Regional publisher Johnston Press has announced plans to scrap another subbing hub and transfer its work to a centre nearly 80 miles away.
The company has told production staff based at the Lancashire Evening Post’s newsroom in Preston about proposals to axe the subbing unit there and move the work to the Sheffield editorial hub.
It is understood that nine people in the content design unit are affected and will be offered a transfer to Sheffield but risk losing their jobs if unwilling to relocate.
The move comes weeks after Johnston Press closed its Horsham subbing hub in Sussex and transferred the work to a production base in Peterborough, resulting in five journalists losing their jobs.
The latest announcement was made by regional managing director Gary Fearon in an internal memo, which has been seen by HTFP.
He said: “Following a detailed review of the Editorial Sub-editing and Design Production it is proposed to transfer this activity from Preston to Sheffield Editorial Hub.
“The proposed move will help maintain the fidelity of the designs created through the recent investment programme and will aid improvements to the newspaper titles through consistent quality controls.
“Prior to any implementation, we will consult extensively on an individual and collective basis under Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations 2006.
“During the consultation process we will explain the procedure, consider all alternatives, examine ways of mitigating the effects of this proposal, and address any other issues that may arise.
“We anticipate that this consultation process will be complete by 14 September 2012.”
Johnston Press has not responded to requests for further comment.
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More claptrap. Take redundo and find something else NOW! Get your dignity back.
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oh dear
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“The proposed move will help maintain the fidelity of the designs created through the recent investment programme and will aid improvements to the newspaper titles through consistent quality controls.”
What jibberish
Come on you fools, accept this is a negative step. Preston news subbed in Sheffield? Local knowledge out the window.
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A local newspaper stops being local once its production moves out of the locality.
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Head office using words like ‘fidelity’ now.
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This move is designed to increase the number of people who will have no option but to take redundancy, it’s not practical for anyone to travel from Preston to Sheffield.
What I’m most puzzled about is the stuff about this being a move to help maintain the fidelity of the new designs.
The templates are very restrictive, bang a template on a page and away you go. Tell the subs in Preston not to interfere with them and job done! Ridiculous to believe that less experienced subs in Sheffield are the only ones who can put a template on a page and send out boxes.
Presume we’ll see more and more “design” being done in Sheffield. Is this where the new design hub is going to be, or is it already in place?
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That’s some consultation process – 11 whole days!
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Steve you beat me to it, cutting and pasting that stupid paragraph which sums up what is wrong with JP.
Please God for the sake of our industry JP starts to fall further apart soon and begins to sell off its titles or close them which allows a gap in local markets.
I can’t see it eating into its debt mountain any other way. I am sure that in due course we will see a rebirth of independent publishing in local centres, keeping jobs and journalism alive.
Local publishing IS profitable, even in these days of multi-platform publishing. I understand the accounting logic of centralisation, in reality in terms of content and its presentation, it doesn’t work and if you see the horrendous design and force-fed nonsense that is being produced by sticking to these “consistent quality” templates you can understand why sales are continuing to fall.
I saw a JP centrally-subbed template paper the other day which had a court case as the page lead but the design called for a six column picture. So they filled it with a six column file shot of the outside of the Crown Court. If this is the “Quality control” they are talking about, then JP deserves all the ridicule it gets.
What happened to people, local stories, community and names and faces?
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Has anyone ever known a year like it for JP’s continued and relentless slew of bad news?
So much for a bright new dawn.
Digital first – workers last.
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For “no room for error” read “no room for manoeuvre”. Old Hack is spot on. I know of at least one paper (an evening turned weekly) where readers are deserting in droves because they can see through all the bull – the templates allow no room for creativity and a mass culling of local staff has left lightweight stories, which are dull and lacking in details or imagination. Boxes must be filled – never mind the quality, feel the width!
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The whole idea of a local paper has always been a relationship with the community, with the paper produced by the community. Never mind wit JP out of the way it will leave opportunities for new local to spring up. No doubt JP’s demise will leave new opportunities for all.
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‘Fidelity’? I can hardly believe what I’m hearing!
I wonder how long it will be before no regional offices or production centres exist? Just one huge ‘super centre’ located somewhere in India, within which minimum wage workers busily shovel wire copy into templates?
(I’d best shhh before I give them ideas)
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After Sheffield, Mumbai?
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You can always rely on JP to ruin your day.
I was numbly slaving through another Monday with brain comfortably switched to “centralised subbing zombie” mode then thought I’d have a quick look at HTFP.
Really wish I hadn’t.
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Thoughts go out to those affected, more terrible news from JP.
Is anyone else surprised they didn’t just do all their bad news on one day?
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Is anyone else surprised they didn’t just do all their bad news on one day?
Answer – they couldn’t fit in all the bad news in just one day
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JP bosses entered into a Faustian pact with the Mephistophilian banks…now everybody else is paying with their souls…
Horrendous
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I just want out. I want out now.
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Does it surprise me … No not really.
JP annually have a cull around now and then another just before Christmas.
I really want out and have fingers crossed that it’s my time before this company goes belly-up. I would walk, but having 20+ years under my belt I would be a fool to leave without the redundancy.
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It would be quite interesting to see how many would take up an offer of voluntary redundancy if it was offered outright in every deparment at the same time. This contant drip-drip of losses are demoralising the existing staff as the two above comments will attest to.
If i was offered redunancy i’d snatch their hands off! And tbh they’d be better off as the’re only getting the bare-minimum from me right now!
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The way this company treats people – and has such a lack of understanding of how a newspaper is produced – is a disgrace. How many reporters even now can work to the rigid templates that are often thrown at them regardless of content, picture shape etc.? Fiasco looming…….take the money and run guys.
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The irony of this decision is that it will take more people in Sheffield to publish the pages currently done in Preston. It is more inefficient and will cost Johnston Press money.
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Breaking news flag ship print site laying off staff
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