A number of journalists at Northcliffe owned newspaper the Exeter Express and Echo have been made redundant following an announcement earlier this month that the title is to go from a daily to a weekly publication.
The number of jobs to be lost is not known at this stage but it is believed that some staff were told by management yesterday that they would face compulsory redundancy.
The Express and Echo currently has around 12 reporters, in addition to production, sports and features staff.
Northcliffe would not comment at this stage as the consultation is on-going.
The staff cuts come following an on-going portfolio shake-up by the company in a change that will see the 106-year-old title switch to a weekly next month. The Devon title will produce a 200-page weekly edition which will hit the streets every Thursday.
It follows the switch by Northcliffe sister title the Torquay Herald Express to become a weekly last month, with the Scunthorpe Telegraph set to publish its first daily edition tomorrow.
When the announcement was made earlier this month editor Marc Astley said that Exeter is a much different city from the one that first embraced the newspaper in 1904. He said readers now led ever-busier lifestyles and many simply did not have time to buy the paper every day.
It is expected the final daily edition of the Express and Echo will appear on Friday 2 September. The first weekly newspaper will be in the shops on Thursday 8 September, and will remain on sale throughout the week.
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The “yes men” at Northcliffe, with little talent or idea about newspapers, have agreed to cuts and done little to advance true journalism in the past decade.
I am truly sorry for these journalists at Exeter and elsewhere. What did they do to deserve this?
I’m glad I’m out of the game.
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A sad state of affairs when the decision to move dailies in Exeter and Torquay to weeklies has the knock-on effect of three sub-editor jobs going in Bristol, where the papers are laid out…
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Hate to sound cynical, but isn’t the quote about the changing way the man on the street buys his newspaper remarkably similar to the wording used by Scunthorpe’s editor last month, ahead of their similar move to become a weekly? It’s just Northcliffe yes men spouting pre-scripted management drivel, unsuccessfully designed to mask the actual picture – ie Northcliffe top brass wouldn’t know a newspaper from a paper towel and that they’ve completely ruined most of their local titles to keep shareholders’ cellars stocked with Bolly!
In a similar vein, why is it that EVERY company quote on any Northcliffe-related issue has to have the empty promise of “at the heart of all things local” tacked onto it? It’s getting laughable now. Why doesn’t the company admit defeat, stop trying to hold afloat unsustainable business and rebrand with the slogan “At the heart of all things ill-thought out”?
I might be tempted back into a newspaper job one day, but never one with Northcliffe!
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