The National Union of Journalists has called on Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey to intervene in the dispute over pay at Coventry Newspapers.

The moves comes amid claims by the union that strike action is damaging the group’s titles as members at the Coventry Evening Telegraph and its sister weeklies begin yet another walk out, this time “until further notice”.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear has written to the chief executive after a leaked memo to advertisers apparently showed that the newspapers were trying to fill empty editorial space with discounted advertising.

The NUJ claims the memo shows that previous statements by the company that its titles have been unaffected by the strike are untrue.

Jeremy said: “This memo sent to advertisers nails the lie that the papers are unaffected by the current industrial action.

“In a desperate bid to fill empty space the company is cutting advertising costs and devaluing the papers.

“Instead of allowing managers to carry on damaging the titles Trinity Mirror should sit down with us and try to resolve this matter. We remain ready and willing to negotiate.”

However HoldtheFrontPage understands the memo was sent out in error by a new member of staff.

A spokesman for Coventry Newspapers said: “The email the NUJ refer to was factually incorrect and should not have gone out.

“We categorically have not reduced the amount of editorial space or number of editorial pages, nor have we needed to cut rates to attract advertisers.

“We have continued to produce a balanced, quality paper for our readers, which has been reflected in sales.

“The circulation performance of the Evening Telegraph has not been adversely affected by the strike, and we have also enjoyed an extremely strong month in terms of ad revenues, which are up on the same period last year.

“Production has not been disrupted, editorial quality has not been compromised and we have in fact produced some of our biggest ever papers over the last few weeks. For example, Friday’s paper (July 29) was 120 pages, of which 69 were editorial.”