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Reach cuts plan ‘will wipe out professional photography’ claims union

Jim Mullen 1Union members have branded a regional publisher’s cuts plan “industrial vandalism” claiming the move will “wipe out professional photography in many places”.

The Reach group chapel of the National Union of Journalists has claimed at least 22 reporting jobs and 13 photographer roles will be among the 102  posts slated to be lost at Reach plc.

The fresh figures come after the union reported on Wednesday that 253 Reach editorial staff have been placed at risk of redundancy and that 100 existing vacancies had been withdrawn.

That morning, the company had revealed it was planning to shed 200 jobs across its divisions due to what it has called “unprecedented cost and inflationary pressures”.

In response to the union’s claims, Reach has insisted it remains committed to employing photographers and videographers both locally and nationally.

The company also signalled its determination to press ahead with the US launch, describing it as “a major opportunity for Reach and our teams.”

In a statement issued on Friday, the Reach chapel said: “This group chapel is dismayed that Reach plc is proposing to axe 102 editorial positions across the group having already shed hundreds of journalist roles over the last few months. The attack on core frontline jobs is viewed as akin to industrial vandalism.

“Our members are angry and frustrated that positive moves forward following the settlement of the pay dispute and strike last year have been overshadowed and undermined by a planned widespread cull of jobs that are essential to the success of the company’s business model.

“Inexplicably, front line roles – especially photographers and digital reporters – are being targeted in the face of the company’s professed business model to build a sustainable digital operation with quality journalism and original content at its core.

“The planned wipe out of professional photography in many places within the group removes at a stroke what has been a mainstay of journalistic craft for more than a century and will surely be regretted in the years to come.”

The NUJ added other digital and social media based posts are set to go alongside the reporting and photography jobs, but said the full extent of the cuts is not yet known.

The statement added: “The effect of these plans will be significantly compounded because of the large numbers of journalists who have already left the company through two trawls for voluntary redundancies in the last six months and wholesale deletion of vacancies.

“All this is being done as the company lavishes cash on establishing a new US operation that is in effect being paid for by the jobs of others within Reach.

“It seems certain that the outcome of these latest cutbacks will be to reduce the creation of original content through industrial scale content sharing between titles – and more onerous workloads for those that remain.

“NUJ chapels are still assessing the potential damage to be inflicted on local operations but members are clear that compulsory redundancies are unacceptable and will be vigorously challenged.

“We will be working hard in the many consultation processes underway to ensure that NUJ members are protected as much as possible and that every way to eliminate or reduce the need for redundancy is pursued. We will be scrutinising the company’s proposals and fully consulting with members as to next steps.”

A Reach spokesperson said: “We expect the macroeconomic climate to remain challenging in 2023 and have taken very difficult but decisive action that will allow us to protect our organisation and ensure we continue to deliver on our Customer Value Strategy.

“While in some cases we have had to look at photography roles we are still committed to employing photographers and videographers both locally and nationally.

“The U.S. launch is a major opportunity for Reach and our teams and will drive a more sustainable long-term future for our journalism.

“Our plans there did not impact on last week’s decision – on the contrary, expanding our online audience will put us in a stronger position and we’re pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve had internally.”

 

Reach chief executive Jim Mullen, pictured, previously said in a message to staff: “In recent months our business has been impacted by a significant increase in input costs.

“The unit price of newsprint, for example, has increased by around 60pc in the last 12 months. This increase in a major input cost for us has aligned with a consumer downturn due to inflation and cost pressures.

“Our business is being subjected to stresses at both ends of our finances – that is revenues and costs negatively impacted, and at a rate of change our company has quite simply never seen before.

“To put this into some context; during Covid, our revenues were severely impacted due to national lockdowns and a closure of a number of business sectors, with a resultant reduction in consumer and advertising spend.

“However, costs remained relatively stable. We now have a similar impact to consumer spend for different reasons, but also input cost inflation making it a double whammy.

“All of this on top of the significant cash outflow relating to historical legal issues and pension deficit obligations, between them around £70m per year, puts us in an extremely challenging position.

“We’re not alone in facing these challenges and we have a way through this, but I want to be honest with you now about the fact that it will mean us taking some very tough operational decisions and strong actions on costs.

“As part of this, having explored all practical alternatives, we have made the difficult decision to begin consultation on a proposal to make around 200 roles across the group redundant, and withdraw a number of vacancies.”