes men puppets giving out the bad news) are on cost saving incentive schemes, the more they save the more they earn.
They are set cost saving targets to achieve which in turn triggers off a series of bonus payments,and with staff salaries and branch office leasehold payments being two of the biggest costs we can expect more of the same through the year, anyone suggesting a focus on quality or employing top staff are deluding themselves, those days are gone,all that can be monitored and managed are the things mentioned and those are the things that will continiue to be axed under the banner of ‘cost savings’ or ‘efficiencies’
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“… all annual pay reviews in editorial have been postponed as the company seeks to cut costs”
HTFP it’s seriously worth clarifying whether the commercial staff are also affected or if they are receiving an increase?
Serious questions need to be asked by publishers about the number of managers and team leaders in the business who appear to do very little and contivutr even less yet account for sizeable costs to the business.
If costs are being looked at and staff are to take them seriously the areas of greatest cost has to be the commercial side.
When times were good publishers could justify large sales teams and a level of management to oversee them, now we are in decline the number of ad staff contributing much less appears to be the same.
We can all see it but which publisher is bold enough to act on it?
My guess is none
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My girlfriend’s local published a list of its staff and it was so top heavy with titles I thought it would topple over. Now the hard-working hacks get a pay freeze. It is lovely working for JP isn’t it boys and girls?
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The only thing that isn’t cheap about JP ‘products’ is the cover price. But people aren’t buying the rubbish that’s being churned out. Some titles cost as high as £1.50. But, hey-ho, the share price is up, and the accountants are happy. Never mind the garbage papers that are piling up on newsagents’ counters from Stornaway to Sussex. Well done, suits!
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