Eleven journalists are at risk of redundancy in a regional publisher’s third round of cutbacks this year, according to union bosses.

The National Union of Journalists has revealed fresh cuts at Reach plc affecting regional sports journalists.

Management staff at Reach’s hyperlocal network In Your Area are also said to be under threat, along with four specific roles at its Live network of regional websites.

It is expected seven out of the 11 affected journalists will lose their jobs as a result of the process, which began on Monday, according to the NUJ.

The union says Reach management “have confirmed redundancies are being pursued due to an uncertain trading environment, and a need to improve its operations efficiency”.

The three sports journalists affected are football club writers in the North-West of England.

The new cuts come after Reach announced a redundancy process in January which initially placed 253 journalists at risk and eventually led to the loss of more than 80 editorial roles.

Then, two weeks after that process had been concluded, further proposals to cut 192 journalism jobs from the publisher’s workforce were revealed, with that process concluding in May.

NUJ Reach national coordinator Chris Morley, pictured, said: “This is the third set of redundancies within Reach this year and the uncertainty this brings is clearly extremely distressing for those put at risk but also has a corrosive effect throughout the workforce.

“We understand that previous savings targets may not have been met and so these jobs are now in the firing line.

“We are looking for a line to be drawn under the massive £30m cuts total set at the beginning of the year to counter poor trading conditions.

“The NUJ will stand by and support any member put at risk in these latest cuts, but we are concerned that the strong track record we have had of successful redeployments in other redundancy rounds will be that much harder due to a more stringent corporate jobs freeze put in place.”

HTFP has approached Reach for a response to the NUJ’s comments.