Publisher Trinity Mirror has made seven senior reporters redundant at its Celtic newspaper series in Wales.

The move follows the recent announcement of 22 job losses at the company’s Media Wales division which publishes the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and Celtic weeklies.

Six senior reporters and five trainees will be left to cover the seven weekly titles following the compulsory redundancies. A number of production jobs and four sports journalists are also set to be axed under the plans announced last month.

Father-of-the-chapel Martin Shipton, chief reporter at the Western Mail, said a selection process had taken place across the sports department and weekly titles.

Said Martin: “It’s very difficult for most of these people as they are relatively newly qualified seniors. My concern is that this sort of thing is going to happen more and more.

He added: “The papers have lost a huge amount of advertising revenue.”

26 production staff will find out tomorrow who has been successful in applying for ten full-time and up to ten part-times positions.

Front-of-house staff are also expected to be affected by the cuts and some district offices will only be open a few days a week.

The union now wants management to produce a rescue strategy for the group’s newspapers. Industrial action was ruled out after the union were directly informed about the company’s finances.

Trinty Mirror’s half year figures will be published on Friday. A company spokesperson said negotiations with the union were ongoing.

In July a group of MPs at Westminster Parliament called on Trinity to enter into talks with the National Union of Journalists to “protect the quality of journalism in Wales.”