A job cull at a South-West daily newspaper could see three sub-editors and other staff lose their jobs.

Consultation is currently ongoing at the Herald Express, Torquay, with a team of five sub-editors being reduced to two.

A librarian is also under notice of redundancy while admin and sales staff have already left the company.

Other savings have come through the shedding of casual staff including at least six community correspondents, who contribute pieces for local news pages, and the sub-editor who worked on them.

Another sub-editor took early retirement and was not replaced about two months ago, sources told HoldtheFrontPage.

Northcliffe titles in Devon are due to go on to a new server meaning copy from the Herald Express, Exeter’s Express and Echo and Plymouth dailies The Herald and Western Morning News will be available for sister papers.

The Western Morning News has two reporters based in the Torquay office but they were told they could either lose their jobs or be moved over to the Herald Express, sources said.

No-one from senior management within Northcliffe’s South West Media Group division was available to comment.

Comments

CHEEKY CHAPPIE (26/11/2008 05:36:21)
Interesting to note that management from Northcliffe were unavailable to comment … not because Northcliffe run this site by any chance

HoldtheFrontPage (26/11/2008 08:55:42)
Wrong on two counts. 1. HTFP is not “run” by Northcliffe, it is co-owned by four regional newspaper publishers, one of whom is Northcliffe. 2. HTFP staff attempted to contact three senior management personnel in Northcliffe’s South West division yesterday and all were unavailable for comment. The story has however been corroborated by other means.

Hilary Jones (26/11/2008 10:01:09)
I assume the paper will remain a daily product, with all its normal pagination etc. So – er- who’s going to sub it now? Or is the story about the ‘copy being available’ on the new server management speak for the Torquay Express being turned into a mere slip edition of something else? Otherwise, those poor remaining subs will be working from 9am to midnight and missing most of their deadlines!

The Idler (26/11/2008 12:39:03)
”HTFP is not “run” by Northcliffe, it is co-owned by four regional newspaper publishers, one of whom is Northcliffe.”
An equal four-way split or does one hold more clout than the others per chance?

HoldtheFrontPage (26/11/2008 12:41:04)
It’s an equal four-way split.

Steve Hutchings (26/11/2008 17:15:14)
I can confirm the deed has already been done at the Herald Express and the three subs concerned were informed they could leave immediately once the paperwork was complete. I can also confirm that the five subs involved were rated on a points system implemented by the chief sub with the three with the lowest score getting the chop. Civilised it ain’t! Shabby it certainly is!

The Idler (26/11/2008 17:59:22)
Any news on reduncies in Plymouth and/or Exeter? Seems strange to target just the paper with the best sales figures.

Citizen_Smith (26/11/2008 18:29:07)
Can you please explain exactly what you mean when you say ‘unavailable for comment’? I’d wager you actually mean ‘declined to comment’ which is, me thinks, altogether different.

Steve Hutchings (26/11/2008 22:36:46)
Further to earlier comments the middle management of the Herald Express are notoriously evasive and will readily sacrifice others than acknowledge their own responsibility for declining sales, low morale and falling standards.

Merton69 (27/11/2008 13:16:37)
Any news on the ‘closing in’ redundancies at the Bristol Regional Centre?
Workloads is being shifted from centre to the next, but nobody seems to know exactly who or where!!

Former HE reporter (28/11/2008 10:58:50)
This is really sad news. The Herald Express has been a popular and well-respected newspaper for many decades, with a great team who are all very passionate about their jobs. To cut back staff levels again means remaining employees will be stretched even further, causing the quality of the news to plunge along with the morale. It just seems dreadfully unfair to cause such damage to one of the few newspapers in the country which has been coping well in the current climate.

René François Artois (28/11/2008 12:00:21)
It’s interesting that, yet again, a consultancy firm with little or no knowledge of newspapers has been employed to oversee these ‘economies’. And, yet again, and despite assurances to the contrary, they’ve failed to speak to anyone but the tier of middle management which, as Steve Hutchings so rightly says, is “notoriously evasive and will readily sacrifice others [rather] than acknowledge their own responsibility for declining sales, low morale and falling standards.”