Journalists within GMG Regional Media ‘have declared a vote of no confidence in the Scott Trust Ltd over a decision to make sweeping job cuts’.
“Members at the NUJ chapel, which represents six weekly titles in the south of Greater Manchester unanimously passed the motion after the company announced 78 redundancies across GMG’s weekly titles and sister paper the Manchester Evening News,” the National Union of Journalists has announced.
A letter from the Manchester Evening News National Union of Journalists chapel to GMG Regional Media chief executive, Mark Dodson, following yesterday’s announcements.
Dear Mark,
At a lengthy and very well-attended MEN NUJ Chapel meeting earlier today, members unanimously passed the following:
“The Chapel utterly condemns this week’s announcements of sweeping job at the MEN, our Greater Manchester weekly newspapers and the
group’s publications in Surrey and Berkshire and believes they will have a devastating effect on local democracy and regional journalism.We also condemn the redundancies inflicted on other sectors of our business.
The Chapel rejects absolutely any compulsory journalistic redundancies, which are especially unpalatable at a time when the organisation is still making a profit. The total number of proposed redundancies is unjustifiable and unsustainable. We demand an early explanation of how you envisage a future MEN/weeklies newsroom will work.
Management should be under no illusion that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our colleagues. We will be meeting again shortly to discuss our next steps.
However, since it is clear that these executive decisions have been demanded by the GMG board and sanctioned by the Scott Trust, we request that Dame Liz Forgan and her fellow trustees come to Manchester as soon as possible to speak to us.”
Following the news that 150 jobs – 78 of those journalists’ – will be cut in GMG Regional Media, this statement has been released from the group:
“MEN Media, publisher of the Manchester Evening News and weekly titles across Greater Manchester, has today briefed staff on a range of proposed changes to the business.
“The local and regional press is facing the worst conditions in living memory as the economic downturn exacerbates and accelerates longer-term structural changes in the behaviour of advertisers and readers.
“The viability of local and regional titles is under threat due to steeply falling revenues that we do not expect to return to previous levels even when economic conditions improve. Publishers therefore need to find a sustainable new model if they are to survive.
“The major changes announced at MEN Media today are designed to protect the business and its journalism for the future through a new model with significantly lower fixed costs.
“By far the largest cost within the business is salaries, and while we have examined every option short of job losses, it has become clear that it is impossible to bring stability to MEN Media without substantially reducing the number of people we employ. We expect approximately 150 positions to be made redundant across MEN Media.
“While we will seek volunteers for redundancy wherever possible, we anticipate that compulsory redundancies will be unavoidable. Those people affected will be offered significantly enhanced severance terms.
“MEN Media has reviewed all aspects of its business. In addition to salaries, we have targeted various other costs and looked at how we can
improve in areas such as advertising sales, working practices and editorial systems.“The proposed changes announced today are summarised below:
- Approximately 150 positions across all functions and disciplines to be made redundant within MEN Media. This includes 78 journalists across 23 titles.
- One consolidated editorial team for the MEN and weeklies at Scott Place in Manchester, working across MEN Media’s various titles and websites.
- All branch offices apart from Stockport will be closed in the coming months. Offices in Accrington, Ashton, Macclesfield, Oldham, Rochdale, Rossendale, Salford and Wilmslow will be closed.
- Reporters will continue to work their patches, but no longer from a local office. There will be increased remote working to support this.
- Investment in a new editorial system common to all titles, and training for all users. The new system has improved web and multimedia capabilities, and will enable journalists to work across MEN Media’s different outlets.
- New layout and design for weekly titles.
- Central section of common pages for the weeklies, drawn from the MEN’s leisure/entertainment content.
- Greater sharing of content between the MEN and weekly titles.
- A new house agreement to cover the new editorial department.
- A revised pay schedule for journalists based on the current weeklies pay schedule. Journalists who are paid in excess of the schedule will have their pay ring-fenced and protected.
- Fewer free copies of the MEN and weekly titles distributed.
- Reduced pagination of the MEN.
- Revamped advertising sales operation with greater focus on growing new business and selling multimedia solutions.
- Better targeted advertising sales strategies, with improved use of customer data.”
Mark Dodson, chief executive of GMG Regional Media (parent company of MEN Media), said:
“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.
“There is a successful future for local and regional journalism in the commercial sector, but we need to protect our businesses now to give ourselves the best chance of reaching it.
“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.”
“MEN Media, the publisher of the Manchester Evening News and 22 weeklies based in the north west, is closing all editorial offices of its weekly newspapers and axing 150 jobs,” reports MediaGuardian.
Production of the group’s weekly newspapers will be centralised in the MEN offices in Scott Place in central Manchester, the report continues.
As part of tomorrow’s today’s National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) skills conference in Manchester, delegates from the event were yesterday treated to a tour of the Manchester Evening News‘ newsroom.
Journalism.co.uk is much obliged to MEN’s Sarah Hartley for the slideshow of the tour below, which appeared originally on the paper’s The Mancunian Way blog:
As part of the tour, MEN editor Paul Horrocks explained how the newsroom has helped teams from the group’s daily and weekly titles – and Channel M staff – integrate:
Her Twitter coverage of the tour can be seen on @foodiesarah @sarah_hartley.
The Guardian is conducting a feasibility study in the Manchester area as part of possible plans to launch a series of community news titles.
Alan Rusbridger, the paper’s editor-in-chief, has said it is too early to say if the scheme will go ahead.
As reported on the main page, Sir Christopher Meyer will tonight urge publications to support the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in its role, which he emphasises is still relevant in light of online developments and recent privacy issues. Here is his speech in full, courtesy of the PCC’s website:
“It is always a pleasure to be in Manchester – a city with a vibrant media which I have visited more than any other in England during my time chairing the PCC. It was in this very room five years ago that I launched the first of our Open Days: public meetings in the towns and cities of the UK aimed at making the PCC as accessible as possible. Then, as now, we were given all possible support by the Manchester Evening News and Paul Horrocks. One of the most respected and innovative editors in Britain, Paul was also an outstanding member of the PCC for four years.
It has always been my ambition to hold a full meeting of the PCC outside London. It is vital to get over the message that we are not a body shut away inside a metropolitan bubble, dealing with the complaints of celebrities, royals (and near-royals), and politicians. The reality is far different. We exist for all the citizens of the United Kingdom; and of the thousands who come to us for help and advice, over 90 per cent lay no claim to celebrity whatsoever.
So, tomorrow’s meeting of the PCC is an historic moment in the 17-year life of our organisation. My colleagues from the board, all/most of whom are present tonight, are the people who take the decisions under the Code of Practice: about where the public interest meets the individual’s right to privacy; what constitutes a significant inaccuracy; when payments for information can be made – in short, on how the UK’s newspapers and magazines should gather and report news in print and online.
It’s hardly like newspaper jobs were all that secure anyway, but this month’s financial situation (something about a recession) hasn’t helped things either over the last couple of weeks.
This week news broke that two of the UK’s biggest-selling regional daily newspapers will cut 135 jobs.
The family run publishers Midland News Association are looking to merge their publications, the Express and Star and the Shropshire Star, with the aim of reducing costs by around £3 million a year.
After a decline in advertising revenue, the publishers considered it a necessary move, as reported over at the Guardian. There are plans to merge some parts of classified advertising, production and finance.
Press Gazette reported that despite the merger, both publications will maintain their individual identities, while also keeping separate editors and reporters.
Free business newspaper City AM will launch in the two cities in spring next year, managing director Lawson Munchaster told an industry gathering.
Expected circulation of the title outside of London is 50,000.
So Associated Northcliffe Digital/Northcliffe Media came out smiling, after digital awards aplenty at last night’s Newspaper Society’s Advertising and Digital Media Awards – the group won golds for Niche Website of the Year, Digital Innovation of the year and Digital Team of the Year. On top of that the winner for ad of the year, the Hull Daily Mail, is one of Northcliffe’s too.
Speaking in a release issued last night, the Newspaper Society (NS) communications director Lynne Anderson praised online entries: “The digital element of the awards was particularly impressive this year with clear evidence that local media publishers are becoming increasingly effective at communicating with their audiences online.”
Here’s a selection of the winners from yesterday’s Advertising and Digital Media Awards, online and off:
PRINT ADs:
Advertisement of the Year
Gold: Hull Daily Mail for Modus Interiors – Howz
Silver: Evening Express for Choices 08
Bronze: Evening Express for Ritchie Travel / The Lytham St Annes for Express Leonard Dews – Diamonds
Series of Advertisements for the Year
Gold: The Irish News for John Mulholland Motors Ltd
Silver: Hull Daily Mail for Modus
Bronze: Herald Express for Animal Crackerz Series
Classified Section of the Year
Gold: Express & Star for My Classifieds
Silver: Evening Express for Drive
Bronze: The Press and Journal for Your Ads
ONLINE:
Newspaper Website of the Year
Gold: Nottingham Evening Post – thisisnottingham.co.uk
Silver: Belfast Telegraph – belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Bronze: Cornwall and Devon Media – thisiscornwall.co.uk
Niche Website of the Year
Gold: Associated Northcliffe Digital Lasting Tribute
Silver: Hull Daily Mail – Your Mail
Bronze: Eastern Daily Press – Jobs24
Integrated Campaign of the Year
Gold: Manchester Evening News for NHS ‘I Love Me’ Campaign
Silver: Manchester Evening News for Natwest ‘MoneySense’
Bronze: Hull Daily Mail for ASDA
Digital Innovation of the Year
Gold: Associated Northcliffe Digital for Lasting Tribute
Silver: Lancashire Evening Post for LEPlive
Bronze: Herald Express Mod My Motor
Blog of the Year
Gold: Trinity Mirror Midlands – The Geek Files
Silver: scotsman.com – Luke Donald
Bronze: Hull Daily Mail – Lucy Clark for Hullvibe
Community Website of the Year
Gold: MK News – mkweb.co.uk
Silver: Lancashire Evening Post – lep.co.uk
Bronze: Hull Daily Mail – Your Mail
Digital Team of the Year
Gold: Associated Northcliffe Digital New Product Development Division
Silver: Hull Daily Mail Digital Advertising Team
Bronze: Clyde and Forth Press Digital Media Department
Cross-Platform or Portfolio Sell of the Year
Gold : MEN Media Sales for NHS ‘I Love Me’ Campaign
Silver: MEN Media Sales for Natwest ‘MoneySense’
Bronze: Mediaforce for Scottish Government