Bristol journalists are today meeting to discuss their response to the proposed cutbacks announced by newspaper managers last week.

As reported on HoldtheFrontPage on Friday, up to 45 jobs are set to go in a proposal to combine the content and production operations of the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press.

The National Union of Journalists has already condemned the plans, claiming its members were “staggered” by the scale of the cutbacks.

Today members of the NUJ chapel at the Bristol centre will be meeting to discuss their formal response. The union will be representing staff in the formal consultation period on the proposals that is now under way.

Under the plans, the Western Daily Press is set to shed most of its reporting staff and “harvest” content produced by other papers in the group.

The morning daily recently celebrated its 150th anniversary and has an average circulation of about 40,000 across the west of England.

Susie Weldon, the NUJ mother of chapel, said: “We all understand that the newspaper industry is going through extraordinary times – but we feel that this drastic cutting back of staff is not going to improve the quality of the product.”

Editor-in-chief Mike Norton said the company was now in a formal consultation period with staff and would therefore be making no further comment.