Local press publisher Archant has announced 21 jobs are to go in its Norfolk division.

The company, which publishes the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News, has just finished a consultation process with staff in its newspaper sales and marketing services department.

Managing director Stephan Phillips declined to comment, however on business.edp24.co.uk, he said: “The economic environment we are facing is very challenging but by making these changes we feel better able to respond to those challenges whilst still focusing on our ambitions of growing our newspaper sales, online audiences and profits.

“We want to refocus our marketing efforts into growing audiences for our advertisers.

“This involves selling more papers, helping to promote our branded and classified websites and building up our databases to help our ad sales teams become more successful.

“We will still be running lots of reader travel and competitions in our papers.

“We will also still be attending all the major events and shows across our region as well as organising and hosting our important awards.”

All the roles are based at Archant Norfolk’s HQ in Norwich.

As part of the plans, a shop which sold papers, calendars and took advertisements in Norwich city centre has closed.

An Archant spokesman could not confirm whether all 21 redundancies had been voluntary but the company is looking to recruit five additional posts in the newspaper sales unit.