Sub-editors are among those facing the threat of redundancy as Archant Suffolk looks to merge production processes of its two daily titles in Ipswich.

Approximately 20 jobs are expected to go at the Evening Star and East Anglian Daily Times, in Ipswich, as staff are merged in production departments.

Reporting teams at the Times and Evening Star would remain distinct with copy to be pooled for the online audience. Voluntary redundancies are now being sought.

A 30-day consultation process got under way with the first meeting between department heads as well as the National Union of Journalists representative.

Martin Chambers, secretary of the NUJ’s Suffolk branch, said: “It (the meeting) was just going through the nitty gritty and what they want to happen over the next couple of months and in the long term, paving the way for the redundancies.

“Overall, they are talking about 20-plus from production, sub-editors and people in the pre-press department who pull together supplements but not reporters.

“It wasn’t a particularly constructive meeting. I don’t think it can ever be constructive when you’re talking about people’s livelihoods.”

Archant Suffolk MD Stuart McCreery said: “The review process is to change the way we work to be more efficient. There’s no desire to reduce our news gathering resource.

“We have an offer of voluntary redundancies. The focus is in process changes in the back offices.

“We had a meeting yesterday which was the first consultation and included the union representative.

“It’s the start of a 30-day consultation period and it’s not appropriate to make more comment until that’s over.”

NUJ spokesman Stephen Pearse said its officials were due to meet the newspapers’ chapel within the next week and hoped to arrange a similar meeting with Archant management in the near future.

He added: “NUJ members affected by Archant’s proposals are meeting to discuss what has been put forward.

“Clearly there will be concerns about the impact of any changes on jobs and editorial quality.

“The NUJ believes that it is vital that the union is fully consulted on any changes that are proposed.”

Both papers already operate a joint sports and photo desk.