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18 subs go in Johnston Press "massacre"
Almost half the subs at the Lancashire Evening Post and Blackpool Gazette are being made redundant.
The National Union of Journalists confirmed that 18 of the 38 posts will go in what the union spokesperson described as a “massacre.”
It comes as journalists across Johnston Press titles vote on national strike action, which is the first such group-wide ballot in more than 20 years.
North West editorial staff have already staged a walk out as the publisher looks to introduce a new, controversial content management system, which would allow journalists to publish stories directly online and to the paper, without the need for sub-editors.
Staff are now working strictly to contract in a bid to stop the ATEX system being installed.
“No-one should underestimate how angry journalists throughout the Johnston group are at the attacks on their jobs and working conditions and how despite the fact that they have taken on more skills and more work they are being rewarded with a further pay freeze and a new threat to jobs,” said NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear in a statement.
“Editorial resources have been cut to the bone to pay for the Johnston debt mountain created a through a foolish policy of buying up other titles at high cost. Now their bankers are telling them to start making repayments. Our members refuse to be the victims of that mismanagement car crash.
“There is only one sensible way forward in the interest of readers, journalists and the Johnston Press Group itself. The company must sit down with the union to negotiate - over pay and fair reward, over the implementation of the ATEX system and over workloads and staffing levels, so that a damaging dispute can be avoided. It is not too late for the management to start talking."
Johnston Press was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
UPDATE: It's now been confirmed that a content design unit is to be set up in Preston, which will serve both the Blackpool Gazette and the LEP. The redundancies form part of this move. The publisher said that it had been able to create this centralised unit as a direct result of the new content management system.
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Stop whining journos - if you dont like the world of newspapers now then get out and retrain.
The break up of traditional journalism is a disaster on a number of levels and I feel for those who have lost jobs. History will show that it has a negative impact on democracy: fewer media snoopers, more fraud, crime, waste, poor governance etc. And as organisations buckle under financial pressures they indulge in more shoddy practices (viz the Sun's smearing of Clegg). However, it's as inevitable as the tide washing Canute's feet. Those affected, sadly, must learn news skills or choose a different career path. Anyone who has worked in the "good old days" of journalism will know how stressful the modern newsrooms are, with bullying rife and lots of job insecurity. I think the industry is broken and no amount of bleating will put it right.
Life in Sales:
I am one of those hard working and talented journalists you speak of - NCTJ trained with plenty of experience. I was made redundant over a year ago and I'm still looking for a way back into a full time magazine job. There are simply not enough to go around. This is sadly due to the fact that advertising (money making) has overshadowed quality editorial at a lot of publications. Being made redundant was traumatic and upsetting. But one thing I don't miss is having to work with sales people like you. Every cloud and all that.
Umm, Life in sales, I know it's difficult to see beyond your list of people you have to cold call, but there's a recession on right now. There ARE no other jobs. There's an unbelievable amount of talented, hard working writers out there who have been shown the door. Wonder what will happen when the axe falls on your job - obviously you're talented and hard working so you've got nothing to worry about. What goes around comes around.
What I dont get is if all these hacks are so "talented and hard working" why cant they go and get another job.
Life in sales - "Get over it" Nice! Perhaps you might want to explain to my two young children where their next meal is going to come from?
It's the likes of jumped up ad reps like you that the newspaper industry is now in terminal decline. You just have to look at those in managing director roles at JP to see that the vast majority come from sales backgrounds. Editorial quality has been sacrificed in exchange for a quick buck over ther last 20 or so years with few 'newspaper people' involved in the running of these large groups today.
We are reaping the rewards now.
It has already been shown the 'benefits' of losing the subs. Last week in the LEP, same story repeated in a different shape on two subsequent pages.
The same issue also featured a story that had appeared in the paper the week previously, copy was verbatim.
Already low standards rapidly falling downhill.
Have to agree with 2 & 3 - this is a false economy if ever there was one. Quality will decline further, causing reduced readership, less advertising, etc etc - it's a vicious death spiral, sadly.
@ #1 - I think they'd just like to enjoy some jobs, full stop. Go back to flogging your used cars
Proper experienced subs are the only thing that saves newspapers from being sued out of existence. So they WILL get f****d at some point, if it is any consolation.
A difficult one this. The proposed reduction in subs assumes that a new CMS system has overcome the problem of automatically fitting pre-filed copy to length and correcting legal anomalies, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
Some may argue that a well-trained hack should be able to do this regardless, but shorter deadlines, changing ad-shapes and reduced staffing levels make this a challenging task.
Maybe Johnston Press should look at injecting life into their terminally-ill, dull and generic websites rather than cutting experienced staff who add true value to their papers?