Regional publisher Johnston Press is set to cut up to 30 jobs at The Scotsman and its sister titles as part of a restructure of the business.
The company announced to staff today that it was starting a voluntary redundancy scheme that was open to all journalists at The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News, in a bid to save money.
The cost-cutting is part of a restructure which will see more working between the titles and a reduction in lighter news, such as fashion.
A consultation period has now begun and those interested in voluntary redundancy have four weeks to come forward but it is feared that compulsory job cuts may follow if not enough people come forward.
Paul Holleran, Scottish organiser for the National Union of Journalists, said staff at the titles had been left “incredulous” at the scale of the cuts proposed.
He said: “We are concerned about the scale of the cuts. The union reps don’t see where they can make that level of cuts. They are looking around and saying ‘Who is going to be left?'”
Paul said the company had said it was open to suggestions from its journalists on where savings could be made.
He added: “They are saying that they have to make the savings reasonable quickly but they want to get it right. They want to make sure it works.”
A statement from managing director Stuart Birkett said: “Following an organisational review, The Scotsman Publications Ltd is proposing a restructure which could result in a reduction of staff within the editorial department.
“The aim of these proposals is to improve operating efficiency, whilst maintaining the company’s competitive position in the market.
“We have started the consultation process directly with those affected and the NUJ, and every effort will be made to minimise the impact of these proposals through voluntary redundancy and redeployment.”
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Terrible news but everyone at JP knows there’s going to be more pain in 2013. Last year the business cut 1,300 jobs. Come on, Ashley Highfield, as head of a company which sees “communication with employees to be of high importance”, be upfront with us and tell everyone how many more jobs – and in which departments – you are planning to axe this year.
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‘Incredulous’ is the word. How many reporting staff can they possibly have left once these 30 are added onto the dozens that have already been given the boot in the past seven years? The Scotsman building is a perfect summary of JP’s monumental failures in the past decade. When the new building opened just over a decade ago, the open plan floors were full of reporters/subs and the like. That hasn’t been the case for quite some time. JP have run the Scotsman into the ground, and it’s clear they had absolutely no idea how to run it when they took it over. The only reason they took it on in the first place was because they were a Scottish firm, Falkirk isn’t far away, and it was a ‘prestige’ product. That may be the case, but it isn’t a business plan.
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As cutting costs appears to be JP’s entire raison d’etre, is there to be an equal reduction in the number of sales reps – or will the axe just fall on the newsroom?
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Another cut – another day.
Bet they dont get the same pay out as DC.
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The axe never seems to fall on the sales floor, Bluestringer, just on those that ensure the quality of a paper/product ie. journalists, creatives, photographers. Bad grammar, spelling errors etc. make any product look cheap, but no doubt JP won’t care, so long as they are saving on a less qualified journalist, or better yet, inviting content from the reader. Reductions on the sales floor could easily be made however, so long as JP retained the quality reps – genuine salespeople, that, let’s face it, are chasing fewer advertisers in the current climate. To announce these redundancies so soon after disclosing that they made 1300 staff jobless last year is shocking. If there were more jobs out there, JP would be struggling to keep any! Of course, sales reps will say they keep you all in a job, but perhaps they are struggling selling ads because their talented designers (with local knowledge) lost theirs. Good luck to all those affected.
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Bad news and very sorry for those affected but have to point out that the Scotsman in particular has been in near terminal decline for some time. Some days it must be selling close to 30,000. And that’s Scotland’s “national newspaper”. It’s not just cuts that have led to that – by all accounts as a regional on those sales figures it’s pretty well staffed – it’s a lack of identity and direction over many years. Wasn’t the Scotsman running a hopeless “save the sea” campaign a few years ago complete with front pages featuring dolphins and whales? Just an example of some very dubious editorial decisions in the past. If you want to protect yourself against JP cuts you need a hell of a lot more to offer than tradition.
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