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Fewer full-time journalists at Johnston Press warns Highfield

Ashley-Highfield2-e1401302531277The number of full-time journalists working at Johnston Press newspapers will fall even further, chief executive Ashley Highfield has warned.

He told a conference in London today that newspapers would move a “more fluid model” where contributors provided a larger percentage of the content.

However according to a report in Media Guardian, the JP chief claimed the loss of journalists wouldn’t leave front of the book quality or editorial oversight “diminished”.

Ashley made the comments while speaking at the Digital Media Strategies conference, a gathering of more than 400 CEOs and senior leaders from the media industry.

He said: “The economics of this business means we will end up with fewer full-time journalists on our books.

“What you end up with is a much more fluid model with contributors producing a larger percentage of the newspaper.

“That’s not something we can duck. The economics of the digital world are going to mean our businesses can grow, not just survive but grow, but we need to go about things in a different way.

“It doesn’t mean the front of the book or the quality of editorial oversight will be diminished.”

His appearance at the conference came the day after he appeared on the BBC’s Daily Politics show, where he was taken to task by host Jo Coburn on the number of journalists’ posts being lost in the regional press.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:35 pm
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    They won’t contribute if you don’t pay them enough!

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:39 pm
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    Ashley Highfield – what a dangerous clown. The man’s not fit to run a jumble sale. Let’s hope for a shareholder revolt at the next JP AGM.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:44 pm
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    The man simply hasn’t got a clue. Extremely worrying for someone like me – a full-time journalist who loves my job but who is working damn hard to make some of his titles look very good, something which contributed content alone simply won’t achieve.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:48 pm
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    In wonder if the bank would accept a ‘more fluid model’ for the repayment of my mortgage?

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:49 pm
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    Let me guess: Highfield is a former ad rep, accounts clerk, management trainee. It’s hard to believe he could ever have been a journalist.
    Did he keep a straight face when he said that quality would not be affected? Did his audience take him seriously?
    Welcome to the digital world of do-it-yourself newspapers. Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:54 pm
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    So, let’s get this straight, we get the vicars, the parish councillors and the knitting circles to write it all for free, then we flog the paper back to them. Genius. What will they think of next?

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  • March 10, 2015 at 3:55 pm
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    At least he tells the truth, though what it must be like to work for a man who regards your professional role as so easily dispensable eludes me. We all know the score – print is retreating at a shocking rate, with brave pockets of resistance here and there; online doesn’t generate enough cash to pay a child’s weekly pocket money. Where’s the saviour who will figure out how to convert clicks into currency?

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  • March 10, 2015 at 4:25 pm
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    “What you end up with is a much more fluid model with contributors producing a larger percentage of the newspaper.
    “It doesn’t mean the front of the book or the quality of editorial oversight will be diminished.”

    WTF does that actually mean? It is doublespeak straight out of the script of W1A – surprise, surprise?

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  • March 10, 2015 at 4:37 pm
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    Never been a journalist, ever, just like Sly Bailey.

    Worked at Microsoft and in new media. Wonderful stuff.

    Most of these people couldn’t spot a story in Waterstones, they have absolutely no business talking about concepts like editorial quality.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 5:22 pm
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    Tells you all you need to know about the man that he evaded a question on reduced journalist numbers yesterday, but admits there will be fewer today, when he’s in control.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 5:41 pm
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    When he says ‘fewer full time journalists’ he actually just means ‘fewer journalists’. A contributor is not a journalist Ashley.

    Still, at least he used ‘fewer’ instead of ‘less.’ Well done.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 6:21 pm
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    JP’s plan to destroy local journalism is almost complete.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 7:25 pm
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    Take a look at the 100 per cent contributed sports copy in many JP weeklies Asher’s. Makes me weep. But as you know sod-all about journalism and care even less you would not know what to look for. for God’s sake Go! As someone else said once.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 7:35 pm
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    When Highfield visited my paper at the start of his reign of terror it felt as if a spectre had left the newsroom. An office once employing about 20 people now has two keen kids as only reporting staff, no editor, no sports editor or sports reporters. no subs, no dedicated snapper, no reception, and very few readers. All serving 130,000 plus people. Repeat many times across country.
    Nice one Ashers. Genius.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 8:31 pm
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    Don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I feel so sorry for former JP colleagues who, it seems, are to be squeezed yet again.

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  • March 10, 2015 at 10:08 pm
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    Memo to accountants. If Ashley was made redundant, the savings would be the equivalent of 20 or 30 of the journalists he obviously despises. It’s like putting a fox in charge of the chicken coop. When will he be found out?

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  • March 10, 2015 at 11:50 pm
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    Highfield hasn’t a clue. Hundreds of years of experience and knowledge have already been thrown away, and along with it the duty of a local paper to mirror its community. That role involves holding local authorities, public bodies and politicians to account. It will not be done in “the newsroom of the future” because the journalists will not be there. As is already being seen, badly-written contributed “stuff” will instead occupy shape templates. He does not want to see the bigger picture.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 8:17 am
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    I bought a copy of the local Johnston weekly once after moving here. Never again. The company should be reported to Trading Standards for describing it as a newspaper.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 8:34 am
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    What was that famous remark attributed to Dennis Thatcher? Something along the lines of; ‘better to let people think you’re an idiot than open your mouth and prove it’.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 8:53 am
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    Clearly AH does not value good journalism/journalists, nor does he see the benefit of creative ad design or the titles being local. I still cannot see why he thinks a once newspaper reader would simply move to another platform to read the title. If I want my news online, I go to the BBC, my choice for TV news (national and local) also. However, it is rare for me to get news online. To have a hope of any impact digitally, the products and websites will have to be better than the competition, but how can they be with Highfield’s constant cutting of staff and lowering of standards. Owning a microwave does not make you a cook! Amid all this cost cutting where it matters, budget is still spent on award ceremonies: Oliver awards recently held at Elland Road, for example, healthcare awards, best chip shop etc. Yesterday I noticed a new one – Farmer of the Year. Being local means being relevant, not simply relying on locals buying the paper because they have entered a mickey mouse competition.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 9:39 am
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    I don’t think it is a case of not having a clue as far as Highfield is concerned. Sadly, I think he knows exactly what game he is playing.
    And sadly it’s those at the coalface paying the price as usual. I don’t disagree that the model is asset stripping at its worst, that is plainly clear or that it is to the detriment of local newspapers and those in JP in particular.
    But while he continues to cut the debt JP got itself into, while he continues to deliver profits from many of these regional hubs (God I hate that word), those who pay him the big bucks will be happy to play along.
    When JP is stripped to the lowest common denominator and the debt repayments become manageable there may be light at the end of the tunnel for those fighting against the tide of initiatives that continue to weaken the papers they love.
    We have to hope the damage done by then isn’t irreversible.
    While I got out, I have nothing but respect and good wishes for those I left behind who continue to battle this man’s cunning plan on a daily basis.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 11:12 am
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    “It doesn’t mean the front of the book or the quality of editorial oversight will be diminished”

    So just the rest of the book…well that’s all right then.
    And what editorial oversight might that be?

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  • March 11, 2015 at 11:13 am
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    The comments above are absolutely right.
    Another issue is the type of journalists employed.
    There are far too many juniors and they do not work out as cost effective as more experienced and better qualified seniors.
    One weekly JP paper I know gets by with just one senior staffer.
    It only manages this because he’s a talented individual who knows his stuff.
    Another JP paper I know has two juniors but they often have challenges filling the paper in the larger town they are in because they cannot cope with court, councils, etc. They often have to be bailed out by the senior I mentioned above.
    As for my paper, without wanting to ‘diss’ my junior colleague, I am several times more productive and capable of the harder stories but am paid not that much more.
    Yet, what do I see in the job ads is vacancies for trainees.
    But us old trouts are far more productive and we see an industry riddled with false economy.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 12:14 pm
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    The people at the top of journalism, strangely, don’t actually value journalists or understand the difference between a journalist and a writer.

    A journalist has to know what makes people tick, be able to know what will resonate with the public, to spot issues, to be able to separate their personal opinions from what they’re reporting on, to have investigative skills.

    I don’t see that very often now, I just see writing of some description.

    I was recently in a situation where lots of people were made redundant in my company and the local daily paper reported on it, but it was clear it had all come from the company press release, there wasn’t even a quote from the union (rule 101 when I covered such stories) and it was clear which soundbites had been spoon fed to the ‘journalist’.

    It’s not just a tragedy, it’s worrying, as long as people like this chap don’t understand (or more importantly, care about) the difference between news and ‘content’ the easier it is for the powerful to get away with just about anything they want.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 12:15 pm
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    “It doesn’t mean the front of the book or the quality of editorial oversight will be diminished.”

    Newspaper bigwigs really don’t help themselves when they come with business-speak mumbo-jumbo like this, do they?

    Relying more on UGC is a cold hard fact for many newspapers these days but what happens on weeks when your correspondents haven’t come up with very much? What happens when some of them decide what little or nothing they’re paid isn’t worth their time and they drift away?

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  • March 11, 2015 at 12:39 pm
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    I agree that the bosses of these newspaper groups know entirely what they are doing. They are employed to carry out the orders of the bean counters to give succour to the idea of a new beginning. To take on these type of roles one would have to have some sort of serious personality disorder
    Across all newspaper groups it seems like if there is more than one plan it’s something like: Plan A, fire journalists; Plan B , fire journalists; Plan C, fire journalists!

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  • March 11, 2015 at 2:02 pm
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    Manthelifeboats, you’ve read Jon Ronson’s The Psycopath Test, right?

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  • March 11, 2015 at 2:04 pm
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    I know of one “Editor”, highly thought of within JP, who isn’t a trained journalist. So the standard is set, I suppose.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 3:37 pm
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    Soon it’ll just be Ashley left, with a Johnston Press Twitter account.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 3:58 pm
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    Nicely timed. Just as hundreds of journalists sweat over their jobs. The usual insensitive approach. I love my job, and have done so for many years, but most days redundancy seems a merciful release. We are sapped of hope and passion, and stripped of respect on a daily basis. Worse still, the chief culprits for this aren’t the politicians and our traditional adversaries, but our own industry leaders

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  • March 11, 2015 at 5:20 pm
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    “A journalist has to know what makes people tick, be able to know what will resonate with the public, to spot issues, to be able to separate their personal opinions from what they’re reporting on, to have investigative skills.”

    Yes! Yes! Yes! So many people without any training claim to be journalists and yet all they do is write. They bring personal opinion into everything, produce the most biased of reports, employ little investigative skill and often don’t even talk to anyone – they just use the internet and social media to pull their pieces together. That description of a journalist should be pinned in every newsroom so that everyone remembers exactly why our skills are so important.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 6:02 pm
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    Highfield almost certainly knows only too well that the industry is in its death throes and that the only strategy left is to circle the wagons and make the best of it until the inevitable happens.
    Producing do-it-yourself newspapers, with little professional input or oversight, is not a long-term tactic, but merely a means of producing low-cost, ever-diminishing products that everyone knows will be out of business within ten years.
    Maintaining a profit margin – any profit margin – while the papers gradually sink is better than locking the doors and walking away.
    When doomsday does arrive, Highfield will then, presumably, collect his pay-off and go back into computing, where the future is considerably brighter.
    Not bad work if you can get it.

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  • March 11, 2015 at 7:25 pm
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    Someone suggested that Ashley should re-join the BBC. But it this not the Ashleigh Highfield who was one of the advocates of the Beeb’s Digital Media Initiative, a wireless system that cost £100m and was axed because it didn’t work? A sign, perhaps, that his Nelson-eyed fanaticism for digital in JP may also fail miserably…

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  • March 11, 2015 at 9:32 pm
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    I suppose Ashley might be right and his approach could save our newspapers. I mean, think how much money the Telegraph could have saved if it had got MPs to write about how they were fiddling their expenses instead of using expensive investigative journalists.

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  • March 12, 2015 at 12:06 pm
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    No good bleating now, you could see this coming from a million miles away and should all have joined the rush when enhanced voluntary redundancy was on offer.
    That boat has sailed.

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  • March 12, 2015 at 1:53 pm
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    Brilliantly constructive Victor. I can tell you not everyone who asked was granted EVR

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  • March 12, 2015 at 2:01 pm
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    These guys can’t lose. They cut costs, leave a trail of destruction behind them, then move on to higher things. Johnston Newspapers are about as useful to newspapers as the Great Plague was to population growth in London.

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  • March 12, 2015 at 4:05 pm
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    Loved my paper. Hated what job became. Lucky enough to quit. My admiration for those left. Always a mad memo on way, I hear!

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  • March 12, 2015 at 4:57 pm
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    Has the JP management not worked out that the general public sending in any old rubbish stories could lead to expensive libels?

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  • March 13, 2015 at 2:37 pm
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    Hacked off, I am sure they have calculated that, given the number of staff cut, they could afford to be sued every now and again and still be up on the deal.

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  • March 13, 2015 at 5:57 pm
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    I see the JP share price continues to slip. Is this a sign that the City is wizing up to the incompenents that are mis-managing the company?

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  • March 16, 2015 at 12:16 pm
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    No, Hacked Off, the city is wising up to the fact that soon there won’t be any business to have shares in…

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