Regional publisher Newsquest is to axe three weekly editor roles as part of a fresh round of cutbacks.
Keith Redbourn, left, editor of the Winchester-based Hampshire Chronicle is set to be made redundant along with Romsey Advertiser chief Andrew Ross.
Their roles are disappearing along with that of editor of the Basingstoke Gazette, whose editor Mark Jones recently left to take up a charity PR role.
In future all three titles will be overseen by Southern Daily Echo editor and Newsquest Hampshire editor-in-chief Ian Murray, in Southampton.
A message sent from Ian to Newsquest Hampshire staff read: “Due to the proposed introduction of the new editorial system Knowledge, it is proposed to change the way in which content gathering and sharing takes place in the Hampshire Newsquest region.
“As part of those proposed changes it is proposed to bring control of all publication titles within Hampshire Newsquest into the structure based at Redbridge and to streamline the running of head office newsroom functions.
“If the proposals are agreed the posts of Editor at both the Hampshire Chronicle and Romsey Advertiser would not be part of the new structure.
“The vacant editor post at the Basingstoke Gazette will also not be filled as part of this proposal.”
Keith, 58, had been shortly due to celebrate ten years as editor of the Chronicle, having taken over the role in March 2005.
Before that, he had been editor of the Wokingham Times for six years and also previously worked for the Worcester Evening News, the Bracknell News and Reading Chronicle, and the Press Association.
In 2009, he scored a notable scoop after spotting the former 1960s chat show host Simon Dee sitting outside a coffee bar in Winchester and persuading him to give his first press interview for more than 20 years.
It also turned out to be his last interview as Dee died a few months later from bone cancer.
Mark, who had been in charge at Basingstoke since February 2002, has been appointed director of fundraising and communications for the Ark Cancer Centre Charity, based at the town’s hospital.
He moved to Basingstoke as deputy editor in February 1997, after spending six years at the Daily Echo where he was chief crime reporter and later assistant news editor.
A formal consultation period with those affected has now begun with the outcome due to be announced on Thursday 5 March.
Newsquest has declined to comment further on the proposals.
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As I posted at the end of last year, 2015 will be full of this kind of announcement – experienced journalists who know their patches inside-out getting the heave-ho. The relentless downward spiral will mean reduced quality, fewer readers and less advertising… and on and on it goes till none of us are left.
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Detailed local knowledge of the circulation area USED to be important so content choice reflected the needs of local readers. By combining titles and circulation areas it becomes obvious that content decisions cannot be made with that consideration, let alone safely as the editor is legally responsible for publication. Just waiting for Newsquest to screw up big time!
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In my experience there is one drawback with group editors or their equivalent. They don’t edit and spend an awful lot of time in meetings.
Some poor soul called head of content , content editor, whatever, does the donkey work. Perhaps there are noble exceptions.
The hacks have gone, the eds are going. The papers must be next in the quest for more savings to prop up the slow stream of digital profit. I hope I am wrong for my sake and thousands of others.
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Here we go again… still can’t get used to those two words content and gathering. Perhaps the company should be re-named ContentQuest?
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It’s the community and the readers who lose out. Editors – especially those at the helm of small weeklies – are essential for spearheading campaigns, they know the local issues and are part of the community they serve. Newsquest have no respect for community newspapers and it shows. If you are an editor of a weekly paper in Newsquest be afraid!
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OK. This has gone far enough. It is time to bite the bullet and fire all regional newspaper editors. (MEMO TO HR: Christmas Eve 2015 is when the axe should ideally fall)
They must be replaced by a UK editor in Chief, working from the God Suite in Heaven Towers, The Roundabout, Slough.
Using Newsroom 19.7 (revision 76) he would be able to produce all web content for all newspapers on a 24 x 7 basis, using the resource of a growing band of citizen journalists and Iphone photographers (Highly trained via the Scooby Doo Guide to Journalism, or the Scrappy Doo Guide to Digital Press Photography.)
In the meantime his faithful dog (using Newsroom 19.8 Revision 976b) will be able to convert the content in printed products for the whole country.
Of course, deadlines will need to be brought forward by several months, due to the difficulty for finding press slots on the one remaining press site on Jersey. (Sorry , did I not mention that revision 976b of Newsroom 19.8 allows for the mass closure of all press sites bar one, and given that logistically, Jersey is the least satisfactory site to keep – that decision is, of course a formality)
Those wishing to apply for this prestigious post will need, naturally to take an intelligence test.
QUESTION ONE: Re-arrange the following words to make no sense at all:
piss brewery not organise a in could up
PS: The dog will need to take the test, too.
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Everybody is replaceable! Hopefully, they know what they are doing…….
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Not the Knowledge! It’s a terrible thing to use.
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Not just NQuest. JP has plenty of papers with no proper editors in the sense that the public know them. Just production slaves called content editors, a lot of them not exactly local either. No-one’s fault except the barmy senior management.
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Got a ‘Head of Content’ on our local. Can’t even get the place names right and subbing done at a hub where news from towns 40 miles way is slotted into our rag..
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“Due to the proposed introduction of the new editorial system Knowledge”
SCARY. God help anyone and everyone who sets sail in her…..
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What an enormous opportunity. Take the redundancy, get out there, and fill the vacuum with a properly run hyper-local. Your country needs you!
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What an exciting proposal! I am very excited about these exciting changes.
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Axing editors in Hampshire, advertising for Knowledge copyeditors in Weymouth…. Hmmmmm
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Sorry to hear this news, if not particularly surprised. Keith gave me my first job in newspapers and I also worked with Andrew Ross. Both absolute professionals who know their patches and readers inside out.
Another sad blow for the once-proud Chronicle as it and the Romsey Advertiser become treated as little more than weekly offshoots of the daily paper.
Best of luck to both Keith and Andrew.
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All these dynamic plans will of course lead to improvement all round with more detailed news coverage etc, as I’m sure Newsquest will assure the papers’ readers!
“More to come” as we used to say at the end of each folio years ago.. It’s true in this new context of cutbacks and misery…
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If all the ‘proposed’ and ‘proposals’ in Mr Murray’s statement were taken up, he could become a serial bigamist. . . . Come on, you’re going to do it anyway, so why not just say so–despite the fact that it’s mismanagement gone mad. Sales of the Southern Daily Echo are in catastrophic, if not terminal, decline. Yet you sack really good, old -school editors who could drag you out of the financial mire given some sound long-term investment in their newspapers. Lucky me. I got out in time!
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Death by a thousand cuts – the massacre continues!
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A very bad day for Democracy. With the Editors we had in Southampton and Romsey it was almost impossible to get justifiable criticism of the MP, or corrections or rebuttals for her misinformation, printed.
Murray and Newsquest now confirm their circle of friends and political allegiance!
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Knowledge comes in, people go out. Night follows day.
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The trouble with Newsquest, is that all that counts is the ‘ bottom line’. They look after a chosen few, and everyone else is are just there to make up numbers. I don’t know the chap from the Chronicle, but Andy is nice unassuming guy who has worked for the company for about 30 years, and should be treated better than this…. Yes, it is again, a bad day for Democracy, but at least Andy you won’t have to sit on a red sofa in some shopping centre.
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If people wanted to pay for Newsquest’s newspapers and the websites made money, the relentless redundancies wouldn’t be happening. But people don’t want Newsquest’s Newspapers and no one will ever pay to access a Newsquest website. (They might have done once, but that ship has sailed).
Local is dead. Not enough people are interested. It’s happening everywhere. Have you seen local TV news? Local? Not even close. News? Not really. And what about local commercial and BBC radio? That’s not local either. The chances are your nearest commercial radio station was bought, rebranded and relocated years ago. You might have a community station if you’re lucky, but it’s got no money and sounds rubbish.
So, given that no one wants local anything (or more acurately, no one can make money out of providing local content) Newsquest will probably shut most of its local papers very soon. And the regional Dailies will stagger on a little longer.
When no one wants what you’ve got to sell, it’s time to stop flogging that dead horse. There is no new generation of local content consumers. And when you do it as derivatively and uninspiringly as today’s local news groups do, there’s no chance of creating one.
How much longer can a corpse keep twitching?
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