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Sixty jobs to go at printing plant

Around 200 jobs have been lost within Northcliffe Media in the last two months with another 60 to go by the end of the year, company bosses have confirmed.

Yesterday parent company Daily Mail and General Trust announced a sharp downturn in Northcliffe profits for the last financial year.

It has now emerged that around half of the 400 jobs which have so far gone through non-replacement across DMGT have come out of the regional newspaper division.

DMGT finance director Peter Williams also confirmed that the planned closure of the Grimsby printing plant would go ahead, most likely by the end of the year.

The Grimsby Telegraph and sister papers the Scunthorpe Telegraph, Lincolnshire Echo and Hull Daily Mail are all currently printed at the plant in Cleethorpes Road, Grimsby.

Mr Williams said: “They’ll be printed at either Leicester, Stoke or Derby – we don’t know at this stage.

“The bigger they (the plants) are the more efficient they are and much more environmentally friendly.”

DMGT is hopeful of making cost savings of around £100m although Mr Williams was unable to specify how much of that will come from Northcliffe Media.

The Daily Mail is due to go up in price by 10p which is estimated will generate an extra £10m a year for the company and DMGT is also looking at paper usage and marketing spend.

Meanwhile, much of Northcliffe’s financing department is now operating in Leicester with further movement of staff possible.

Looking ahead, Mr Williams added: “We think we’ve done a lot of what we’re going to do.

“We’re hopeful that a lot of what will happen (cost saving) will happen through non-replacement.

“Our feeling was that we had to do something about the cost base and set the business up for the long term.

“I’m afraid it’s been a tough few months for the regionals.”

Comments

John Roberts (21/11/2008 10:27:24)
“The bigger they (the plants) are the more efficient they are and much more environmentally friendly.”
Not quite sure what’s environmentally-friendly about delivery vans having to do the daily 166-mile Hull-Leicester-Hull round trip to pick up and deliver the papers?!?!
Of all the recent print plant closures in the industry, this by far sounds the most ridiculous and impractical of them all.

Brian (21/11/2008 19:58:12)
Probably one articulated lorry would bring over Hulls papers for re-distribution. Everyone’s looking over their shoulders again.

Ben Lui (25/11/2008 11:26:54)
Someone in this industry has pressed the self-destruct button. I wish they’d told us about it first.