The National Union of Journalists was today beginning its annual delegate meeting in Birmingham.

The event will give a sounding board to success from the past year and propose new action on key matters affecting journalists.

Pay, conditions, the move to digital newsrooms, morning publication of former evening newspapers and matters proposed by membership sections including the black members council, freelance chapel and disabled members council and broadcasters will all be debated.

More than 300 members are set to attend what is the union’s centenary meeting.

The meeting is set to welcome the union’s achievements in tackling low pay within the media industry.

One motion on pay says that thanks to the union, average entry level salaries in the local newspaper industry have risen by more than 30 per cent in the past four years.

It adds: "The ADM welcomes the growing co-ordination of activity over pay amongst chapels and applauds the efforts of group chapels to draw up joint claims and work together to improve pay.

"ADM believes that ever-greater co-ordination across the whole union is the key to delivering sustained improvements in pay and conditions for all our members."

There could now be a national day of action for fair pay later this year, with all sectors of the union set to play an active role.

A one-day conference on May 5 at the union’s headquarters in London will develop the debate begun in Birmingham and forge a plan of action.

Union general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "This is the new direction of our hugely successful Journalism Matters Campaign. As we have argued from the very start, whatever the technology it’s the quality of the content that counts.

"At a time when media employers are using that new technology, not to enhance journalism and build quality but simply to reduce costs, undermine collective bargaining and boost profits, the NUJ’s campaign for quality journalism is ever more vital."

Another motion calls on the union to welcome digital integration as "an exciting new opportunity" for the profession, but asks members to resist any attempts by management to reduce workforces, downgrade staff terms and conditions, or dilute the quality of work produced.

Jeremy said: "We need new working practices to cope with new demands. In the corporate world that sees news merely as a commodity this is not happening.

"The demands of integration and convergence have meant a growth in 24/7 working but no growth in staffing levels. The pressure on our members is approaching breaking point in many places."

The union’s Journalism Matters campaign, to defend local and national news services also comes in for praise.

Northcliffe Newspapers’ decision to "uproot The Citizen" from its home in Gloucester and "effectively merge it" with its sister Gloucestershire Echo in Cheltenham, is condemned, for leaving a city of 120,000 people to be "covered by three journalists".

The campaign will be praised at the meeting, for offering an opportunity to "build the professional confidence of NUJ members, strengthen chapels, group chapels and branches" and set the seeds to help the NUJ regain its status at the heart of the local community.

Local union chapels, group chapels and branches are now being urged to develop local strategies aimed at raising awareness in newsrooms and among the public of the importance of properly resourced local news services.