AddThis SmartLayers

Journalists at South East weeklies to move to new base 20 miles away

Staff working on four weekly newspapers in the South East are set to move to a new office 20 miles away.

Journalists working on the Croydon Advertiser, Crawley News, East Grinstead Courier & Observer and Surrey Mirror will be relocated from Trinity Mirror’s Redhill office to the Guildford home of the Surrey Advertiser.

The move by publisher Trinity Mirror means the Courier & Observer will be based 38 miles from its East Grinstead patch, while the News and the Advertiser will be produced almost 30 miles from Crawley and 35 miles away from Croydon respectively.

The move affects more than 20 staff currently based in Redhill, where the Mirror was first published 138 years ago.

Stoke Mill, home of the Surrey Advertiser

Stoke Mill, home of the Surrey Advertiser

The Advertiser’s home at Stoke Mill is also currently home to titles including the Woking Advertiser, Aldershot News & Mail, Surrey & Hants Star Courier and Chronicle & Informer, which covers South-West London.

The county-wide news website Get Surrey is also based there.

Trinity Mirror has confirmed the move but declined to comment further. No jobs will be lost as part of the relocation.

It comes two days after it was revealed journalists at the TM-owned North Wales Daily Post learnt their Llandudno Junction office would be closing in a press release issued by supermarket chain Lidl.

The Post will move to a new home five miles away in Colwyn Bay in an as yet unspecified date.

3 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • March 2, 2017 at 1:01 pm
    Permalink

    This appears to be one of the emerging trends for 2017, weekly and dailies upping sticks from the communities in which they have papers and relocating staff out of area, it shows local people and businesses how little value they put in supporting their local communities and yet are happy to take money out of the towns while putting nothing back in.

    I predict the Croydon paper will go as an on line edition only by year end along with other titles who have pulled out of branch office towns,with no office presence and a falling readership aligned to record low ad revenues they have nothing to lose by closing the print publications in those areas.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(20)
  • March 3, 2017 at 11:32 am
    Permalink

    At least they’re announcing the move, unlike where I am where it’s all covert and done on the quiet, moonlight flits don’t tend to go down too well with local people when they feel they’re being asked to support ‘ the local paper’ despite the company no longer supporting them with a presence in the towns they claim to serve with the local rags now being sold created and thrown together 25 miles away.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(7)
  • March 3, 2017 at 5:03 pm
    Permalink

    Having been to creepy Crawley it is difficult to think of two towns or newspapers so different in character. Good luck with that one!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(4)