Regional publisher Newsquest has voluntarily paid back a £245,000 grant to the Welsh government following the closure of its Newport copy-editing hub
The Welsh government previously provided £245,808 in grant aid to the publisher towards the creation of 50 jobs and the safeguarding of at least 15 jobs at the facility, with the award being conditional on the jobs being in place until May 2020.
Although Newsquest says it is currently fulfilling the conditions of the grant, it says it decided to return the money owing to the possibility that it may wish to make further changes to the business before that date.
The copy-editing hub at Maesglas closed on 7 April with the loss of 14 jobs, but some group editorial functions along with page planning are still being carried out there.
At the time of the closure announcement, Newsquest said: “While this proposal regrettably places 13.85 FTE roles at risk of redundancy, we continue to employ a significant number of staff for other group editorial services in Newport.”
A Newsquest spokesman said: “Whilst Newsquest currently meet the terms and conditions of the grant, we were alert to the possibility that between now and 2020 we may wish to undertake further changes to our business.
“Although we have no current plans to do this, we believed it would be correct to return the grant, and Newsquest has therefore given back the £245,000 grant in full.
“This was entirely at our own volition. We would like to thank the Welsh Government for their support.”
Last month, Newsquest announced plans to close its other production hub in Weymouth, putting 18 jobs at risk. The company said this was due to a “continued decline” in the centre’s workload.
John Toner, NUJ Welsh organiser, said: “The lesson of this sorry tale is that the Welsh government should have used the grant to support local newspapers and fund media start-ups rather than this profitable American-owned publisher.
“That is why we are asking that the refunded money be used to aid new and struggling news enterprises.”
Disgraceful they took it in the first place.
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Sadly, in addition to all the “created” jobs now disappearing, what’s likely to happen next is the shedding of many more to pay for the refund.
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‘…decided to return the money owing to the possibility that it may wish to make further changes to the business.’
May wish? There’s no ‘may’ about it. Stand by for another cull.
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Is there anyone left to cull?
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‘This was entirely at our own volition.’
Yeah, they’re good like that, Newsquest. Renowned for paying out money they don’t have to and may never have to.
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Make an interesting cheque presentation pic…
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