Plans to transfer headline-writing from a regional publisher’s subbing hub to individual local offices have been shelved, HTFP has learned.
Last week we reported that Newsquest was asking local editors to take back responsibility for writing headlines, subheads and straplines from the group’s production hubs in Newport and Weymouth.
The changes, which had been due to take effect on 4 January, were set to be made after some editors within the group claimed to be changing “80pc or more” of headlines written at the hubs.
However it has now emerged that the proposals have been shelved indefinitely and that the hubs will continue to have responsibility for headline writing.
No official company announcement has been made on the move, and Newsquest has yet to respond to HTFP’s request for a comment on the issue.
However it is understood that editors have been told verbally that the plans have been shelved and the hubs will continue to write headlines.
One Newsquest staffer told HTFP: “The official line is that the plans have been ‘postponed’ indefinitely, though there is speculation that they will not be carried out for a long time, if ever.”
It means the publisher is set to retain its current system of the hubs adding headlines after being sent pages by Newsquest titles from across the country.
The original plan came to light in an email sent to Newsquest’s regional editors and managing directors before Christmas by group production director Leighton Jones.
It said: “In order to create a more efficient workflow and address the concerns of some of you that you change 80pc or more of the headlines that are supplied, it has been decided that headlines, subheads and straplines on stories will no longer be written in the copy-editing hubs.”
“The hubs will still continue to copy-edit the rest of the content and you will see a new status of ‘Headline Req’.”
At the time, the National Union of Journalists said the proposals amounted to an admission that subbing hubs had “failed”.
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Excellent. I am staying rooted in my chair for Newsquest’s response to HTFP’s request for a comment, which I guess will materialise some time before lunch (today, January 12, 2016).
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Does ANYBODY know what they are doing there?
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Mmmm…
Sub hub snub drub?
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@Er,
None of the suits, that’s for sure. They haven’t done for years, which is why the company is in such a mess.
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In an already shallow pool of candidates, the Newsquest top execs seem to be leading the way in scrambling to the bottom of the pile when it comes to UK regional media senior managements.
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If Newsquest was a football referee, the crowd would be constantly chanting, “you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re doing…”
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Jeez!
Those of you at the top of Newsquest who came up with this knee-jerk decision and then almost as quickly reversed it, you haven’t got a clue have you?
Have you?
No. You don’t.
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The Lords of Overrule have obviously finally returned from their festive break.
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Does http ever ask Newsquest why they never comment on these stories? I dare say we would get the same arrogant silence, but has the question ever been asked?
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Newsquest sounds as though it is a rudderless ship.
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I look forward to the NUJ’s response.
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Can anyone provide a paper bag for the Newsquest high-ups to try and find their way out of? Should make for an hour or more’s entertainment….
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I suppose Newsquest could actually train the graduate copy editors it’s hired to replace experienced and talented subs to actually do their jobs properly. No, wait…
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I’ve still had enough. It’s all a shambles.
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My guess is that they suddenly realised that a wholesale change in people’s job descriptions/responsibilities at the hub, without proper consultation, was an employment tribunal waiting to happen.
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Wazza Snapper is right. And they’d also be singing ‘we’re getting sacked in the morning.’ Shocking state of affairs for a once-proud industry.
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But indecision being final does not mean that subbing hubs work.
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Subs hub snub drubbed
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I can date the decline of a formerly great Newsquest evening paper I once worked for from the date Newsquest took it over. I won’t name it in fairness to the poor over-worked devils trying desperately to keep it afloat. Has the standard of newspaper management everywhere ever been lower in big companies? It’s always been far from perfect (too many over-promoted non-talents) but this is the pits.
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I have had a U-turn. I congratulate Newsquest on having a change of heart. Yes, I am confused.
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I despair of today’s newspaper management re editorial matters. Bring back the days when a proper editor was in charge of the newsrooms. Oh sorry – forgot that newsrooms don’t really exist in the way they were when I started 50 years ago.
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Riffing on a late great David Bowie song Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, Newsquest management is a sh-sh-sh-sh-shambles
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to me, to you
lets be honest we cant have it both ways,moans and groans ( rightly) when this ridiculous idea was announced and now its been reversed theres still moaning, yes it would be nice if someone actually knew what they were doing at NQ and thought things through first but now theyve seen the folly of this idea at least theyve held their hands up and conceded
” a victory for common sense” as the old cliche goes
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