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Regional daily editor faces axe in fresh JP shake-up

john_s_400x400A long-serving regional editor is facing redundancy 20 months after taking over the hot seat at a Johnston Press daily.

John Szymanski, left, took over as editor of the Sunderland Echo in February 2013 after 11 years as editor of sister title the Shields Gazette.

He is the latest Johnston Press editor to face redundancy as the company continues its cost-cutting drive.

In its interim management report published last week, the company revealed it would be implementing “further efficiency and restructuring initiatives” in the final three months of the year.

When he moved to Sunderland, John was succeeded as Gazette editor by Joy Yates who combined the role with the editorship of the Hartlepool Mail.

However in March this year Joy, who has edited the Mail since 2006, became group editor with overall responsibility for all three JP dailies in the North East.

Although John initially continued to be in day-to-day charge in Sunderland, it is understood that his role is now at risk of redundancy.

Johnston Press has declined to comment on the story.

Last week HTFP revealed the company is also in consultation with Barry Peters, editor of the Bury Free Press and Group editor of Anglian Newspapers.

Then the company announced it was merging the operations of the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and Edinburgh Evening News with the loss of up to 45 jobs.

In Wednesday’s statement the company said:  “The continuing strong growth of Johnston Press’ digital platform positions the business for further improvements in 2015.

“In addition, the business will implement further efficiency and restructuring initiatives in the final quarter.”

18 comments

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  • November 3, 2014 at 8:56 am
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    Its a trend. A lot of JP papers don’t have editors and some don’t have sports editors. It shows because amongst other things pages are not checked thoroughly and trainees receive inadequate guidance. Good luck to editors out there…and teach-yourself trainees.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 9:19 am
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    When will JP learn that cutting jobs is not the answer to falling newspaper sales? Eventually, JP will run out of jobs to axe, then what? Investment? I don’t think I will live long enough to see it though.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 10:04 am
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    I don’t know this chap so the following is not aimed at him. There are many editors that do zero editing, leaving it to the on duty desk heads. I’m sure they could roll this out company wide without any drop in quality.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 10:25 am
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    Its obvious to all that JP is hell bent on a digital future so those that are left in the skeleton army had better get used to it. Shame because with care the papers could survive and a lot will be lost from communities.
    Change was needed, but some of us have watched all this madness unfold around us, helpless at the top-down dictatorship that started years ago.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 10:35 am
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    JP…what an appalling place to work.
    Last week we had “more cutbacks promised”, as though they were doing staff a favour, and now this.
    We need a trust to run the larger and more influential British newspapers in the interests of democracy and not these asset strippers.
    Time and time again readers and advertisers (not to mention staffs) are let down by what is commercial piracy in the UK media.
    The NUJ and Editors’ organisations should be pushing for this instead of just looking for the nearest lifeboat.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 11:08 am
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    Why is it when companies are asked about redundancies they simply make statements in which they blather on about “continuing strong growth of (insert company name here!) digital platform positions…”
    It is sadly not unique to JP, but as ex-reader rightly says, they will eventually run out of jobs to axe and then realise they need a Plan B – by which time it will probably be too late!

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  • November 3, 2014 at 11:27 am
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    Digital isn’t working and will never work! Core advertisers don’t like it and if you can’t hold onto them then it’s over! Some ‘newspaper’ companies are destroying their own products to chase the fool’s gold of digital. Cutting and cutting staff if a bad sign!

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  • November 3, 2014 at 2:29 pm
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    Reducing the quality of your product is no way to increase sales or advertising within it, yet JP is intent on doing so. Rather than the constant cutting to save costs, they should be making sure that everything they do is done so well it generates as much income as possible. Retain your best photographers, reporters, feature writers and graphic designers to produce a worthy product. I was shown a large ad recently from the Yorkshire Evening Post for ‘Your Local Elite’ (an A5 glossy mag in association with JP). The copy read like a series of notes from a meeting: the photo used was a snap of a woman holding a couple of copies of said mag, (should have been close-up shots of the product) and after wading through the unedited copy, complete with spelling errors, if you were interested you had to “call ………… or email ………….” (No number or address given!) When in-house advertising is produced so badly: not checked, not designed by a designer, not written correctly etc. it is not going to generate a penny. JP should be retaining staff that can make a difference to income generation, not simply, cutting, cutting, cutting. Ex-reader is spot on.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 3:28 pm
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    Show loyalty (in senior positions, wield the axe and implement cuts) but then get axed yourself. Hardly encourages dedication to the cause at any level.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 4:26 pm
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    Mr Angry2, readers are moving to digital ways of getting the news. They are dictating what we do.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 4:28 pm
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    Digital is OK, but don’t try and access a hard news story on a JP website (crash/fire/robbery)… you have to sit through 30 seconds of some inane beer or film advert featuring idiots whooping and laughing. By which time, you’ve totally gone off the idea of reading the story. Or, like me, you get fed up after five seconds of advertising being forced down your throat and don’t hang around to read the story anyway. Either way – it’s complete b*****ks!

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  • November 3, 2014 at 4:45 pm
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    Never worked out what practical work group editors do.some smoozing with pet MPs business bods etc involved, but how much hands on editing?might be scope there to save a few reporter jobs.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 5:42 pm
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    Editors are there to lead the paper, direct staff, decide overall strategy and fine-tune the talents of their middle managers.
    They are NOT there to edit copy – that’s what subs are for. A good editor, however, imprints his/her personality on the paper and does everything he/she can to make it a ‘must buy’ product.
    One problem with today’s regional papers is they all look the same and lack a crusading edge. This is because senior management – mainly ex ad reps who wouldn’t know a good paper from a bog roll – have spent years undermining the editorial role.
    Their only tactic is to cut, cut, cut, which means the operation will eventually disappear up its own rear end. Digital will not make up the shortfall – never in a million years.

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  • November 3, 2014 at 6:44 pm
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    They are going bust and that is that, they can re-structure debts, sell bonds, but they have lost the value of content.
    They are now selling Sandwiches with no filling.
    Poor quality scrounged twitter pictures, inaccurate subbing facts.
    The only way out they had was to up the game, start putting content back on the menu.
    Instead they have done the opposite.
    I give them six months until the bank finally loses patience and pulls the plug on them

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  • November 4, 2014 at 1:51 pm
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    Brassington. From your description this type of editor is a bit of luxury in the modern under staffed news world. As for subs, they are extinct. Spot on about digital. Bit of fun but never going to make proper money.

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  • November 4, 2014 at 5:03 pm
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    John’s a real newspaperman, which makes him surplus to JP requirements. Not many real journos left at Sunderland.

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  • November 5, 2014 at 2:00 pm
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    Dumbfounded. Some readers are moving to digital but the advertisers aren’t following. Ultimately that will be the downfall of digital. Add in low quality which UGC brings and sooner or later the business will collapse due to lack of money coming in. You can put all the news you want online but if there aren’t enough advertisers there’s simply no point. UGC only brings the whole thing down to the level of Facebook….which is free!!!

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