On the back of similar recent cuts by Trinity Mirror and Newsquest the nature of the announcement was not out of keeping with industry-wide trends, but the ‘brutality’ of the numbers involved ensured national coverage and swift condemnation from the NUJ.

To surmise the details of the move the GMG-owned group is looking to pare back overheads with 150 job losses. This figure will be accounted for with 39 journalists from the Manchester Evening News, 39 from the stable of weekly titles and additional cuts across advertising, distribution and IT.

Local offices will be closed in Accrington, Ashton, Macclesfield, Oldham, Rochdale, Rossendale, Salford and Wilmslow and all the company’s newspaper journalism, subbing and design will now be centralized within its Manchester city centre base.

Huge reduction in journalists

It was, according to GMG Regional Media chief executive Mark Dodson, a “difficult” course of action.

He said in a statement from the firm: "MEN Media's role is to produce great journalism for our readers, users and viewers in Greater Manchester.

“If we want to continue to be able to do this, we need to find a new, sustainable, lower-cost business model to support it. The economic viability of local and regional newspapers is under very real and imminent threat.

"The decision about job losses has been a very difficult one to make, and I deeply regret that it has been necessary.

“Nonetheless, I do believe this is the right decision for MEN Media's future and for the majority of staff who will remain with the company.”

He concluded by noting: "This is a worrying time for everyone working in the local and regional press. Some argue that our industry has no future. I think this is completely wrong – people still want local and regional journalism, and advertisers want to reach those people."

Dodson

Jenny Lennox, NUJ assistant organiser in Manchester, said that the firm was” showing total contempt for the communities that have been the heartland of their business,” while general secretary Jeremy Dear mirrored these sentiments saying that they illustrated “total contempt for readers, advertisers, and the people left behind to do more work with no resources.”

Although the firm is looking to achieve its figures with voluntary redundancies the union claims that the sheer volume of job losses indicates that many will be compulsory.

“There have never been any compulsory editorial redundancies at the MEN before,” the union noted in another statement.

It was also claimed that the move railed against the values set out by Scott Trust founder CP Scott.

“I’m confident that Guardian readers will not sit idly by while the management ride roughshod over the company’s traditions,” Dear concluded.

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Comments (36)

1  By Tony Murray , on 11-03-2009 06:06 Blimey what a blow to the MEN. Have they really thought this through? Those press releases aren't going to re-write themselves, you know... Report

29  By Matt Finnegan , on 13-03-2009 16:40 Just some random thoughts….  Generally speaking, MEN journalists are talented and hard-working.   They can’t be blamed for the declining quality of the paper. They don’t make those decisions.  This latest announcement has been coming for the last ten years.   I left the MEN in ’98, partly because I was sickened by the lack of commitment to editorial content and quality and by the constant cost-cutting. Journalists were never valued by the management and have always been the convenient whipping boys. The MEN is nothing, if not entirely consistent.  Sadly, I never thought I would see people use ‘How Do’ to make nasty, spiteful and uninformed comments which only aid and abet the management and which appear to celebrate the misfortune of decent journalists.  Nothing has changed. That process has just accelerated, because of the double whammy of the internet and recession.  There is no doubt at all, that the MEN has been steadily declining, in both quality and circulation. It is not the paper it once was. That is unarguable. It is also clear who is responsible – and it isn’t the journalists. They haven’t suddenly stopped making the right contacts, the killer phone calls, or the correct judgements. But the environment in which they work certainly has changed.  What is happening at the MEN is also happening at the Liverpool Echo/Daily Post and elsewhere. It is happening right across the newspaper industry. Journalism is at the crossroads, the future may well be online.  Surely then, what is needed now is a rational, sensible and informed debate about the future role of local newspapers in a healthy, modern democracy?   Maybe sponsoring such a discussion could be How Do’s contribution? (At least it would make a change from yet another meaningless awards ceremony).   Denis MacShane and others have recently floated the idea of public support – ie, public money – for struggling local papers/the media.  What’s wrong with that?   I would much rather see my government providing practical support for community development and local democracy by backing local papers and the local media, than baling out the bankers.   But could there be a role for new models of newspaper ownership - social enterprises, co-ops, local authority stakeholders, partnership publications with the private sector?  And before I am drowned out in shrieks about Freedom Of The Press (its not very free when people are being sacked and offices are being closed, is it?), there would obviously have to be strict safeguards on editorial freedom and independence. (We all know what a fragile little flower editorial integrity already is!)  Because, if we have learned anything from events at the MEN, it is surely that quality journalism is too important to be left to the vagaries of the free market and its cynical pursuit of profit at all costs. Report