Up to 70 editorial jobs are set to be cut across the UK by regional publisher JPIMedia, the company has confirmed.
The regional publisher has opened a voluntary redundancy programme which could see up to 70 roles lost across the country, including ten at JPIMedia’s Edinburgh-based titles The Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday.
The company is offering enhanced redundancy packages with an additional £2,500 pay-off on top of the usual terms.
The usual redundancy package pays two weeks’ salary for every full year worked up to a maximum of 20 years service or £30,000 – whichever is the lower amount.
The plan, which does not include cut-price national daily the i, was announced to staff today.
HTFP understands the company is not targeting any specific titles, regions or types of roles – with applications being welcomed from across the company.
A spokesman for JPIMedia said: “We are constantly looking to innovate and find new working structures and ways of working to respond to the declining print advertising and newspaper sales revenues we and the rest of the media industry have experienced for many years.
“As part of this, we are looking at measures to respond to immediate revenue challenges and have therefore today announced an open voluntary redundancy programme across the editorial function at JPIMedia.”
JPIMedia was formed last October after its predecessor company, Johnston Press, went into administration.
The company is made up of JP’s former bondholders including US-hedge fund Goldentree Asset Management.
At the time of the so-called “pre-pack” deal, the bondholders agreed to wipe out £135m of JP’s previous £220m debt and extend the repayment period for the remaining £85m to 2023.
It also pledged to inject a further £35m of new money into the business.
The latest announcement is the second major round of redundancies to be announced by JPIMedia so far this year.
In February it unveiled plans to axe 22 full-time equivalent roles across its community news reporting teams.
As well as the job cutbacks, JPIMedia recently announced it is to close eight newspaper offices across the country with 34 members of staff set to work from home or from other offices nearby.
Offices which have already closed or are due to close are Aylesbury, Banbury, Brighton, Cumbernauld, Horncastle, Kenilworth, Kettering and Luton.
Following a review by the company’s property team and senior managers, JPI is also seeking to relocate staff to new premises in 20 other offices.
These are Alnwick, Berwick, Blackpool, Burnley, Chesterfield, Chichester, Eastbourne, Grangemouth, Halifax, Horsham, Mansfield, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth, Scarborough, Selkirk, South Shields, Wakefield, Wigan and Worthing.
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Take the money and run as fast as you can and enjoy life!
The ones left will be overworked and stressed.
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If they’re offering a tax free sum on top of the payment due my advice is If you’re one of those affected my advice: take this golden opportunity to grab the money and run, it’s like bring thrywn a life belt from a sinking ship
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No-one I have met who left this outfit ever regretted it. Those who can afford to get out of JP Mark 2 should take the opportunity to get a life.
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Since February that is 92 confirmed editorial cuts plus an unknown number of non-replacement positions. Following on from previous large scale cuts we are seeing an abandonment of journalism. Those that remain in editorial jobs, predominantly graduates, will have a low-paid future comparable to the minimum wage which will hamper their quality of life. Staff need to look at the wider jobs market and if they can go with a cash settlement to help them on their way it’s a no-brainer.
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Speaking as someone who took VR from Johnston Press in 2012 my advice to anyone still there today is take the money and run. If you’re in any doubt, think about it for five minutes and then take the money and run! Honestly, there’s a big wide world out there full of opportunities. You won’t regret it. Don’t get sucked into the local newspaper bubble, you can do so much better for yourself and your skills will be valued elsewhere. There’s plenty of work out there for you. It’s up to you to go and get it. Good luck.
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After more than 50 years in journalism of all sorts I despair of the present state. The saying “will the last person out please turn off the lights” probably won’t apply because by that time the electricity will have been cut off as there was no money to pay the bill.
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A JPI spokesman is quoted in the story as saying that the company is always looking to ‘innovate’
Should that not be ‘devastate’?
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Let’s be honest here. When you can go and earn 22k+ a year working in a supermarket with no hassle, fixed start and finish times, a 10-25% staff discount card that can save you thousands and a secure pension scheme then one has to wonder why you would carry on killing yourself daily for very little in return other than more pressure, stress and a general lack of gratitude for your hard work.
Not being as brilliant with the written word or vocabulary as journalists are I have always had an amazing amount of admiration and respect for you all and in my opinion you are all worth a lot more than this. There’s a whole world of other fields out there in need of your skills who will reward you as deserved so take this golden oppurtunity for a transitional cushion and run as fast as you can.
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the only people staying are those who know they’ll never get a job elsewhere in journalism, sad but true
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Former hack is spot on. Make the move. Start a new chapter. Take the money. List your transferable skills and run. Run.
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Different company, same mind set.
Managing a company into oblivion via closure and sell off …
Get out, don’t look back and thank the journalism gods that you have been given a parachute when you are still at 5,000 feet
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It’s a no brainier to me, if you’re offered the chance to get out…get out!
It’s a win/win for everyone: let’s fsxevit, they don’t value you enough to want you there, you’ve probably had enough and at ready to get out, a new and much better life exists outside of the wreckage that remains of the old regional press groups;their products are no longer saleable,theyre closing offices and changing working conditions ( table in a caff anyone?) the quality and job satisfaction are give and they’re managing decline, get out and don’t look back, just feel sorry for those left behind.
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Ouch!
3rd line: ‘ face it’
‘ are give’ should be ‘ are gone’
apologies for my haste, there’s never a sub around when you need one is there?
….but that’s another story!
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Take the money and run, run, RUN!
It’s those staying behind who will regret it – more work, fewer journalists, but no let up on the whip from the waft-around managers (who never seem to get the chop, do they?)
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The ones I feel sorry for are those who feel they are too old to make a change or hanging on desperately for retirement. That cannot be nice , especially surrounded by nodding donkey managers.
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Many a true word said in all the above comments, but I would just respond to Formerloyalfollower in saying that journalism is in the blood for many if not all of us, and I for one could never contemplate working at anything else, such as a supermarket.
That’s why I’ve been freelancing for the last decade since taking redundancy from regional newspapers rather than looked for something else. But each to their own.
Hopefully there’s no shortage of opportunities for anyone choosing to leave
Jpi
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@Ex-regional journo. I’m 100% with you on those sentiments I was just making an example to compare current pay levels and what you all put in to it compared to what would I guess be classed as an untrained job. I was myself in and around local papers from the age of 4 to 39 and loved them with a passion and really could never imagine doing anything else.
But over at least the last 10 years of that time I became worn down as most of us have by the obvious implosion that was imminent and the lack of any real forward planning to deal with it while instead the continuous milking of what remained was executed at every turn while quality fell through the floor.
Luckily I had another passion that I have gone on to excel at and started multiple businesses on the back of. It is a scary step leaving what you love but that same passion can translate and also be useful in a lot of other fields whether that’s starting something on your own and showing the big publishers how it should be done or moving on to pastures new.
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