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Features and photographic staff face axe at regional daily

Argus kidsA regional daily is in talks with staff over plans to cut four editorial roles on its features and photographic desks.

Brighton daily The Argus is understood to have started a consultation on proposals to axe two of its five photographers and two of its three features staff.

It is not known which of the paper’s five photographers, who between then have won a number of EDF Energy Awards for the London and South of England region, will be affected.

The Newsquest-owned title has so far declined to respond to requests for a comment on the proposals.

News of the cutbacks first came to light in a Tweet by a former Argus journalist, Nione Meakin, who is now a freelance.

The plans have also been reported on hyperlocal website Brighton and Hove News, edited by former Argus deputy editor Frank Le Duc.

The move comes weeks after the arrival of Mike Gilson as the paper’s new editor following his move from the Belfast Telegraph.

It follows a series of job cuts last year which saw most of the paper’s subbing operation transferred to the Newsquest production hub in Weymouth.

Latest circulation figures for the paper covering the period July to December 2014 showing it is now selling an average 13,309 copies a day, down 12.2pc on the same period in 2013.

The paper has also announced its intention to move from its offices in Hollingbury, on the outskirts of Brighton, in favour of premises closer to the city centre.

Laura Davison, national organiser for the National Union of Journalists, said:  “The policy of shedding of photographer jobs by Newsquest is a short-sighted way to cut costs and shore up profits for shareholders.

“These photographers have given decades of dedicated work to the company. They are well known in Brighton and many have won awards for their work.

“You can’t expect the same quantity of high quality photographic coverage if you’re cutting jobs so readers will be shortchanged.

“That is why we asking local people who value their local paper and want proper investment in journalism to back the NUJ’s Local News Matters campaign and oppose these cuts.”

 

27 comments

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  • March 26, 2015 at 8:54 am
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    If he did not already know Mr Gilson has quickly become familiar with facts of life at the sad Brighton Argus. It must either ditch the rest of Sussex and cover only Brighton, or become a weekly. How one of the finest evening papers fell from about 115,000 peak sales a day to a pathetic 13,000 will make a good tale sometime. Sadly, the weeklies covering the rest of Sussex, all JP I think, are pretty poor quality, having suffered heavy staff losses and similar plunges in sales. Seems it’s suddenly tough down south.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 9:05 am
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    There are several phone boxes suitable for entire Argus staff. Sad news. Its photography and features were once top class nationally. So frustrating that lively city cannot have a properly staffed daily.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 9:18 am
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    The fact a newspaper still operates with FIVE staff photographers and several people assigned specifically to ‘features’ beggars belief in this day and age. Most papers haven’t got anything like that level of resources.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 9:27 am
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    We are almost at the end of the first quarter and the damage has been even worse than I predicted here on December 31. I hope someone at HTFP is keeping a tally of the casualties. It will make grim reading to see where we are halfway through and at the end of 2015, and extrapolate how much time ALLl of us have left. Good luck to all affected here.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 9:51 am
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    With weekend working, Bank Holidays plus staff holidays. They are going to struggle with two cameras. Freelances will be knocking on the door.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 10:55 am
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    …and being turned away in favour of readers with camera phones doing it for free…

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  • March 26, 2015 at 11:27 am
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    Frank Brown. To maintain even a half decent level of quality in features on a daily you need several staff.
    In no way is the Argus overstaffed. That is why it has a 1.9 per cent bill rise as a very weak splash. It does not have staff to really dig for exclusive stories regularly and this is fault of no-one but the greedy Gannett.
    By way most weeklies I see do not appear to have even one specialist arts writer per paper. And heavens it shows, with pages filled with press releases untroubled by an editor’s hand.
    All very amateur hour.
    I hope Argus survives as a daily, as Brighton deserves one.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 11:37 am
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    Freelances knocking on the door? They can knock but I doubt they will get any more work. There’s probably a freelance budget ceiling that cannot be breached. The reporters will plug the gaps with smart phones – as they do already in many places – and User Generated blurs that are now deemed adequate.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 11:53 am
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    Well, you can certainly tell that the economy is recovering…..

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  • March 26, 2015 at 12:42 pm
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    Seems to be a freelance freeze on most companies. Are things really that bad?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 1:46 pm
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    A fine way to welcome a new editor. I wonder if he was told at the interview?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 1:48 pm
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    Surely Argus should have splashed on Prime Minister talking at PMQs about Argus late trains campaign?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 2:55 pm
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    The (brief) time I spent at the BA was utterly depressing. Stone me, it was like workkng in a morgue. Talk about morale being lower than belly of snake. Laughter in editorial? Pfft. Banter in the bogs? Yer ‘avin’ a larf. It got to the point where one oh-so-jolly afternoon I was going to stand on one of the desks, raise my paws in the air, and loudly suggest: ‘Right then, who’s up for a jolly boys outing to Beachy Head?’…….So long Brighton Argus. Oh, and switch of the lights, old chap.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 3:33 pm
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    I am a Newquest photographer but strangely I find myself agreeing with Frank Brown. The overall policy of shedding photographers is short-sighted as Laura Davidson says but 5 photographers on a daily selling 13,000 copies? Sadly you just don’t need that many these days.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 3:43 pm
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    Onlooker. dead right.place full of commuters all ready to whinge. mentioned in Parliament. Argus campaign. Things are worse than we thought. Still, that 1.9 per cent rise. MASSIVE. (page 5 or 7 at best!)

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  • March 26, 2015 at 4:41 pm
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    Very honest of Not Long Now. But if the Argus pretends to cover all of East and West Sussex it needs five snappers for such a huge area. Obviously it now considers itself just a Brighton paper in which case Not Long Now is right and they can shed one or two. Its photos were once great. Now a lot of them, sadly, are mediocre. Wonder what the new editor’s brief was when appointed. Take it to a weekly maybe?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 4:50 pm
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    Certainly the only way this industry is going is hire more college kids to produce quick web copy and get rid of staff photographers. This will only head in one direction- down. Newspapers are the worst they have ever been in their proud history.

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  • March 26, 2015 at 5:32 pm
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    I remember a Newsquest advertising manager telling me once: “We bring in the money and editorial spend it.” With that level of ignorance prevailing what chance do journalists have?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 7:39 pm
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    Why don’t they just announce they are going weekly?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 9:03 pm
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    I fear Red is right. The writing quality and number of good news stories on local papers is at an all-time low. I am not saying local papers were perfect in the past, but at least they got the basics right. Well written, human interest material.
    I compared the story count on my paper with an edition in the 1960s.
    The 50s edition had nearly 50 per cent more despite no e mail, Twatter and LookatMyFaceBook. (they did of course have more than two college kids in the office!).

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  • March 26, 2015 at 10:16 pm
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    Frank Brown… “several people in features”… tsk, tsk… heaven forbid that newspapers should offer something beyond reader generated content “news”.
    Reality is that with news given away free on the internet the real way forward for local newspaper print editions is to concentrate on local sport and features (i.e., USP content and an opportunity for good writers to make the paper worth buying). There is a proper debate to be had here but space does not permit.

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  • March 27, 2015 at 11:22 am
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    Spot on oldechoboy, York. The Argus has a strong sport section, albeit a bit Brighton obsessed and a better features section would work well in such a lively, cultural city.
    They work hard in the newsroom, but there are just not enough of them and not enough experience to hit hard regularly. Gilson has hell of a job on his hands, but good luck to him because there is a lot of affection for the Argus.

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  • March 27, 2015 at 11:45 am
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    If it does go weekly, it should trounce most Sussex weeklies – they are pretty feeble.
    Before it became a city weren’t reporters based in the town centre?

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  • March 28, 2015 at 10:14 pm
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    “That is why we asking local people who value their local paper and want proper investment in journalism to back the NUJ’s Local News Matters campaign and oppose these cuts.”

    A bit after the horse has bolted with that comment, too little too late NUJ !

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  • March 31, 2015 at 3:58 pm
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    Today’s edition has a PIC spread where five of the pics have no captions. Someone needs to try harder, especially in a puff piece for..The Argus.

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  • March 31, 2015 at 4:04 pm
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    There there is right. The county’s weekly papers suffer from same problem as Argus. No competition breeds complacency. They look a bit amateurish. Sussex deserves better newspapers. Maybe Mr Gilson can give them at least one.

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