Trinity Mirror has announced plans to merge production of three of its Scottish titles as part of a restructure which puts 21 jobs at risk.
The company’s Scottish operation, Media Scotland, has started a consultation on proposals to create a single production hub for its 17 weekly titles at the Glasgow offices of the Daily Record.
Production staff at weekly papers in Hamilton, Stirling, Kilmarnock and Ayr will transfer to the Central Quay office next month, while production of the Paisley Daily Express will be merged with the Record and Sunday Mail.
Seven production jobs and two photographic roles are at risk, but the company is also planning to create seven new trainee reporter roles and bring back the posts of individual editors for each title.
The company is also planning to make the roles of 12 copy inputters at its weekly titles redundant as more readers submit stories and pictures electronically – but the affected staff are to be given the chance to apply for the seven new trainee reporting roles.
The restructure has come about as part of a roll-out of the ContentWatch editorial system, which will see all the company’s Scottish titles relaunched with a new look, sharing the same design, fonts and colour libraries.
Media Scotland editor-in-chief Allan Rennie said: “This is a significant change for us all, but it is necessary for our future. This gives us an important competitive publishing advantage over our rivals across all platforms, including print, mobile and tablet.
“Our titles will be more efficient and able to adapt to the rapidly changing media landscape. Above all, they will still be at the heart of the communities they serve.
“We have today entered into a period of consultation with all affected staff and our aim is to achieve this restructure through voluntary means.”
The publisher has also announced a selective voluntary redundancy programme for all editorial staff employed by Scottish & Universal Newspapers Ltd, the company’s weekly newspaper division.
The company’s weekly titles include the Glaswegian, Hamilton Advertiser, East Kilbride News, Stirling Observer and Kilmarnock Standard.
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They could move the entire staff to the North Pole but would still peddle the lie that they would remain right ‘at the heart of the communities they serve’.
Who do they think believes this twaddle?
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Echoes of Northcliffe’s ‘production hub’ at HDM, which lasted almost two years…. Enough said, really.
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A few years ago the local titles were never mentioned in the same breath as the so called ‘big guns’. Now they are all being dragged in to the big house.Talk about battening down the hatches!
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Production hubs are a nice idea but very difficult in reality. Once the subs are out of shouting distance it’s much harder to create great pages and sort out silly problems.
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Next up – office closures, or should I say more office closures? So many empty desks and offices at s&un/ media Scotland to come on back of this. Bound to follow where others have led. TM is ‘investing’ in its papers but will quality continue if subs move out and copy takers- the link between papers and the community go?
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The one sensible proposal in all this is to reinstate local editors for local papers to ensure the content is unique and of value to the readers. Too many so-called local papers get by on courts, sports and press releases.
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Love this bit – ‘more readers submit stories and pictures electronically’.
But they still need to be turned into stories, and have their grammar and spelling turned into something that readers can actually understand. I despair.
Why don’t they just get keen youngsters and retired busybodies to produce the papers? No need to pay wages then. Who needs properly trained and capable journalists when the world and his dog will do it for free so they can impress their friends down the WI or social club with their efforts?
Is there a newspaper equivalent of corporate manslaughter? Because that’s what they’re doing to the businesses.
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