More than 20 journalism jobs are set to be lost in a restructure by JPIMedia.
The regional publisher is planning to make 22 full-time equivalent roles redundant across its community news reporting teams.
The teams are based at a number of different regional hubs around the country, and are responsible for community pages across multiple titles.
It is understood staff have until 15 March to apply for voluntary redundancy.
The cuts are set to be implemented as a result of a variety of factors including declining advertising revenues and cuts to newspaper paginations.
The company declined to comment when approached by HTFP, and has not revealed where the at-risk roles are based.
Last month it was revealed JPI would be taking on 19 new community news reporters as part of a new scheme funded by Facebook.
It is not clear whether the journalists currently at risk could be offered some of the new roles.
The social media giant is partnering with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and nine regional publishers to fund a total of 82 new journalists across the country.
The new reporters are set to be based in under-reported communities, both rural and urban.
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So fewer pages means more buyers of their newspapers – is that JPI Media logic? Let’s see how the latest ABCs look on Friday…of those JPI titles still being audited by the ABC.
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An educated guess that most jpimedia regionals will have lost between 10% and 14%sales…..again,therefore economies have to be made.
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And so it begins … again
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I would have thought that even in these days of HTML5 and integrated newsrooms, the raison d’etre for the regional press is that it is a rich source of news from the areas it serves. Otherwise why would any reader invest a not insubstantial amount of money on buying a local paper?
It follows, therefore, that a policy which makes “community journalists” – that’s journalists in old money – redundant seems a barely credible course of action.
It is rather like Bassetts making licorice all-sorts without the licorice.
If this is the level of blue-sky thinking at JPI Media, they had better start looking to employ someone to turn off the lights when the last reader has left.
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Sutler
The reason so few people buy a local paper these days is the lack of actual local news,therefore ejecting even more community reporters, district staff, branch office journos, call them what you will, just hammers yet another nail into these publishers coffins and the regional press as a viable credible news force.
The days of these once formidable regional groups being seen as respected providers of local news any longer are rapidly coming to an end, leaving the field wide open to the newer, more relevant and genuinely local community publishers to take the reins.
Commiserations to those soon to be redundant staff
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…. oh and to those still working at the big six or seven regional publishers, you really ought to be making exit plans and thinking of yourselves if you’ve not already done so, so many people thought they were safe from the earlier cuts only to find their roles under review and their jobs at risk further down the live as the situation worsens due to ( quote) ” ….. declining advertising revenues and cuts to newspaper paginations” and that’s not going to reversed any time soon.
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jpimedia – this is the same crowd who wormed their way out of paying pension money owed to thousands of their former employees – chucking the responsibility on to the taxpayer and harming the futures of the people they once relied upon to get their papers out… what do they care about a few jobs?
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How thoughtful and generous of the company to give the people affected until March 15 to decide upon their future.
This latest development, while hardly unexpected, makes a mockery of the twitter campaign hashtag buy a paper.
The product was already below standard and not fulfilling its duty before this.
All it does is heap more work on already highly pressurised staff.
Through it all, the so called JPI ‘middle management’ plough on, blithely towing a party line that is already severely frayed and will soon snap.
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Here we go again….
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The exit strategy point is a vital one, even those who have slipped the noose in the past are now being forced to look over their shoulders,as more losses are accrued,more readers lost and less ad revenue taken more and more cuts will be made. I’ve even seen some of the yes men where I am being served notice so that shows how indiscriminate the axe wielding is.
All good wishes to those affected by this latest dumbing down by one of the big players
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Russ. take your point, but big players? My ex JP weekly sells about 2,000 in a district population climbing towards 200,000. In other words, hardly anyone reads it despite the heroic efforts of its pathetically few staff. No wonder advertisers are, sadly, turning their backs and the paper fills holes with house ads. Their message is not getting through.
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@Paperboy
You’re right,maybe it should be ‘once big players’?
Incidentally has anyone got a better collective name for these ailing dinosaur publishers?
Where I am a once essential daily covering the county of over 800,000 people now only sells less than 30,000 copies,and the morning evening paper around 10,000 copies from a city of appx. 133,000 so the audience has gone and in a remarkably short period of time too, the weeklies are even worse
Point being the time is running out for these groups who have all but lost their footholds and news presence in communities once deemed their own so the staff hanging on in there are fooling themselves if they expect any kind of reversal of fortune and a safe future awaits, it really doesn’t, it’s their choice if they stay but as things continue to slide that choice will be taken from them then where will they be?
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I bet voluntary redundancy is way over applied for with people fighting to leave. So not a bad thing for most escaping the clutches of a dying product
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What? The excuse for redundances is due to falling ad revenues? WAKE UP! If you take your sales people out of the field and rely on a call centre, obviously, the ad revenues will sink.Take the Mars Bars off the shelf and noboby can buy them.
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