A city centre newsroom that houses two regional daily titles has been saved from the axe.

As previously reported by HTFP, Reach plc planned to close its Newcastle office as part of the cutbacks announced before Christmas

However the publisher has now confirmed that the office, at Eldon Court in the city, will remain open.

The Percy Street office, pictured below, is home to Newcastle dailies The Chronicle and The Journal, companion website ChronicleLive and sister title the Sunday Sun.

The original plan to close the Newcastle office was announced in a company-wide ‘town hall’ meeting on 10th November, three days after the announcement of 450 job losses across the company.

At the time, the plan was to replace it with an “editorial meeting space” as has subsequently happened at its Bristol centre.

HTFP first became aware last month that the plan had been shelved and this was confirmed last week when Newcastle was named as one of nine Reach newsrooms which would host a paid intern this summer.

It is the second U-turn involving the North-East titles in recent months following the decision to save the North East Businesss Awards from the axe.

Reach had previously announced that all its regional business awards events were to be scrapped as part of the November cutbacks.

But the North East awards, sponsored by The Journal, the Chronicle, and the Teesside Gazette, were saved after senior editors in the region lobbied hard for their continuation on the grounds that they are net revenue-generating.

Reach declined to comment further.