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Jobs go as JP website team outsourced to Romania

Regional publisher Johnston Press has disbanded a team which develops its websites, with much of the work being outsourced to Romania.

The company announced plans in July to outsource the work carried out by its technology solutions department, based in Peterborough, to IT services firm Endava.

Johnston Press has now confirmed it will go ahead with the proposal, resulting in 14 people who decided not to transfer to Endava being made redundant.

It comes after the publisher signed a deal earlier this summer with Express KCS Ltd, to outsource half of its advertising creation teams to India, with the loss of 60-70 UK jobs.

Johnston Press refused to say whether the work was being transferred to a centre in Romania but a spokeswoman for Endava confirmed this.

In a statement, the publisher said that it was retaining 11 members of staff in the department, while three employees had accepted alternative positions and three had resigned.

Simon Pownall,  group technology solutions director, said: “A proposal was made on the 25th July 2012 to outsource the integration, development and operational support services for the Group’s websites, apps, content management system and services from Johnston Press’ Technology Solutions Department to Endava (Managed Services) Ltd.

“Following a period of consultation, Johnston Press has confirmed that the proposal will go ahead.

“The company will retain the services of 11 staff in Technology Solutions who are involved with commercial and associated systems, and the management of outsourcing relationships.

“Three members of the department have accepted alternative positions in the organisation and three members have resigned, with the remaining 14, who elected not to transfer, leaving the business over the coming months.”

It is understood that around four staff members from the technology solutions team were offered a transfer to work for Endava in London, where the company is based, although it is not known if any accepted the move.

The technology department is responsible for the publisher’s digital presence, including the development and operational support of the group’s websites, apps and content management system.

Endava specialises in consultancy, development services and technical support for application software and website delivery. It has offices in London and New York and delivery centers in Romania and Moldova.  It declined to comment further about the deal.

18 comments

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  • September 26, 2012 at 9:05 am
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    Yet again JP does it utmost to uphold the Life is Local philosophy. It is shameful for a UK media company to outsource jobs to another country when those skills exist here. If this was any other industry the local media would be rightly reporting on the anger and indignance of the community over such a controversial slap in the face for the British economy.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 9:11 am
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    It’s the Endava the world like we know it.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 9:15 am
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    Blimey! They missed a couple of days!!
    I expect they’ll make up for it for the rest of this week..

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  • September 26, 2012 at 9:41 am
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    Why don’t they just out source everything to anywhere but the UK and save themselves a fortune.
    Just a few ideas …
    Advertising sales to the USA
    Production to China
    Accounts to Israel
    Office cleaning to Somalia
    HR to Russia
    Distribution to the boy scouts
    Management to the Moon or as far away as possible
    After everythng is finally out sourced perhaps they could completely do away with the newspaper altogether and play at being a none reality publishing company
    The future is out sourcing ?

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  • September 26, 2012 at 10:09 am
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    My local JP paper moved their offices from the town which it’s supposed to cover to a ‘nearby location’, then it closed down that office and moved it an even more remote location now it’s even moving it’s web operation to Romania.

    For me it’s the final straw I can’t see myself buying that local newspaper again, it’s ceased to be local for me anymore, surely the whole point of a ‘local’ newspaper. Why should I bother investing in the paper when the company behind it can’t be bothered to have any presence or support the area. (or indeed the country)

    If there is no one within miles remotely involved in the publication why should I bother, I’d rather read an enthusiastic account by a local hyperlocal reporter now.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 10:30 am
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    Didn’t learn from the India fiasco that cost them a lot of dosh then?
    Someone is going to be hailed a miracle worker or get a big pay off next year methinks.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 11:03 am
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    They moved out of Eastbourne, ages ago to Horsham surely JP should do us all a favour and move to Romania altogether and let someone with a real interest in community news start up. It won’t be long before they publish that there closing completely, feel sorry for the staff with management like this. Local News means what it says on the tin. Not just half a dozen stories mixed with other towns in the area.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 11:19 am
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    Dennis, reporters are still in Eastbourne, it’s production that moved to Horsham and printing to Southampton.

    Now production is in Sheffield as the Horsham subbing hub closed down.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 11:52 am
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    I too feel so sorry for the few hard working staff left.
    Just work your “contract” – no extra unpaid hours – no worrying if the copy has arrived on time or pre-press is good to go or the subs are OK etc, etc.
    Can someone write an “In the thick of it” script for regional press?
    Lets face it – it’s now turned into a bloody farce!
    They could then air it on their new local TV channels.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 12:16 pm
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    I think people were prepared to follow Ashley’s golden vision when he first arrived – now it looks like we’re all going to hell in a handcart.
    Stop JP and think. Abandon your relaunches and realise that readers want good, local news, not fancy, snazzy Spanish templates. Content, not design is king.
    Do you think if The Sun suddenly rebranded itself as high-brow its readers would lap it up? No.
    Invest in staff instead of creating a disenfranchised and angry workforce in a series of sweatshops up and down the country.
    And no, we’re not against digital first by any means, but whether you want us to write for a paper or website, you still need the staff to do it – not iPads.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 12:20 pm
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    Bad news for JP …
    Romania has just been outsourced to Latvia

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  • September 26, 2012 at 12:43 pm
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    Any chance of outsourcing the management of JP to the North Pole? The company would have a far better chance of survival that way.

    Some serious questions need to be asked of JP and their ethos and some honest and acceptable answers need to be delivered, as staff are very quickly losing confidence in the management and the products, as are those they rely on to buy them.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 12:56 pm
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    Fact check for Used to work for JP: Southern production moved to Horsham until that hub closed with six job losses. Production is now shared between Sheffield and Peterborough, with ads made up in India. Southern papers are printed in Portsmouth, where 16 press-related jobs are now under threat. Press plant in Sunderland is also to close. I’m sure before long more papers squeezed onto fewer presses will mean earlier deadlines. Happy days!

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  • September 26, 2012 at 1:18 pm
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    “Bad communication from Senior Management – Unclear Strategy for the common worker.

    “Advice to Senior Management – Communicate with your employees on a regular basis with updates the same you do with your upper management”

    No, not a criticism about JP, it’s on the “Glassdoor” careers and employment review website about, er, Endava.

    Mind you, in fairness, it also says they have an excellent office and a great coffee machine.

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  • September 26, 2012 at 2:10 pm
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    Who will be paying for the Romanians to attend the group-wide awards ceremony in Peterborough?

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  • September 27, 2012 at 8:54 am
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    Completely agree with Johnston De-pressed. We know our readers and we know what they like and what they don’t like. Ashley, would you please trust us to do our jobs! And giving me a laptop won’t my job any quicker! Waiting for Peterborough to hand draw pages to get them back just before deadline with by-lines spelt wrongly and captions in Latin are the crazy things happening now. We thought when the hubs went regional it was bad. This is ‘bad’ on a whole new scale.

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  • October 4, 2012 at 4:49 pm
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    The 14 didn’t elect not to transfer – they were told if they did, they’d immediately be made redundant with less compensation.

    The three who resigned simply did so as they found alternative employment during the *cough* consultation phase.

    Considering the TUPE (transfer) legislation is supposed to protect employment, isn’t it questionable that NO ONE transferred?

    Of course, it’s good that a publishing company upholds freedom of speech / the press / information… everyone’s been silenced with a compromise agreement!

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