AddThis SmartLayers

Regional publisher reveals plan to axe ‘significant’ number of journalists

Jeremy CliffordA “significant” number of editorial jobs are set to be lost in a regional publisher’s restructure.

Johnston Press has announced changes to the editorial structure of its 24 weekly newspapers in Scotland following a strategic review of titles there.

JP says the restructure comes as a result of “challenges” faced by readers accessing news online and “industry giants” such as Google and Facebook changing the way people read news.

The company has yet to reveal how many jobs could be lost, but has described the number as “significant” and says it working with the National Union of Journalists in Scotland to help affected staff.

The NUJ itself says up to 25 editorial posts are at risk.

Jeremy Clifford, editor-in-chief for Johnston Press, said: “The planned restructure is designed so that we can continue publishing our community titles for as long as possible, against the backdrop of the challenging commercial pressures we face.

“We appreciate sometimes we have to take difficult decisions but they are in the best interests as we work towards maintaining these important, trusted local newspapers.”

Last year staff at JP titles in Scotland threatened to strike over a plan which the NUJ claimed would have led to the loss of up to 33 jobs, including up to 20 on weekly titles.

A statement released by JP reads: “The pace of change in the media industry is showing no signs of abating, as we continue to face the challenges posed by our audiences migrating to digital platforms, and industry giants like Google and Facebook changing the way people read their news. We have seen over the past year at least, a number of newspapers closing or being put up for sale as publishers struggle to confront the challenges.

“The latest Enders Analysis report makes detailed reference to the structural challenges the print industry faces and predicts that unless far-reaching changes are made in our industry, we will continue to see sharp declines in revenues. Johnston Press is today announcing a new editorial structure for its Scottish Weeklies titles to address these challenges.

“We have been reviewing our newsroom of the future publishing model to ensure we continue to manage workflows and workloads for our staff. This is a constant process to enable us to continue to publish all our titles in the most efficient way and ensure our smallest titles remain viable.

“This restructure is designed to ensure our news brands are able to continue to serve their communities – as their only source of trusted local news.”

Paul Holleran, NUJ Scottish organiser, said: “Members were shocked at the scale of proposed job losses and are now aware of the long term precarious position of 24 Johnston Press Scottish titles.

“So far the management team have worked closely with the union in providing relevant information, maximising consultation and responding positively to initial negotiations. We have been told that their plans will put these titles into profitability.

“From our point of view we want to save all the titles, protect the journalists who will continue to work on these papers and get the best possible deal for those members who choose to leave the business.

“They have agreed a sensible timeframe for consultation and negotiation and I am hopeful agreement can be reached as soon as is practicable.”

33 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • July 25, 2017 at 1:55 pm
    Permalink

    That’s about as defeatist as a statement can get, really…

    ‘restructure is designed so that we can continue publishing our community titles for as long as possible’.

    Might as well hoist the white flag and be done with it.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(68)
  • July 25, 2017 at 2:57 pm
    Permalink

    “The planned restructure is designed so that we can continue publishing our community titles for as long as possible, against the backdrop of the challenging commercial pressures we face.”

    An incredible statement, I’ve never read a statement like that from a business ever.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(56)
  • July 25, 2017 at 5:14 pm
    Permalink

    So sad for those affected;but how long will it be before this restructure filters down to the rest of the weeklies in thE UK?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(14)
  • July 25, 2017 at 5:47 pm
    Permalink

    I wonder if JP really needs an editor in chief. Could that money not be better spent on three or four journalists?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(40)
  • July 25, 2017 at 6:15 pm
    Permalink

    Here we go again. JP newspapers are down right poor and overpriced. So bad that advertisers turn up their nose at them. So do JP improve them to sell more papers and attract more advertising? Oh no, they get rid of the only people who can improve them (journalists) and call in the generic brigade, whose copy is as Scottish as the Taj Mahal! To paraphrase Del Boy – You know it doesn’t make sense!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(28)
  • July 25, 2017 at 7:22 pm
    Permalink

    Horrendous but predictable. But where are the approving comments from the people who were virtually salivating at the destruction of commercial jobs yesterday?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(16)
  • July 25, 2017 at 11:52 pm
    Permalink

    Unfortunately the ppl making these crazy decisions don’t have the first clue about running a nrwspaper company….they couldn’t even run a bath! Cutting staff, cutting pages and raising the cover price is so crazy it defies belief. Imagine the makers of Snickers bars decided to reduce the number of nuts in the bar, make it 25% smaller and put the price up….what would the public do?! JP have taken one proud papers and turned them into rags…. they point to digital and tell us print is dying…PRINT ISN’T DYING…ITS BEING MURDERED! The hardware shop on the high street isn’t gonna advertise on google nor will it adveetise on JP sites because ppl hate ads on the net and advertisers know tgat an ad on a small phone screen is useless. JP threw in the towel years ago and put all its eggs in the digital basket…well it hasn’t worked. Put out a good unique quality product and ppl will buy it…simples! put out a rag and rely on the unprofitabe internet and you are on the road to bankruptcy. What they are doing now is total suicide. MAD FOOLS!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(43)
  • July 26, 2017 at 7:58 am
    Permalink

    I wonder what the definition of ‘significant’ is in this context. There certainly aren’t significant numbers working on JP’s weekly newspapers in Scotland now.

    The industry is realising that the digital future is about larger region-wide news websites, not small single titles.

    Let’s hope this cost cutting plan (and others) isn’t too late for these and many other small weeklies.

    You have your critics, JP, but I, for one, am hoping you can pull it off and stave off mass closures.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(9)
  • July 26, 2017 at 8:47 am
    Permalink

    Quote: “challenges” faced by readers accessing news online and “industry giants” such as Google and Facebook changing the way people read news.
    Quite ironic that JP is a Google “Premier Partner” on the commercial side of things. Newsroom of the future has been a disaster – local journalists are perplexed at decisions coming from higher management – the paper I worked on (on the commercial side) was once very highly regarded (quite rightly) in the local community. Now it is almost derided and mocked at not having resources to actually cover any meaningful news. JP looks to be going down very fast – those that are left will be looking for alternative employment, leaving the company in an awful situation . A damn shame.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(26)
  • July 26, 2017 at 10:18 am
    Permalink

    It’s like a football manager saying he can’t afford to put out a team of 11 players so he’s making “significant reductions” and scrapping the keeper and the whole midfield.

    This will allow the club to go on a winning streak for as long as possible.

    Good luck with that.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(29)
  • July 26, 2017 at 10:52 am
    Permalink

    There’s not a day goes by when I’m browsing Google for the important stuff like the most efficient SUVs, Italian food recipes or the latest Love Island spoiler without first having to wade through all the court stories, council reports, challenges to the local MPs, planning decisions or pictures of the summer fete at our village.
    This has to stop. Oh, it will.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(33)
  • July 26, 2017 at 11:51 am
    Permalink

    Shred the quality of the product in an ever difficult market and hope people still buy it.

    Who are these fabulists?

    Charge for news, or die. Ask the Guardian how their freehadist fantasy is going. Then ask The Times…

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(11)
  • July 26, 2017 at 12:09 pm
    Permalink

    @A Barksdale
    This weeks earlier announcement involved the commercial department, ad sales those who’ve been outside the huge cull of mass cuts involving editorial people yet for whom the costs are substantial even during times when ad sales revenues are so ad.
    it’s hard to imagine how many more cuts the journalists and entire news department in this company can take before the whole house of cards collapses or before it’s 100% reliant on RGC or JP generic content

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(26)
  • July 26, 2017 at 12:45 pm
    Permalink

    ” JP says the restructure comes as a result of “challenges” faced by readers accessing news online and “industry giants” such as Google and Facebook changing the way people read news”
    You can’t blame others for producing better more instant content and new ways of accessing news, the fact regional publishers have failed to respond to changing markets is down to their own arrogance and complacency in believing these new ways were a flash in the pan and that local papers and brands would be unaffected.
    This just sounds like stable doors being bolted after the horse has long gone and as usual the editorial department pay the price

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(21)
  • July 26, 2017 at 12:50 pm
    Permalink

    Would you regularly buy the local newspaper where you live? I wouldn’t and why would I?
    The local news is available online for free, way before it ever gets in to print. Newspapers are not full of news in 2017, they’re full of yesterday’s or last week’s or even last month’s news, which has already been discussed, digested and often forgotten about when the latest 72pt headline front page fails to grab the attention of almost anyone. They are not a viable product. They have cesaed to be. They have run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!!
    Live with that or make progressive changes to make the product saleable. But if I were you I’d be looking at how I could get out. Good luck.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(18)
  • July 26, 2017 at 1:39 pm
    Permalink

    Will the last journalist leaving regional newspapers please turn out the lights!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(11)
  • July 26, 2017 at 3:23 pm
    Permalink

    ‘Wazza Snapper’… you are disrespecting the journalists who are professional at what they do. You are confusing JP’s incompetence and the half baked FB stories which only give half the story…if even that. Pro jurnos will take a story and publish it ith fairest and most readable format possible. Facebook is a gossip site. People will pay for professional news coverage, features and columists. Please dont diss your fellow professionals and big up social gossip. It’s like JP using UGC fuzzy phone photos which put snappers out of work and degraded the quality of papers. JP are so wedded to digital that they are prepared to see the company collapse rather than admit they are wrong.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(21)
  • July 26, 2017 at 3:29 pm
    Permalink

    Nobody wants on-line advertising. They just want a good quality newspaper.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(23)
  • July 26, 2017 at 4:08 pm
    Permalink

    I have given up reading my once-superb local JP weekly after many years. It is not local, filling with anything that is free content. I can get the decent stories free on web. How is that for a business model?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(17)
  • July 26, 2017 at 4:25 pm
    Permalink

    I’m getting a bit sick of the larger media companies blaming Google and Facebook for hoovering up online advertising. It smacks of a football manager who has just lost a game blaming the other team for being better.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(20)
  • July 26, 2017 at 5:32 pm
    Permalink

    Wazza snapper. Newspapers, especially the frees could have been diversified so far but the people in charge are idiotic. Do a simple google search and you will see the number of circular companies that have popped up all over the country to fill the gap, at prices far higher than locals used to do them for.

    Look via Royal Mail at the volume of d2d they handle now also. It’s keeping them going as their volume of mail sort has shrunk. I know what the figures were for certain companies in regards to revenue just on these and also know what a small team could achieve on a weekly basis when hard selling local. I’m also talking of various areas up and down the country.

    There are also side jobs once you have the workforce in place that come up over the year in over solus streams. (Ikea, Thomson ect) That produce huge revenues especially when you have the volumes that these larger groups had.

    Buisness is about diversifying when it is failing and this lot have no real idea of what their buisness is. They are mostly money men who see numbers and have no real on ground skills to activate change on local levels.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(5)
  • July 26, 2017 at 6:17 pm
    Permalink

    @The Dead Digital Horse –
    I’m not disrespecting professional journalists nor “bigging up” social gossip, far from it. I think you probably need to read my comment again. It is, I think, an uncomfortable truth.
    BTW: I was lucky and got out of newspapers some years ago. I loved the job but I’d hate to be working in it now.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(7)
  • July 26, 2017 at 6:21 pm
    Permalink

    ‘ fodder’
    i don’t think businesses want a good newspaper for all the reasons we know about, they just want value for money and response,that’s why they paid good money to advertise a few years back, now with the audience gone and so few copies being sold coupled with lame web offerings and weak content that can’t compete with national regional news websites neither tired local papers or local papers own on line sites deliver any longer.

    And ‘dead digital’
    they sadly no longer want a quality paper as the content has been eroded to such an extent that they no longer buy a copy, they’re out of the local paper buying habit and on top of that the publishers then increase the cover charge.
    Commercial suicide and no sustainable revenue or copy sales plans in place.
    No investment in the papers and merely managing
    decline indeed until it’s time to close the doors once and for all

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(8)
  • July 26, 2017 at 9:25 pm
    Permalink

    Strange times. Local newspapers, at least where I work, are still highly profitable; with a profit return that would make the CX of Tesco sell his grannie into the white slave trade. I work for a local weekly that sells 10,000 a week and is still the only game in town. There is a massive collective loss of nerve at the top of the industry but there are still enough people (the over 50s) interested in buying a physical product. And quite why anyone takes Enders seriously is beyond me. They were predicting a blood bath of local newspapers 10 years ago that never happened. Can someone tell me is ANY paid-for local newspapers have closed?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(5)
  • July 27, 2017 at 8:24 am
    Permalink

    I used to love my local JP weekly, packed with news, great coverage of court cases and council as well as interesting features. I rarely buy it now because the content is so poor. As for holding authority to account… what a joke that has become. The JP share price is 12.75 this morning.

    Most JP papers got rid of subs a long time ago, centralising them in news factories miles from their localities. What is there left to cut apart from the long suffering reporters? Filling papers with generic content doesn’t fool the readers.

    Ashers, seriously love, time to go.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(14)
  • July 27, 2017 at 9:47 am
    Permalink

    Where do we get the idea that the great British public is just waiting to spend its hard-earned cash on “re-rejuvenated” regional and local newspapers?

    The hard evidence dating back at least 30 years shows that this patently is not so. Even in the 1980s – when there were a large number of truly-excellent local and regional newspapers – circulations were beginning to plummet.

    Even while the managements of that time had their hands full trying to end the arcane practices of organisations like the NGA and Slade and take advantage of the then “new technology” being brought to the park by companies like Atex, Tim Berners Lee was -very innocently, I am sure – turning these struggles into an also ran with his invention of the World Wide Web.

    Believing that re-investment in journalism on a grand scale can somehow turn back the clock to a golden age is rather like a couching inn in York introducing a fast service to London the day after the announcement of the Flying Scotsman train service.

    The future for the regional press in this country lies thus far undiscovered. Perhaps we should be asking Sir Tim for his input. One thing is absolutely sure: the likes of JP and Trinity Mirror cannot re-organise themselves out of this one.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(7)
  • July 27, 2017 at 9:49 am
    Permalink

    I’m sorry but those commenters who think that something can be done to stop the march of facebook and google should think again. Their ad machines can target your corner shop better than the best, most-loved local newspaper. Maybe something could have been done five, ten, 15 years ago, but not now. The comment suggesting that the high street DIY store wouldn’t want to advertise on google? I just googled “diy stores hear me”. There are three at the top of the page, all independents. Why would they need to advertise in the local paper if they can be found that easily online. The day after this announcement by Johnstone, Facebook announced it’s second quarter results. Profits up 71%, to £3bn. In one three quarter period. The bump was driven largely by mobile ads.

    I’m not condoning or defending this. Our local papers have been killed by a few computer whizzes in California waltzing in and taking most of the revenue. I suspect there’s no way back now.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(7)
  • July 27, 2017 at 10:35 am
    Permalink

    Yves
    I’m not sure where you are but if you think local newspapers haven’t closed I’d suggest you’re out of touch with that’s happening in the regional press in this country or living on another planet, look back at the HTFP posts just as far as the last year or so snd you’ll have your answer then try telling the hundreds of journalists togs and ad pro people that no papers have closed.

    As for your paper being ” highly profitable” ( if it is financially profitable and a quick check on line will give you the facts ) the answer is here when you say:
    ‘… I work for a local weekly that sells 10,000 a week and is still the only game in town’
    Anyone can be ‘successful ‘ when they have the monopoly or no competition so perhaps if you tell us where you are one of the many truly profitable independents will open up against you

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(14)
  • July 27, 2017 at 1:31 pm
    Permalink

    I’m with retired hack. There’s a worrying lack of insight from my fellow former paper people here. There is no magic trick the bosses can pull to bring back the readers or advertisers. If anyone here really thinks the print product can make a comeback then, well, you’ve not been paying attention. Yes, we all baulk at the regular ‘restructures’ because we all know what it really means. And we’re all frustrated by how editorial departments have borne the brunt of most of those restructures. But, really, back in the day how many of us foresaw how google and Facebook would develop and come to dominate?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(5)
  • July 27, 2017 at 4:48 pm
    Permalink

    I’m intrigued to know where yves works as if he or she believes their local paper sells 10,000 copies a week and is “highly profitable” we should all take a look at the actual published finances and look at its business plan, we will also then know the size of the potential audience, and any competitors (although he or she says the paper is the only show in town so there probably aren’t any) , to see just how much hh penetration and market share this mysterious publication has.
    I am also interested to know what source he is using to support the bizarre claim that;
    “there are still enough people (the over 50s) interested in buying a physical product’
    Based on this claim I assume your 10,k a week highly profitable paper has a very high demographic in that age sector ?
    Over to him or her to enlighten us all please as this might just be the model to use which will get the country’s regional newspaper publishing industry out of the mire it finds itself so deeply in

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(11)
  • July 27, 2017 at 7:51 pm
    Permalink

    I have to agree with Harold: “Here we go again. JP newspapers are down right poor and overpriced. So bad that advertisers turn up their nose at them. So do JP improve them to sell more papers and attract more advertising? Oh no, they get rid of the only people who can improve them (journalists) and call in the generic brigade, whose copy is as Scottish as the Taj Mahal!”
    How really, really sad.
    What did they do when the s*** hit the fan in the mid-90s? – get rid of all those with experience who could have guided them – and not be left with (cheaper) headless chickens . . .
    At the bottom line it is Johnston Press’ greed – borrowing too much money from the city and demanding unsustainable profits from their papers.
    So sad so many papers will die due to their avarice (when they could survive, happily, with sensible profit-margins)

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(12)
  • July 28, 2017 at 9:30 am
    Permalink

    It’s not just JP ex JP ed they all took the short term view that the same standard of work,output, quality and advertising could be had by using the cheaper options so offloaded many of the best staff to cut costs at a time when they should have kept the best moved out the hangers on and invested in the papers themselves,it’s only now the full extent of the damage done by such ill thought out panic measures can be seen both in lost ad revenues and the complete collapse of paid for copy sales and no amount of restructuring now will revers these trends.
    Managing serous decline, reducing any and all costs and damage limitation are the only factors which remain

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(13)