A demonstration protesting against job cuts at the Bristol Evening Post is to be held tonight at the same time as an exhibition marking 80 years of the title.
On Friday regional newspaper publisher Northcliffe Media announced that the Post was dropping its Saturday edition, resulting in the loss of 20 jobs.
The National Union of Journalists claims all eight photographers will be made redundant and may then be re-employed on a freelance basis.
The ‘Evening’ will also be dropped from the newspaper’s name from this Thursday to reflect its morning publication which has been in place since 2009.
Paul Breeden, chair of the Bristol branch of the NUJ, said a peaceful gathering would be held outside the exhibition which is due to takes place at the city’s Galleries shopping centre tonight from 6.30pm, featuring front pages from the past 80 years.
He said the aim was not to disrupt the event but to point out the irony of the exhibition being held at the same time that cuts were being made.
Said Paul: “Bristol NUJ is dismayed at this latest round of cuts. It’s not just journalists – we have had a lot of reaction since Friday.
“A lot of people feel that after this level of cuts Bristol is not going to have the capability to cover a major city properly.”
“We don’t want to make a conflict with anyone in Bristol, it’s Northcliffe’s national policies. The strategy ten years ago was to plough money into the company, five years ago that was dropped and it was then all about cost cutting.”
“In 2005 there were about 190 journalists in the Post building across two papers, that has now dropped to under 50.”
The Post will become a five day a week publication from next month. Northcliffe Media had not commented on the protest at the time of publication.
Last week Bristol News and Media publisher Alan Renwick said the changes would give “a more focused and flexible set of publications which are much more closely aligned to our customers and give us a better platform for future growth.”
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Which joker thought up this wheeze then? Do the NUJ really think the people of Bristol actually give a toss about reporters and photographers losing jobs? We live in a changing world – then change with it for goodness sake!
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And just walk away with a whimper!
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I think people will give ‘a toss’ when they find they have no idea what’s going on in their ‘changing world’ because there’s no one to report on it.
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They have eight photographers?! We’re doing six papers a week and numerous other publications with three!!!
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Three photographers!!! That sounds like a glut of snappers compared the proposed zero photographers at the Post.
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eight toggies is more than a full region have in some groups
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THREE snappers? Luxury.
We’ve done away with photography altogether and have issued reporters with a box of crayons and a sketch pad. Sure, it looks a bit weird to the expert eye, but those suckers we laughingly used to call “readers” will never notice. Mwhahaha.
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We had four ‘togs on the Northcliffe daily-turned-weekly I was on and yes, we all got the chop.
Although two did return to be re-employed (a false misnomer really) on a freelance capability.
In the real world this does sadly make business sense.
I can only give an example of but 4 ‘togs, plus company vehicles, kit, phones, lappies, national insurance, tax, pensions, sick pay, expenses, freelance cover and your looking at around £180,000 a year.
Alternatively pay two ex-staff togs an embarrassing £80 a shift you’re looking at an outlay of just under £30,000 a year.
To the bean counters it makes good economic sense, and, my friends, that is the way the wheel is now turning
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