Category Archives: Job losses

NUJ members in Manchester join forces after MEN sale

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More than a 100 NUJ members at the Manchester Evening News and its weekly counterparts are forming a joint chapel to strengthen the union’s rights and help prevent job losses.

The move follows the recent announcement of the MEN Media titles’ sale to Trinity Mirror and the union’s fears that it could lead to future job cuts.

NUJ also raised concerns that moving journalists from the communities they serve poses a threat to media diversity and plurality in the north west.

Journalism.co.uk reported last week that Trinity Mirror wants MEN staff to move from the Manchester base to Oldham, a proposal that was critised by MEN union members.

MEN mother of chapel Judy Gordon and MEN Weeklies mother of chapel Bethan Dorsett said in a joint statement: “Though traditionally the MEN and weeklies have been separate chapels, it is common sense to bring them together. After all we are now under one roof.

“A strong, united chapel made up of over 100 journalists can take positive action to prevent any job losses or other damaging changes that our new owners may want to implement at a later stage.”

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear welcomes the move: “This is a big step forward for our members in Manchester and gives them added strength at a very important time.”

The deal with Trinity Mirror is to be completed on March 28.

FT Chinese staff threatened with redundancies

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A group of journalists working for FT Chinese, a Chinese language website, are facing redundancy if they do not return to China, on half their salaries, the National Union of Journalists has reported.

Two of the four Chinese journalists are British citizens, and they already have “inferior” terms and conditions to other journalists at the Financial Times, it was claimed by the NUJ today.

The National Union of Journalists Financial Times chapel is threatening to ballot for action, if plans are not reversed.

The NUJ chapel at the Financial Times voted unanimously – at a meeting attended by over 80 members – to demand that the threat of the redundancies be lifted.

“We condemn the outrageous treatment of journalists on FT Chinese. We demand no redundancies on FT Chinese and that the journalists be placed on the same terms and conditions as the rest of FT editorial. It is unconscionable that the FT is sending FT Chinese journalists into harm’s way. We will ballot for industrial action if these demands are not met,” said a spokesperson from the NUJ office branch.

One of the FT Chinese staff wrote to colleagues: “It was a tremendous shock to the entire team. This reminded us of a very old Chinese saying: ‘kill the donkey after it has done its job at the mill’. The best equivalent in English I can think of is ‘kick down the ladder’.”

A email sent to FT staff on behalf of the NUJ chapel, said it “was shocked but not surprised to hear about the Chinese journalist situation”.

“This is no longer the FT that we all joined. The FT used to be a place of compassion, where people were looked after and, in return, gave the job their all.

“Now there are job cuts while new hires are ongoing, constant pressure from bosses to get more in a shrinking paper, filing for the web for ft.com and blogging, and yet no personal support in return. This new FT is not the great place to work of the past. The end result will be lack of commitment to the paper, which will, eventually, show up in the quality of the end product.

The Financial Times told Journalism.co.uk it did not have a comment to make at this point.

More names in Guardian voluntary redundancies

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Following yesterday’s report that four staff from Guardian News & Media’s (GNM) business team are  leaving the group under the the publisher’s voluntary redundancy scheme, more names have been added to the list of departures.

Long-serving staff members Stuart Jeffries and Hannah Pool are leaving the features department. Head of sport Ben Clissit has stepped down, while tennis correspondent Steve Bierley, Jerusalem correspondent Rory McCarthy and Los Angeles correspondent Dan Glaister are also departing.

Dhiren Katwa: ‘Current BBC Asian Network model promotes segregation’

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Dhiren Katwa, senior news editor at Asian Voice, spoke at the Coventry Conversations series on Thursday about the possibility of the BBC’s Asian Network being scrapped in the face of strategic cuts. He said Vijay Sharma, head of the Asian Network, has been “in hiding” over the current situation.

The Asian Network’s audience fell by 15 per cent to 357,000 in the third quarter of last year, and is expected to struggle for survival after director-general Mark Thompson’s forthcoming strategic review of BBC programming.

Katwa, a member of the Equality Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said he thought it would be a shame for the Asian Network to go, but added that he didn’t believe the BBC should be specifically broadcasting to minority groups. He told the audience that “with the Asian Network working within a silo, it’s promoting or contributing to segregation rather than integration”. He said that the solution is to embed minority targeted elements of the BBC more firmly within the corporation.

When asked about the network’s fall in ratings, Katwa said commercial competitors such as Sunrise Radio had contributed to the network’s struggle to reach it’s young target audience, but put its current problems largely down to “a lot of internal issues”.

Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s chief operating officer, told the House of Lords Communications Committee on Wednesday that the idea of one network serving the UK’s entire Asian community wasn’t the right way to represent such a large and diverse audience.

Katwa echoed her assessment in his talk, and suggested that “the BBC Asian Network needs to be embedded within the BBC as a corporation with more faces from black and Asian backgrounds.”

Sharing Katwa’s view, broadcast journalism lecturer and founder of Coventry Conversations John Mair added: “There is no role for something separate or segregated, it should just be part of the mainstream. Not ‘now Radio Four’s Asian hour’, every hour should be Asian hour”.

Katwa said at the talk that his opinions were his own and did not necessarily reflect the views of Asian Voice.

Rosie Taylor: ‘Impossible to get a foot in the door without several thousand pounds’

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Rosie Taylor, who describes herself “an undergraduate student who wants to beat the odds and become a journalist”, comments on the Unleashing Aspirations report that finds journalism “one of the most exclusive middle-class professions of the 21st century”.

“[I]t seems to me to be an irrefutable fact that it is practically impossible to get a foot in the door without several thousand of pounds in your pocket,” she says.

Exclusive? Yes. Middle-class? Definitely. A profession of the 21st century? Maybe not for much longer.

A good one to consider alongside a piece in yesterday’s Observer Magazine by freelance (and recently made redundant) journalist Andrew Hankinson. Hankinson, who stubbornly refuses to give up the print trade he loves, looks at the ‘Lost Generation’ concept across the board, but his own experiences might strike a chord or two with 20-something (and maybe 30-something) struggling journalists. The comments underneath the piece are worth a peruse too – he provoked a mixed reaction.

Gannett Blogger turns attention to New York Times Company and News Corp

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Remember the provocative Gannett Blogger? Well, the persistent thorn in the side of the US’s largest newspaper group is back. After attacking his blog’s trolls and launching Ibiza Confidential (now shelved), Jim Hopkins is re-igniting the Gannett Blog. He has also launched – both are still in early stages – the New York Co. Blog and the News Corp. Blog. Here’s an extract from a Q&A with Hopkins for the site Jilted Journalists:

Q. How is your strategy different now vs. before July?

A. I’m working harder on keeping Gannett Blog’s tone more civil. I’ll still pursue company news aggressively, but I hope in a less provocative manner. Also, I’m moderating comments more carefully. Much of this is in response to feedback from readers. Finally, I’m experimenting with two new media-related blogs, but they’re still very much in their infancy.

Full post at this link…

Editor&Publisher in exile

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Editor&Publisher, the 125 year old US journalism industry publication, suspended operations on New Years’ Eve, but some of its staff are carrying on with a blog, E&P in Exile.

In a final post on 31 December, editor Greg Mitchell said there was a “fairly good chance that Editor & Publisher will resume but we cannot say when or in precisely what form”.

Several possible buyers have stepped forward but any firm agreement, we’re told, is at least two weeks away.

Full post at this link…

The Jobless Journalist: Post eight – Some lessons learned in 2009

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It’s been a rocky year for journalists. I, like thousands of others, was made redundant from my staff post and it seems the cull is far from over. But, at risk of sounding too negative at this time of festive bonhomie, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the future of the industry and some anecdotes from 2009:

The future is online
After being made redundant I managed to get regular shifts on a national newspaper’s website. For a while I saw it as a stepping stone onto the paper, where I’d be rolling with the big boys.

Having worked on the website for six months, I now realise that the future really is online. Yesterday I saw a social affairs story appear in the paper that I’d written a whole two days earlier for the website. Print can no longer compete with the internet for news. The website is still looked down upon as the paper’s poorer cousin, but in five years’ time it will be king.

Write a blog
Sounds obvious coming from a blogger, but it’s a great way to practice writing for the web. If you learn about dealing with an interactive audience, SEO, linking, etc now, you’ll be streets ahead when everything goes digital.

Learn a language
An editor recently told me to learn a language. If you have a GCSE or A-level, it’s worth topping it up with a business language class. The French Institute offers reasonably priced classes and you can chose the evening you go in.

Keep in touch and be patient
It’s worth reminding your contacts every few months that you’re still there and still looking for work. Don’t be put off by radio silence from an editor – if they don’t immediately respond to an email or phone call, it’s not personal. I recently got a reply from an editor I’d emailed months ago. He’s asked me to call him in the new year regarding writing opportunities. Patience with a strong dose of persistence does pay off.

Wishing everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This is the eigth post in a series from an anonymous UK-based journalist recently made redundant. To follow the series, you can subscribe to this feed.

You can also read posts by our previous ‘Redundant Journalist’ blogger at this link.

Reflections of a Newsosaur: Presses stopped at 142 US papers in 2009

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Alan Mutter looks at some of the reasons behind the closure of presses for 142 daily and weekly US newspapers this year and suggests the deathtoll was smaller than some commentators had predicted.

He also gives three reasons why the newspaper industry is still going:

  1. The residual monopoly power of the industry
  2. The magic of the bankruptcy system
  3. The irrepressible optimism of publishers

Full post at this link…

Teletext closure brought forward again – gone from ITV, C4 and Five

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Teletext owner Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) has brought forward the closure of the news service once again, ending services on ITV, Channel 4, Five and Freeview this week.

In July DMGT announced it would be shutting the service earlier than anticipated and brought forward its end date from 2014 to January next year.

The group cited the rise of the internet and financial conditions as reasons in a release.

“As anticipated, the continued fragmentation of television audiences and the growth in the use of the internet has resulted in a significant reduction in the audience and volume of commercial activity generated by the television services,” it said.

But the editorial serviceon ITV, C4 and Five was shut yesterday, while its holidays service on the same channels and on satellite was ceased on Monday. All news and sport services on analogue, Freeview and online will eventually cease.

The group will continue to run Teletext’s commercial channels, in particular its network of travel websites which will now come under Associated Northcliffe Digital’s remit.

In September the Press Association (PA) announced it would cut 50 jobs as a result of the service’s closure. The PA handled some outsourced editorial and production work for Teletext.

According to a statement from Neil Johnson, Teletext managing director, it’s not the end of Teletext: “Teletext is not closing, it is changing to continue to deliver the types of products and services our customers want most. We see a great opportunity to provide greater value to our loyal user base and to extend our reach online and via new channels.  Teletext has great expertise in innovating quickly to meet the needs of millions of people. We are investing in online marketing and social media and anticipate continued growth going forwards.”

Related reading on Journalism.co.uk: Teletext remembered: ‘The fascination of Teletext’