Publisher Johnston Press is to merge the operations of its three flagship Scottish titles with the loss of up to 45 jobs.
The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News will retain their separate print identities but be managed and staffed by the same team.
The move is expected to lead to between 35 and 45 jobs at the Edinburgh based titles.
It comes after the company revealed it was planning “further efficiency savings” in an interim management statement published yesterday.
Ian Stewart, editor of The Scotsman, will become editorial director of the three papers, while Edinburgh Evening News editor Frank O’Donnell will become managing editor.
The model set to be adopted in Edinburgh is likely to mirror the JP operation in Leeds, where the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post already work as a combined team under a single editor, Jeremy Clifford, and managing editor, Nicola Furbisher.
Helen Oldham, the managing director of JP’s Yorkshire division who oversaw the introduction of those changes, was given additional responsibility for Scotland in a JP management restructure earlier this year.
Former YP editor Peter Charlton has also been involved in carrying out the organisational review in Edinburgh that has led to today’s announcement.
Said Ian: “This one team model will enable our editorial team members to work across different titles, delivering quality content and reducing duplication of effort as a result.
“The measures being outlined – which include the opportunity for editorial team members to apply for voluntary redundancy – are proposals at this stage and there will be a full consultation period before final decisions are made.”
Ian and Frank are currently considering the newsroom structure that will sit underneath their roles.
It is expected that the plans will be implemented by March next year.
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Job losses is something JP does well in the run-up to Christmas. Remember last Autumn’s cull.
It is becoming clear that these combined newsrooms and teams are the future. You could be next…
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‘Duplication of effort’ management speak for cutting staff AGAIN,!
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I hate to say it, it’s about time. The rest of JP has been propping up Edinburgh for years. If they merged 2 dailies and 1 weekly of other JP papers in another part of the UK, you’d probably have 45 members of staff before any redundancies are made.
JP’s consultation is not a nice process, as it doesn’t involve any consultation with staff. Good luck to the staff going, it’s a bit daunting to start with, but you’ll be glad to see the back of JP. I got the boot a few years ago and things are going well.
I hope Ashley H keeps driving the share price down so someone like Tindle takes over and changes things for the better.
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I loathe the use of that smarmy euphemism ‘efficiency savings’. It implies that there is some merit to it whenever management swings the axe, and that the fewer people you have doing a job, the more ‘efficient’ they become. We all know that, in reality, it means a smaller workforce running around like headless chickens.
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Former JP staff Midlands sums the debacle up nicely. A lot of JP papers were making good profits until someone overpaid grossly for the Scotsman and some other poor investments. The south especially has been propping up that debt, and suffered huge staff cuts that have ruined both the quality and sales of weekly papers.
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How long can you keep plugging the holes Ash? The ship is sinking and no matter how many unfortunate staff you make redundant, it ain’t gonna stop the descent.
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It says a lot about JP when up to 45 roles are to go and the news generates so few comments. It is what we, sadly, now expect from JP. Their timing, as ever, is appalling: the afternoon after warning there would still be cost savings in the next quarter (not quarter of an hour!) The comment from JP suggesting that the share price should reflect the size of the company is now laughable: the current price will do that shortly.
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Scottish journalists paying price already paid by others down south…. Just as well we’ve got indy press and social media to provide news and hopefully pay some of us too!
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