A regional daily whose editor was axed earlier this year is now without a deputy editor after his role was also cut.
Kevin Young left the Lancashire Telegraph in July after 15 years at the paper and has yet to be replaced.
Now his erstwhile deputy Alan Simpson is reported to have been made redundant along with picture editor Neil Johnson.
According to the National Union of Journalists, the pair whose combined experience totals nearly 80 years were asked to clear their desks on Wednesday and not return.
The union claims that four other roles at the Blackburn daily are set to go, namely an online assistant, the editor’s secretary, one of the two feature writers and one of the three content editors.
The move is the latest in a series of job cuts across publishing group Newsquest which has seen posts lost at Bolton, Warrington, Essex, Berkshire and South London over recent weeks.
Chris Gee, FoC of the Blackburn NUJ chapel, said: “Staff here are reeling from yet more brutal and unjustifiable cuts. I’ve never seen the newsroom as stunned and dismayed at finding out the two most senior journalists in the newsroom were leaving just hours after finding out they were redundant.
“In the form of Neil and Alan, eight decades of editorial and managerial experience left the paper in one afternoon. They were the backbone of the paper.
“Less than a week ago The Lancashire Telegraph was crowned best online media at the O2 North West Media Awards, beating finalists such as ITV Granada. The glossy trophy for that now stands next to the desk soon to be vacated by one of our online team when she loses her job.
“Reporters who routinely work up to ten hours a week unpaid overtime are now left wondering how we can produce a newspaper of any quality.”
Jane Kennedy, Northern and Midlands assistant organiser, added: “The savagery of these cuts show the utter disrespect shown by Newsquest to journalists who have given them decades of highly-dedicated and skilled service.
“Senior executives of the company should be in no doubt of the demoralisation their actions have caused at these award-winning newsrooms and should be ashamed of how they have treated these outstanding journalists.”
Newsquest North West regional managing director Nick Fellows has been approached for a comment on the union’s claims.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Astounding, the new news editor quit after two months. There’s probably Republican Guard units out there in better shape and with higher morale.
Report this comment
Shocking, shabby behaviour by the management here. Everyone in that newsroom must be wondering if they’re next.
It’s a disgraceful way to treat two senior staff members who have shown massive loyalty to the title over the years.
And what’s the thinking behind getting rid of digital support? The print sale of this title has already collapsed catastrophically, but instead of giving the team the support they need to make digital work, they’re taking it away – panic and incompetence on the top floor.
Report this comment
Hah, who needs editors and deputies in the brave new world? Or picture editors and photographers? Or editorial assistants, secretaries, online staff or – most untrustworthy of all – writers? NQ is on a mission to explore strange new worlds of staff-less newsrooms, seeking out new life and new UGC wherever it can find it. Anyway, HTFP reporters, please get a comment quickly from someone at NQ because I’ve been stuck indoors four weeks now waiting for one.
Report this comment
Who’s legally going to carry the can if there’s a legal problem?
Report this comment
… I mean when – it’s just a matter of time, unless the title folds first.
Report this comment
So, when some irate reader phones up “demanding to speak to the editor” (as always happens at least once a week) the wretched reporter puts him through to…..who??…
Personally, I think Newsquest’s top execs should make their own phone numbers freely available to the public. They obviously think they can do a better job than the editors they’ve made redundant.
Report this comment
Newsquest certainly no how to reward loyalty….100/1 about getting a reply from Mr Fellows.
Report this comment
Newsquest should team up with Google; driverless cars and staffless editorial departments, plenty of common ground to share !
Report this comment
Is rhis the old Nortnern Daily t
Is this the Northern Daily Telegraph where I subbed in 1952 and Reg Rooke was the chief sub?
Report this comment
The headline should be ‘Black-burned!’
Report this comment
Absolutely shocking! The non-editorial big fat cats are all ok though. Merry fecking Christmas!!
Report this comment
Funnily enough, someone on here foresaw redundancies at the LT last week. Then again, depressingly, redundancies are to be expected. Both the LT and The Bolton News are on their last legs now. Only a merger of the two papers will save them with the individual websites continuing as they are today. Quite why no local newspaper has followed the success of BuzzFeed astounds me. It’s not actually that hard and it could generate the revenue needed to keep local journalism going.
Report this comment
So sorry for those losing their jobs. In future complaints will be handled by The Janitor.
Report this comment
First off Roy, yes it used to be the Northern Daily Telegraph.
Second off, and more important, this is pretty raw. I worked with Alan and Neil for seven years in the early Eighties on the paper they have devoted so much of their time (most of it paid, much of it not) to.
Alan is (hard to use the word was) the typical deputy editor, so I’ll continue to use the present tense. He is the ultimate professional, devoting his all to produce the best papers possible, and over the last 15 years doing the hard yards, production wise, to create the papers the editor wanted.
Although I haven’t worked for the paper for 30 years I’ve remained close to the (dwindling) staff who work there, and know what they think of Alan Simpson’s massive contribution.
Heartless, spineless, clueless Newsquest. When will this madness end?
Report this comment
This is now starting to hit at the real talent of British journalism. Alan Simpson, many decades a forward thinking ideas journalist. Neil Johnson, an absolute top drawer photographer in his own right. Then for a couple of decades a trusted loyal picture editor. An absolute disgrace.
Report this comment
I’ve been out of the country for eight weeks, so I’m only now catching up on the horrors perpetrated by the butchers of the new media. To think that, back in the 1960s as a trainee on the late-lamented Blackburn Times, I dreamed that one day I might be working for such a prestigious title as the Northern Daily Telegraph (as was). I was offered a job there by the late Ian Jack in 1970, but I got a better offer (another half-crown a week) from elsewhere and forgot my teenage ambitions……..thank Christ!
Report this comment