Performance-related bonuses of up to £600 are to be offered by a regional publisher to workers at its newspapers.
Tindle Newspapers Ltd has announced the scheme, which will see the bonuses given to full-time staff based on increases in profit achieved during the six months up to October, compared to the same period last year.
The minimum bonus payable will be £150 per staff member. The scheme could cost the company anywhere between £100,000 and £500,000.
A similar scheme last year saw staff receive bonuses of up to £400.
Chairman Sir Ray Tindle, pictured above left, said: “Whether, if I may quote Churchill, this really is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning, I don’t know but this has, of course, been the longest and deepest recession I’ve been through in my long newspaper career.
“What we can say at this point is that local newspapers have put up a great performance in difficult circumstances.
“Tindle Newspapers is only one group of many that have fought the good fight and shown that really local papers will live forever.
“We ourselves in these seven years, seven long drab years, have launched 20 new local papers in London and the provinces in an effort to replace lost national revenue and to raise profile. We are proud of every one of them.”
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Whatever his critics say, Sir Ray remains successful in his own idiosyncratic way and is prepared to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to the future of local newspapers.
On balance, I’d choose him as a boss over JP, the Barclay Brothers or Rupert Murdoch. Good luck to him.
In case you’re wondering…no, I don’t work for him.
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And I don’t work for him either; but I wish I did. His staff got a cash bonus last Christmas; we got a box of mince pies. Ho ho bleeding ho. Whatever he’s doing wrong, it seems to work.
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Nice thought but has practical problems, like the hard working and talented subsidising the lazy and mediocre. Better bet than other bosses for certain.
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The lazy and the mediocre can be found anywhere. At least this way the hard working and talented get some recognition.
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I don’t like Tindle’s Stalinist approach to political control where one man decides the editorial policy of scores of titles.
But I have to go along with previous comments and agree that he is the best of the bunch to work for. He is approachable (when he’ s not in Switzerland), and more of a genuine character than the ambitious backstabbers that you find in the other groups mentioned.
The great man came to our town to preside over an editorial conference called to revive a flagging weekly.
An old lady’s car broke down outside our office. Tindle stopped the meeting to go outside and help. He was still fiddling under the bonnet when the AA arrived.
Couldn’t imagine that with JP or Murdoch.
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As a former employee of Tindle I have yet to see the purpose of a General Manager. This position is surely redundant and a wage to be saved and passed on where needed.
Can anyone tell me what role they actually play.
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What Sir Ray fails to mention is that he pays his staff a mediocre wage so even with these ‘bonuses’ salaries are way under what you would expect to be paid elsewhere. It is all window dressing disguising what actually lies behind it.
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