Journalists at Suffolk’s two daily newspapers have been told they will be supplying content to both titles from early next year as part of a major newsroom shake-up announced yesterday.

From early next year, Archant Suffolk is planning to pool content across its East Anglian Daily Times and Evening Star titles as well as a number of weeklies.

Editors of the two titles have described the plans as “hugely exciting,” but admitted that five journalists’ posts are at risk of redundancy as a result

One of the jobs at risk is a district reporter role at Archant Suffolk’s Halesworth office which is due to close.

The proposed changes are being made possible by the introduction of a new content management system being rolled-out across Archant regional centres over the next few months.

It will allow journalists to place their stories, pictures and video footage into a single basket and to view all of Archant’s editorial content across the group.

Journalists at the two daily titles were told yesterday that from 2009 they will be supplying content for both papers and their sister weeklies – and no longer having a single-title focus.

In a further innovation, the www.eadt24.co.uk and eveningstar24.co.uk websites will now have three distinct “editions” each day, with fresh content for breakfast, noon and “drive-time” users.

Evening Star editor Nigel Pickover said: “Despite a gloomy economic backdrop, I believe this is a hugely exciting time for our news operation in Suffolk, based on our traditional home, in the heart of Ipswich.

“We produce quality daily newspapers at the heart of the their respective communities – and websites that are giving us a huge new audience.”

Terry Hunt, editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, added: “The new system will give us state-of-the-art technology and the ability for our writers to fully grab hold of the opportunities of the multimedia age.

“It is a very exciting time to be a journalist in our Suffolk operation.”

Earlier this year, around 20 sub-editors’ posts were lost as a result of a decision to merge the production operations of the two papers.

The two titles already operated a joint sports and picture desk so yesterday’s announcement represents the final piece in the jigsaw in the gradual move towards a combined operation.

Archant Suffolk managing director Stuart McCreery said: “Despite the current tough climate Archant is continuing to invest in the future. Delivery of our quality content to the widest audience in the most efficient manner is our goal.

“Journalists in Suffolk will have their award-winning work seen by more people, quicker than ever before, and will be able to monitor the response. This is a really positive step for our newsroom.”

Comments

despairing southerner (14/10/2008 08:21:52)
I’m sure it’s “very exciting” to be among the five journalists who are going to lose their jobs and the absence of any regret from managers at losing staff is very telling. It’s noticeable too that at times of cost-cutting, the men (and women) in suits are never in the firing line, it always seems to be the footsoldiers actually producing editorial such as reporters, subs and photographers (a dying breed)who are axed. When are newspapers going to realise that chasing the pot of gold at the end of the technological rainbow is disastrous and simply “state-of-the-art” cost-cutting? However you package it, bad content shows. For good content you need reasonable numbers of well-motivated, well-trained staff who have time to develop stories, make contacts and do all those other things that used to make journalism fun. Instead, we’re supposed to be platform-agnostic web-fodder churning out rewritten press releases that demonstrate our lack of connection with the people we’re supposed to be serving.

F. Johnston (14/10/2008 08:56:15)
Well said. And the readers soon notice that it’s the same content endlessly recycled across different platforms.

Tim (14/10/2008 09:22:25)
It’s not wholly revolutionary this. I used to work at Lower Brooke Street in the 1980s and as a matter of course worked as a reporter for both titles – as did all the newsroom. Since the EADT and Star are very different in style it was extremely interesting to write for both. I remember being slightly disappointed when the reporting teams were separated and we only got to write for one title.
We had a very primative computer system which enabled subs to look at copy for all titles – albeit on computers were approximately the size of houses and didn’t really do much more than electronic typewriters.
Now I feel old….

Patrick Nicholson (14/10/2008 13:07:21)
Back in the nineteen-fifties I worked on the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo which had one reporting staff.
It was rather tiring after a day working on the evening title to do a rewrite for the daily. DP conforms, they were called, and one way of speeding things up so that you could get home for your tea was to cut the relevant story or stories from the evening title, put a new intro on them and send them through. But this was never too popular with the back bench on the daily and sometimes they were returned to you and you had to rework them.
Shifts started at various times and we worked an eleven-day fortnight, which was not good for your private life. But I was young and eager.

Ex EDP (17/10/2008 07:37:57)
Closing district offices is always a bad move. These little outposts are a high street presence and a valuable marketing tool. Archant should have remembered what happened when it closed its district offices in Norfolk and hid its reporters away.
I don’t have a problem per se with amalgamating the staff, having worked that way before.
But I’d question Terry Hunt’s view: “It is a very exciting time to be a journalist in our Suffolk operation.”
Depressing and worrying are the words that spring to my mind. And I agree with despairing southerner – let’s face it, much bigger savings could be obtained by getting rid of a few chiefs and their expense accounts rather than the indians.
Oh and we’re not serving people any more. We’re flogging them a “product.”

anon (27/10/2008 16:54:37)
Although I loved working at Lower Brook Street, I have to admit that reading this, I’m glad I left when I did. It’s depressing. But I actually laughed when I read this story, not because it’s funny about the job losses, but about the spin the people at the top are forced to put on it because they don’t want to, or are afraid to, say what they really think, which is that this all sucks! how can losing district reporters be a good thing? I agree with Ex EDP

Ex-EDP (2) (29/10/2008 18:05:31)
That’s Suffolk sorted. Now watch what happens in Norfolk.
It just gets worse.

anon (30/12/2008 13:24:50)
Been coming a long time what is truly sad is that many people are losing a job that was created when the same powers that be who are making the redundancies decided that splitting the staff was an exciting idea