Plans to axe a tenth of the workforce at a regional publisher which could also see the number of editions cut have been criticised by journalists, who say the quality of the titles will be undermined.
The Midland News Association, which publishes the UK’s biggest-selling regional daily the Express & Star, the Shropshire Star and a number of weekly titles, started a consultation earlier this month on making up to 90 redundancies.
It said the move was necessary in the face of continued difficult trading conditions but has come under fire from the Shropshire Branch of the National Union of Journalists.
The branch has written to the company in protest at the plans, which it says will see the Shropshire Star reduced from seven editions to five – with the early midday paper scrapped and the Powys and South Shropshire editions being merged.
Shropshire NUJ Branch chairman Tim Cook said: “Everyone in the trade knows that print media are facing tough times, but the Shropshire Star and its weeklies have so far been managing, where others are failing, to maintain their high standards.
“There’s no doubt at all that this is thanks to the quality and commitment of journalists the group employs.
“If these valuable papers are to have a future in the county, it must be built around this quality, not undermined by getting rid of it.”
The union has called on the publisher to ‘see the bigger picture’, saying that the more jobs it sheds, the harder it will be to regain its vital role in Shropshire life.
MNA currently employs around 900 people and it is not known how many of jobs under threat will be editorial posts.
Managing director Alan Harris said earlier this month that the company had to make cost savings in order to invest in the future of its publications.
He was not available for further comment at the time of publication.
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Although, like all provincial newspapers, the MNA titles have been losing circulation over the last few years, they are still comparatively successful. The Express and Star might not sell a quarter of a million copies a night now, but it is still the biggest provincial evening, and the Shropshire Star still outstrips the Birmingham Evening Mail: a remarkable achievement. Management might like to ponder that their boast to us NUJ negotiators in the past was that the paper’s success was due to the quality and the scale of the journalism on offer, and the staffing levels which this involved, which brought a top class local news service to the community. If they intend to abandon this template for success what are they hoping to achieve: fewer staff, lower costs, and plunging circulation? They might discover, alongside other leading lights in the broader economic community, that cuts harm more than they cure.
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Yes, the MNA group has been losing circulation, alongside the rest of the provincial press, but it is still highly successful. The Express and Star might not sell a quarter of a million nightly, but it’s still the biggest evening, and the Shropshire Star outstrips the Birmingham Evening Mail: a remarkable achievement. When I was an NUJ negotiator there many years ago it was the management’s unarguable boast that the success came on the back of a top class and comprehensive local news service, delivered to the community by a talented and well staffed team of journalists. If they are now going to change their template for success what are they hoping to achieve: fewer staff, reduced costs and plunging circulation? They might discover, like other leading lights in the broader economic community, that cuts harm more than they cure.
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I support everything Stewart says. Originally from Staffordshire, the E&S was my local evening paper and I have always admired the way it does things. It remains a value-for-money read.
Think hard, management. None of us has a cure-all to resolve our industry’s problems but cutting or watering down the editorial content is not an answer long-term.
I’m out of touch with Staffordshire these days, but maybe management should consult more and ask the team for ideas to develop the editorial content of the papers.
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