Jobs are at risk after a regional publisher announced plans to close a subbing hub and transfer the work to another base 70 miles away.
The introduction of a new editorial system means Newsquest is proposing to close its production hub in Worcester, which produces titles for the Midlands South division, and transfer the work to a new copy editing unit in Newport, South Wales, putting up to 15 jobs at risk.
The move has been announced to sub-editors at the Worcester base, who have been told that there will be around seven subbing roles available in Newport, where the South Wales Argus is based, if they chose to move.
Titles produced in Worcester include the Worcester News, Ledbury Reporter, Malvern Gazette, Stourbridge News and Halesowen News and some of the sub-editors have already been previously centralised there from Stourbridge.
In an announcement to the sub-editors, Newsquest Worcester group editor Peter John said that the introduction of a new editorial system in the Wales and Gloucestershire areas meant efficiency savings could be made.
He said the company would try to avoid making redundancies and a consultation with affected staff members would take place until at least the end of this month.
The statement said: “Given the current and forecasted economic climate in the UK, all areas of the business are continually being explored to ensure we are as efficient as possible.
“The company has invested in a new editorial system in Wales and Gloucestershire region. This gives us greater flexibility, improves our news gathering facilities, and provides staff with upgraded equipment to better meet the ever-changing needs of our business.
“The system provides a more streamlined workflow for the production of pages, along with direct interfaces with our digital platforms. This has created efficiencies in a number of areas which will be outlined in detail in due course.”
The transfer of sub-editing work is set to begin on 28 October, starting with the Hereford Times and Ludlow Advertiser and with a phased roll-out across the Midlands South titles.
It is thought around seven jobs will be created at the unit in Newport, although the exact number will not be known until later in the consultation process.
The statement added: “I would like to point out that this has no reflection on anyone’s performance and is totally due to efficiency savings through the introduction of new technology and processes.”
Sub-editors working for the Midlands titles had previously been centralised in Worcester in 2010 in a move which nearly led to strike action by the “Stourbridge Ten”.
The company decided to use its existing subbing hub in Worcester for titles which were produced in Stourbridge, 27 miles away, which affected three sub-editors.
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I don’t know that neck of the woods, but know South Wales is a long way, culturally and geographically, from the East Midlands. What they really mean is, we don’t want subs.
And what the hell does “streamlined workflow” and “direct interface” mean? This is the sort of guff subs normally cut out. No wonder the newspaper industry is in trouble.
Now, just watch out for the first libel case as nobody is checking the copy.
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The Newport ‘hub’ has only just gone through a redundancy round, getting rid of subs, and now they’re saying around 7 sub jobs will be made available in Newport because of this? How can that be legal?
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How I have grown to loathe the euphemistic phrase ‘efficiency savings’. Please stop trotting out this ridiculous term and say it like it is – who knows, you may claw back some respect for your refreshing honesty.
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‘Streamlined workflow’ means ‘we’ve invested millions in a posh new editorial system which will allow us to sack all the subs and impose a greater workload on the reduced number of page planners and reporters which this will allow us to employ.’
Been there, seen it, done it, got the redundancy cheque from TM.
The seven jobs in Newport will be non-jobs, created to give the impression that they care but which can be made redundant when the next stage of the new production system is introduced in, say, nine months’ time.
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Usual load of meaningless management-speak from Newsquest. No surprise there then. I agree with Sub Up North – the connection between Worcester and South Wales, in real newspaper terms is non-existent. Mistakes will be made that make the paper, and its hapless staff, look stupid, at the very least , libellous at worst. And guess what, the readers will lose interest and investment in what is no longer their local paper.
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Bit of subbing needed for the first post.
Worcester in the EAST Midlands?
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I thought these idiotic phrases were the preserve of our management and David Brent.
Hadn’t realised that streamlined interfaces and the like had infected other publishers too.
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Not sure, Sub Up North, what the “East Midlands” has got to do with it, as all the titles affected are in the Black Country, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and South Shropshire. But I guess that’s a perfect example of why such distances will make a difference – Sub Up North is probably as close to them as Newport will be and has just as much local knowledge as the template-filling-robots (not really sub editors) there will have!
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Arthur, with the new system in place, there will be no subs – they’re called ‘copy editors’, fitting stories onto templated pages. HTFP has paraphrased it as a ‘subbing role’ but that’s not the official title. So I don’t think there’s a legal problem with sacking loads of people and employing others in a different job, unfortunately.
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Think I’m going to quit this business and team up with some geeky digital types to devise a fully automated content management system. Ideally something that can produce an entire newspaper from scratch with no human interference whatsoever, thereby dispensing with the need for journalists altogether. Reckon I could make a fortune.
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Newport is at least 1hr 20min from Worcester so it won’t be likely that many subs will want to make the 2hr 40min round trip.
If you want to see what this will mean for Worcestershire then look no further than the Evesham Journal website which is currently showing a story about Cleobury Mortimer, 36 miles from Evesham; a second about a Worcester girl thrown off a bus, in Worcester 17 miles away and a third about two people found dead in a farmhouse in Glenarm, Co Antrim,across the sea in Northern Ireland.
The content of the website has deteriorated significantly since production of the Evesham Journal moved to Worcester. Goodness knows how much worse it will get with staff based even further away. Whoever is updating this website clearly has no idea what the circulation area of the Evesham Journal is these days. It seems that any old content will do.
The only question now is how soon the Worcester News will go weekly. The circulation is pitifully small, less than 14,000.
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They can talk about efficiency savings all they like but it’s quite clear that what they really discuss in these management meetings is how to achieve the biggest possible reduction in newspaper sales during the next financial period. Credit where credit’s due, they’re very good at it!
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It’s a funny old world (as the Iron Lady once said). Non-journalist managers starve editorial departments of staff and investment. The circulation then goes down so they have to make journalists redundant. The circulation goes down again so more cuts have to be made. The sales go down again until circulation is so low that it isn’t worth advertising in because no one is reading it anyway.
As soon as advertising starts to slide it’s too late. Goodbye news, goodbye advertising then it’s time for the managers move on having wrecked people’s careers, lives and families.
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More damaging decisions by a company that appears to becoming increasingly delinquent.
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Well said ex Worcester news reporter. Words fail me to the extent that I am unable to add anything else.
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J Dale, of Nottingham, we’re way ahead of you….
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Ex-Worcester News reporter commented “The only question now is how soon the Worcester News will go weekly. The circulation is pitifully small, less than 14,000.”
Sadly the latest ABC shows that in June 2013 it dropped to 11,380 – down from 12,503 just five months earlier.
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‘Improves our news gathering facilities’…really! How?
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Sorry Rupert Bear – spot-on. Said I didn’t know that neck of the woods!
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Surely the past tense of “forecast” is “forecast”; and not “forecasted”?
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