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Editor and two deputies axed in new Yorkshire shake-up

An editor and two deputy editors risk losing their jobs in a fresh shake-up at Johnston Press’s South Yorkshire titles.

In the latest of a series of organisational changes, the company has announced it is dispensing with the role of editor of the Sheffield Telegraph, the weekly stablemate to flagship daily The Star.

In addition the deputy editor roles at both The Star and the Selby Times/Goole Courier are also being axed.

It means Sheffield Telegraph editor David Todd, Star deputy editor Paul Licence and Times/Courier deputy editor Richard Parker have all been placed at risk of redundancy.

A previous shake-up at South Yorkshire Newspapers which saw 18 jobs disappear last year led to eight weeks of strike action by the National Union of Journalists.

On that occasion, the posts of editor of the South Yorkshire Times and editor of the Goole Courier disappeared, with both titles brought under the editor of the Selby Times.

The latest announcement was made by John Bills, managing director of the North Midlands and South Yorkshire publishing unit, in a memo to staff dated 25 May.

It read:  “The NMSY publishing unit has today announced proposed changes to its Editorial Management structure within Sheffield Newspapers and South Yorkshire Newspapers.

“As a result it is proposed that the role of Editor – Sheffield Telegraph, Deputy Editor of Sheffield Star and Deputy Editor of the Selby Times/Goole Courier will no longer be required.

“These changes will mean a reduction of three full-time equivalent roles.

“Prior to any implementation, management will consult extensively on an individual and collective basis. We anticipate that this consultation process will be complete by 8 June 2012.

“In the event these plans go ahead, the company will endeavour to minimise the impact through re-deployment to alternative positions across Johnston Press and voluntary redundancy.”

18 comments

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  • May 30, 2012 at 8:25 am
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    When the term ‘Hyperlocal’ seems to be bandied about freely, why are editors of weeklies getting the chop with such regularity? Daily editors should concentrate on their job to get a quality product out, not having to worry about an audience they arguably know little about. Why should they? When daily circulation is falling across the board why not allow those daily editors to concentrate on their core business?
    Losing weekly editors just encourages more filling with what’s already gone in daily newspapers.
    Another attempt to lose just about every local newspaper reader in the country.

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  • May 30, 2012 at 8:29 am
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    Short-sighted decision. How can these titles survive with no staff?

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  • May 30, 2012 at 9:08 am
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    Are there any JP editors left oop north?

    I see the roll-out of the new templates is going well though…

    Nearly all the websites down for most of Monday – the day dailies went weekly.

    I’m hearing horror stories about dummies and proper pages being mixed up and the designs not looking anywhere near as good when “filled with content” rather than lovingly crafted and presented by the Barcelona designers.

    Also, I’ve heard one paper has its InDesign spell checker in Spanish.

    Can anyone confirm that?

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  • May 30, 2012 at 10:04 am
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    The management of Johnston Press self-evidently do not care about their editors or the long-term future of their newspapers.
    Sadly, it is also obvious that they are not in the least bit susceptible to criticism.
    From what we’ve seen so far, the only thing they ARE concerned about is their own careers and survival.

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  • May 30, 2012 at 10:13 am
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    Very little surprises me with JP any more. I think the decision makers have all qualified from a crash course in lunacy. They’ve tried everything else and it’s failed, when do you think they might try investment in quality.
    I don’t suppose ever, because the drive within the JP boardroom is clearly to smash print into oblivion, regardless of whether there is a viable alternative or not.
    What we can only hope will happen is that the wheel will eventually reinvent itself and local people will start up small local papers and they will prosper because of sensible margins and a sensible expectation of profit.
    What staggers me is how quiet the JP shareholders remain as their stake in the company continues to sit at around 6p a unit despite all the tinkering by the top brass.
    Surely they can’t continue to fall for the nonsensical spin put out from Edinburgh for much longer.
    In times of strife innovation is good, but a much more sensible attitude is to concentrate on core business. I suggest copies of Sir Terry Leahy’s currently widely circulated book be sent over the border – with a couple of copies to the regional outposts where weak management is clearly in need of good advice.

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  • May 30, 2012 at 10:21 am
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    Bueno, ha habido unos pocos problemas de dentición y el hipo y el tiempo de inactividad sitio web de ridículo el lunes era evitable habían sido los cambios hecho en el fin de semana. Y eso no es cierto que los documentos de InDesign han corrección ortográfica en español
    (With thanks to google translate, along with Coriander’s heartfelt apologies to Spanish people everywhere, particularly his lovely cousin in Madrid)

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  • May 30, 2012 at 11:44 am
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    Msg for Aman… Tuesday’s Blackpool Gazette editorial comment headlined *Ffgfgfgfgf, so yeah, Spanish spellcheck working fine.

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  • May 30, 2012 at 12:48 pm
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    You know, it wouldn’t surprise me if I logged on here one day to find a story revealing Johnston’s new plans to run its papers from the surface of the moon, with an army of specially trained woodlice, proficient in InDesign! As the lunacy and desperation continues to set in among the firm’s nose-in-trough managerial circle, it seems it’s a case of the more ’emperor’s new clothes’ and harebrained an idea, the better.
    My local weekly free sheet, the Thorne and District Gazette saw its last de facto issue last week. Johnston says the paper’s website will now be more comprehensive, and for those who still want the hard copy, it will, in future, be included as a supplement in the Doncaster Free Press. Bound to make interesting reading, as, since the Gazette gradually started being watered down over recent years, it’s editorial content has been direct lifts of copy from the Free Press itself. Is the Free Press now going to carry the same stories each week TWICE?

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  • May 30, 2012 at 12:50 pm
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    *its. No need for the apostrophe there. And me an ex-sub. tsk!

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  • May 30, 2012 at 1:02 pm
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    At one time we talked of the paperless office. Now it seems we are facing a double whammy of the staffless office and the paperless news group.
    Ole.

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  • May 30, 2012 at 2:01 pm
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    Speaking as someone who has worked with both of the talented and extremely well-respected Sheffield journalists who are in the process of losing their job, what a massive blow this will be to the quality of the newspapers they work on. The vast knowledge and dedication they have is being lost forever… and what is the company left with? A load of executives who have been in newspapers for two minutes and know absolutely nothing about the products they control. Can I be the first to say it? These five ‘clusters’ of templates being rolled out are not going to work and you’ll see a deterioration in sales as everyone realises you can get the news first online. The templates will fail because they have be made by talented designers who want to impress their customers and add all sorts of cut outs and jazzy visuals to make them look fantastic, which they will undoubtably will at first. Come back in one year’s time and they will be a pathetic shadow of themselves and people will be bored with the same-looking product week after week or, quite scarily, day after day. When will these people realise that you should keep your best people, not get rid of them…

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  • May 30, 2012 at 2:59 pm
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    Utter lunacy. David Todd and Paul Licence both are top drawer and know the patch like the back of their hand. They’ve been there donkey’s years. You can’t buy what they know. Staff in Sheffield will have lost all faith in JP with this decision, if they still had any.

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  • May 30, 2012 at 4:52 pm
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    Stand by for more as the sub hub shrivels like a ***** on a cold day now that The Scarborough News and the Halifax Courier are no longer daily . . .

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  • May 31, 2012 at 9:12 am
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    Well I guess the lunatics have finally taken over the institution. To dispense with top operators like Paul License and Dave Todd is absolute lunacy. I have worked with them for years and know the Sheffield Star and Sheffield Telegraph will be much poorer operations without them. But at least they managed to escape in one of the last lifeboats from the Titanic!

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  • May 31, 2012 at 12:16 pm
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    The good news – if any – is that there IS life outside Johnston Press. Take the money and run! All the very best in the future to Dave, Paul and Richard

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  • May 31, 2012 at 12:21 pm
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    So sad to see the continued destruction of everything that was so good about the newspapers in Sheffield. Those of us who can remember when The Star was a great provincial evening miss the good old days, morale must be so low nowadays, and it is heartbreaking to see more and more first-class journalists dumped by idiots like the people running JP. David and Paul are certainly among the most respected of Sheffield journalists, very much in the best traditions of British journalism, and I shall certainly miss Paul’s perceptive and entertaining columns in The Star. What a waste of talent. Those of us now long into retirement can fairly say that we had the best years –the golden years!

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  • May 31, 2012 at 7:23 pm
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    It’s Richard I feel for – he went through hell with the first cull, and having done the bidding of his masters for the past two years he’s cut adrift. Paul is old enough to see this as an opportunity to get a life, and Dave is smart enough to turn his hand to anything he wants. Like Groucho almost said, who’d want to join a club which allowed the JP management in? They’re better off out of it.

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  • June 6, 2012 at 3:41 pm
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    Who exactly has designed these one-size fits all templates for Johnston Press? I would love to find out.

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