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Ten jobs to go on channel island daily

Channel island daily the Guernsey Press is aiming to shed around ten jobs – but sister title the Jersey Evening Post has escaped a similar cull.

Echoing an announcement made last month by the Midland News Association – also owned by the West Midlands-based Graham family – the island title is looking for a reduction of around 10pc of its 105-strong payroll.

A statement from the Guernsey Press said: “Advertising revenue is 80pc of our total revenue and 2008 has been a difficult year.

“Situations vacant advertising has been in decline throughout 2008 and property and related advertising has also reduced as house sales on the island have slowed dramatically.

“As well as declining revenue, we also face cost increases. Newsprint is expected to go up in price by 23pc in January.

“We have told all staff that we will avoid replacing leavers whenever possible and that we will consider applications from any member of staff who comes forward to be considered for voluntary severance.

“The number of posts we need to save is in single figures – about 10pc of our total workforce.”

The statement added that there was no question over the viability of Guernsey Press Co or the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Jersey Evening Press has denied any similar move in its offices.

Managing director Jerry Ramsden said: “In Jersey, advertising revenue in 2008 has grown on the previous year.

“Job advertising decline started much later in Jersey than in Guernsey and in Britain and the property market in Jersey is still moving – houses are being bought and sold, albeit at a slower rate.

“We do expect the next couple of years to be difficult in Jersey but we have not yet seen the very difficult economic and trading conditions the newspaper has seen in Guernsey.

“We are avoiding replacing any leavers whenever possible but we are not consulting about any redundancies at this time.”

Comments

Worried (26/11/2008 21:06:39)
“The number of posts we need to save is in single figures – about 10pc of our total workforce.”
I think they need a sub!!