The company wants to move the subbing function for all its titles in the province at one centre in Craigavon with a net reduction in 11 posts.

Titles affected by the change include The News Letter, Derry Journal, Donegal Democrat and a number of other weekly papers.

A period of consultation with affected staff has begun and will continue until 30 January 2009.

A company statement said: "We believe these proposals will help secure the long-term future of our titles in a challenging market by achieving efficiencies in the editorial workflow and improving standards of design.

"The reorganisation will also allow our journalists to spend more time on content-gathering increasing our commitment to the communities we serve."

One local MP, Mark Durkan, has already voiced concern about the production job losses.

"While I understand that the cuts are to affect Johnston Press operations throughout Ulster, it is clear that this will have a disproportionate effect on staff from Derry and Donegal given the plan to centralise this function in Armagh," he said.

The National Union of Journalists has also released a statement expressing concern about the plans.

"The plans are deeply worrying for many of our members because it would be completely impractical for them to travel to work at Craigavon everyday," it said.