A regional publishing group is launching four new weekly newspapers despite admitting it is not replacing journalists who have recently left.
The South London Press, part of Tindle Newspapers, is this week unveiling four new titles in the capital – the Plumstead Mercury, Woolwich Mercury, Catford Mercury and Abbey Wood & Thamesmead Mercury.
However the announcement comes after staff were told last week told that an SLP reporter responsible for covering two boroughs within the capital would not be replaced.
Asked about the move, the paper’s managing director Karen Sheppard confirmed that a policy of non-replacement was in place throughout the Tindle group in a bid to avoid compulsory redundancies.
She told HTFP: “At the moment we’re doing our best to launch our way out of this recession and it’s a tough one for all of us.
“We’re doing our best to ensure everybody keeps their job. When they leave, we won’t replace.”
HTFP asked Karen if the group planned to change this policy in light of the new launches, to which she responded: “No, not at this stage. They’re being dealt with in house.”
Asked if the non-replacement policy was in place across Tindle Newspapers, she replied: “It is at the moment with the recession the way that it is.”
HTFP understands that two of the three reporters at the SLP have quit the paper since the start of the year without being replaced.
The most recent departure, Jack Griffith, covered the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, home to 600,000 people and regarded as part of the paper’s core patch.
It leaves the sole remaining staff reporter, Kate Gould, to cover the SLP’s entire patch of Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth and Wandsworth by herself, aided only by freelances.
Sister title the Greenwich Mercury, based in the same Streatham office as the SLP, also has only one reporter.
One former SLP staffer said: “Everyone at SLP has worked tremendously hard to keep the paper going in recent years, enduring a swathe of voluntary redundancies three years ago, and a subsequent launch of seven new hyperlocal editions that placed a tremendous strain on the staff’s workload.
“Ironically, in its 150th anniversary year, there are now serious doubts about how much longer the South London Press can carry on. This once proud name in local journalism is being cut to shreds.”
Sir Ray Tindle bought the SLP from Trinity Mirror in 2007, when it had around seven journalists on its staff.
Tindle Newspapers now runs a total of 38 titles in Greater London, with eight having been launched since November.
Hannah Walker, editor in chief of the South London Press and Mercury series, will take on responsibility for the new newspapers
She said: “The areas we are launching into have needed their very own local papers for some time and we are delighted to fill the gap.”
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I think the lack of sincerity in their quotes speaks volumes.
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Is this what they call smoke and mirrors?
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Tindle MO. Dumps massive new papers on teams already struggling with their existing workload.
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Absolutely … if ever a ‘strategy’ was being made up line by line, it is by the unfortunate Ms Sheppard, who has been tasked with explaining that black is really white – except when it’s grey.
How might this ‘more from fewer’ approach work, if applied further up the corporate scale?
Would Tindle expect its HR department to double its workload, with fewer staff, or ask its executive FD to go non-exec, but still handle everything they did previously?
Perhaps the finance and HR elements of the group’s operations should be outsourced, in the search for greater efficiences and higher margins, rather than the relentless reduction of front-line editorial staff.
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Grumble all you like. Other media groups are shedding staff whether they want to go or not. Times are tough but so are we within the Tindle group. And I think we’ll still be going when many others aren’t.
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Would you rather get the dreaded “maximising our resources moving forward to provide a newsroom of the future” JP nonsense? Stop moaning and just be glad you’re in a job or go work somewhere else. I hear McDonalds are recruiting.
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Jethro’s right – while I agree that upping the workload of existing staff is a familiar Tindle ploy I really believe that as far as print is concerned he will ultimately be the last man standing….
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Right of reply:
I think the negative comments Tindle constantly receives on HTFP are beginning to bite. Good…they need to because employers in the industry should take their staff seriously.
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Would you rather get the dreaded “maximising our resources moving forward to provide a newsroom of the future” JP nonsense?
Surely this is exactly the same thing only using different words, Editor? Implementing changes like this without the staff to make it work shows it for what it is – an empty gimmick.
Sir Ray’s a reasonable guy, though, and has upped staffing levels previously when enough noise is made. Hope he does in this case, too…
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Tindle do not have any high paid execs in the HR Department, it doesn’t have one.
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I’d like to know why the words
“London Weekly News &”
were recently added to the SLP masthead.
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Whilst an increasing workload seems unreasonable, staff here at least have a choice: do the work (and hopefully, if the products are a success, more staff could come) or find other employment. With redundancies in abundance at JP, perhaps it is a case of being grateful to have a job to moan about.
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Feel sorry for those who are stuck with all the work to do – in particular Kate!
It’s a real shame what has gone on there. When I was there we had two reporters per borough. That really is the minimum you need to properly cover all of the stuff that’s going on in these boroughs. Who is going to hold people to account and get the news out there?
I’d argue what Tindle has done is worse than JP or Trinity or anyone else. Letting staff go through ‘natural wastage’ might make for better PR but it leads to an unbalanced workforce. From what I gather, SLP still has a few subs but yet just one reporter.
And don’t get me started on the state of the SLP website. Embarrassing. And it’s all Sir Ray’s fault.
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The SLP has had a bit of a ‘dead cat bounce’ since the autumn. There are fewer stories about how bicycles are great, Boris is Evil, VOTE LABOUR NOW, and more actual news stories.
However, Tindle’s strategy is, to put it bluntly, a load of hooey. The idea that you’re going to safeguard your papers by spreading what little resources you have very thinly is comical. Add to that the ‘natural wastage’ element, and you’ve got decent papers like the SLP being humiliated.
Then again, at least this bit of bad news has been buried by what’s happened with Newsquest.
Good to see someone other than Sir Ray quoted in a Tindle story…very interesting.
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James, why don’t you ask them why the words London Weekly News & were added?
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What is strange is that Tindle think that there is still a recession on and that is the cause of difficult times for printed newspapers. Being in a recession implies that the product will recover once the good times return. We all know that the march of time and technology mean that this won’t happen for printed newspapers.And it certainly won’t happen if you weaken those products by cutting editorial staff to the bone.
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