Tag Archives: National Union

NUJ plans ‘concerted campaign’ against Johnston Press cuts

1 Reply

National Union of Journalists (NUJ) representatives are gearing up for ‘coordinated action’ in response to cutbacks announced by Johnston Press.

Reps will tonight discuss plans for a campaign, the NUJ has said, following news of cuts at the Sheffield Star, Scotsman Publications, the Glasgow East News and the Ayrshire Extra.

Restructuring has put up to 30 jobs at risk at the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and Edinburgh Evening News, though no specific figure for the number of editorial job losses has been given.

A further 15 positions are to go as Johnston Press ceases publication of the Glasgow East News and Ayrshire Extra.

The union has also received complaints about working conditions at the Blackpool Gazette, which it has sent in a memo to the company.

The memo included claims that four news sub-editors have been working 55-hour weeks, while a junior reporter worked 110 hours in 11 days.

The publisher has disputed the figures stated in the memo, the NUJ said.

“Our members in Johnston Press want to produce high quality local papers, but they are finding they have to work incredibly long hours – sometimes dangerously long hours – in order to do so.

“Many of our members are already facing high levels of stress and these latest cuts will simply make an intolerable situation even worse. No wonder our members are calling for a concerted campaign against the company’s failure to invest in quality journalism,” said Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, in a press statement.

Freesheet closures: axe falls on Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror titles

2 Replies

Johnston Press is to close two of its free titles in Scotland, as part of further cost-cutting by the publisher.

According to MediaGuardian, Glasgow East News and Ayrshire Extra will cease publication resulting in the loss of 15 jobs.

The move follows the publisher’s recent decision to restructure Scotsman Publications, resulting in the loss of up to 30 posts.

The National Union of Journalists is set for talks with Johnston tomorrow.

Following suit, Trinity Mirror is to close free weekly paper the Bridgend Post citing ‘difficult market conditions’, HoldtheFrontPage reports.

No advertising or editorial jobs will be lost, as the paper is produced from Trinity’s Cardiff office.

Sheffield Star axes five senior journalists

1 Reply

Johnston Press is cutting five senior journalists at the Sheffield Star as part of a series of redundancies at the title, an announcement from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said.

Picture editor Dennis Lound, business editor John Highfield, senior production manager Richard Smith, Barnsley reporter Gail Robinson and Rotherham reporter Ray Parkin are being made redundant.

An unspecified number of voluntary redundancies is also being sought amongst production staff and the paper’s offices in Rotherham and Barnsley will be closed.

The paper has entered a two-week consultation period with the affected journalists, who were told of their fate on Tuesday.

At a meeting last night staff at Sheffield Newspapers, which also publishes the Sheffield Telegraph, Weekly Gazette and Journal, passed a vote of no confidence in editor Alan Powell.

Staff will fight the cuts, the NUJ said, and are calling for a ballot on industrial action.

“Feelings are running high and people are angry. We feel The Star is paying the price for Johnston Press’s greedy spending spree over the last few years and bad decisions taken by JP’s senior management,” said Julia Armstrong, mother of Sheffield Newspapers’ NUJ chapel.

NUJ calls for investigation into death of photojournalist Richard Mills

Leave a reply

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called for a full investigation into the death of photojournalist Richard Mills, who died while working for The Times in Zimbabwe.

In a letter from NUJ president James Doherty to South African president Thabo Mbeki, the union raised concerns that Mills’ death could be linked to his work and was not suicide as claimed by the Zimbabwean authorities.

“The National Union of Journalists shares with his family, colleagues and friends their grave concern at the circumstances surrounding Richard’s death (…)You will be aware that the current Zimbabwean government has a notorious record in relation to human rights and freedom of expression. Against this background we are requesting that you raise this incident in your discussions with Zimbabwean authorities to ensure that it is investigated in an open and transparent manner,” the letter said.

Mills, whose funeral was held in Belfast yesterday, was working undercover for The Times at the time of his death.

Editorial Photographers UK published an obituary for Richard on the site.

UPDATE – the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), who had also called for an investigation into Richard’s death, have withdrawn their demand after his family announced they had accepted the result of a post-mortem, which suggested he had taken his own life.

BBC annual report: executive bonuses remain despite job cuts and calls for management restructure

Leave a reply

The BBC’s executive directors’ pay rose by £708,000 in 2007/8 with pay for the 10 directors totalling £4,960,000, according to figures from the corporation’s annual report.

Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision, received a bonus of £41,000, while outgoing director of Future Media & Technology Ashley Highfield received £34,000. Director general Mark Thompson rejected the offer of an annual bonus.

Both the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and BECTU have challenged the rises in light of 2,500 proposed job cuts at the corporation announced in October.

“Management should have the decency to show restraint at a time when so many BBC staff are under huge pressures following major cutbacks. This announcement will only serve to disillusion staff further,” Paul McLaughlin, NUJ broadcasting organiser, said in a statement from the union.

Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, reiterated the need to improve the management structure of bbc.co.uk before approving further investment. In May the site’s management was blamed for losing ‘effective control’ after a £36 million overspend.

More figures from the report:

  • average monthly page impressions for bbc.co.uk are more than 3.6 billion, while weekly unique users average more than 33 million;
  • BBC Mobile is the ‘most accessed’ mobile browser for news, sport and weather in the UK;
  • levels of audience trust in the BBC have remained steady year-on-year with 75 per cent of viewers rating BBC news programming as ‘fair, informed and balanced

BBC Worldwide

Analysis of BBC Worldwide (part of the annual report and separate reviews released) emphasised the importance of online in growing its global audience. The service’s online audience rose 34 per cent year-on-year. However, the review highlighted the failure of Spanish-language site BBC Mundo to meet the demands of increased internet access.

The launch of BBC Arabic came in for particular praise in the review, creating ‘trimedia’ BBC coverage in Arabic:

“With the launch of BBC Arabic television, our multimedia strategy took a giant step forward. That moment in March 2008 marked the successful culmination of a four-year journey to secure funding and deliver a high-quality television service in a vital region of the world.”

Online revenues accounted for 2.7 per cent of total sales for BBC Worldwide in 2007/8 – rising from 1.1 per cent previously, the report said. The creation of bbc.com and syndication deals with YouTube and iTunes were cited as key revenue drivers for the service.

Newsquest York journalists seal pay deal

Leave a reply

National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members at Newsquest’s The Press and Gazette & Herald in York have accepted a three per cent salary rise – the result of long-term negotiations and industrial action at the titles.

In May NUJ members at Newsquest York staged a five-day strike over the proposed three per cent pay increase.

According to a release from the NUJ, the pay deal will be backdated to January and includes a 17 per cent increase for new trainees and a 13 per cent rise for specialist reporters.

Negotiations about 2009 salaries have been brought forward and are expected to begin shortly, the union said.

Express Newspapers staff vote for strike action

1 Reply

Journalists at the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star are to undertake a series of 24-hour strikes over pay.

Strike action – scheduled for April 3, 10 and 17 – was approved at a National Union of Journalists (NUJ) meeting last night and is a reaction to ‘a below inflation pay offer’ – 3 per cent – made by the papers’ management to staff.

A statement from the NUJ also expressed concerns over owner Richard Desmond’s involvement with editorial decision making at the titles.

“We want the editors to be left to edit, free from commercial interference that puts opportunities to boost circulation ahead of journalistic integrity. Our titles need real investment, instead we face continuous rounds of budget cuts and inadequate staffing levels. Now we’re being told to take a below inflation pay offer and be grateful we’re not facing more redundancies this year – we’ve simply had enough,” said Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ President and union representative at the Express.

NUJ’s Journalist magazine to launch website?

Leave a reply

The April edition of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) magazine the Journalist is available only as a downloadable pdf – a decision criticised by some, who argue that a dedicated website for the publication is needed.

However, according to an introduction to a feature in the current issue, there are plans afoot to launch such a site: “The Journalist Editorial Advisory Board is already working on a plan to go online with a site — a proper website, not pdfs — launching later this year. The relationship to the printed magazine — and to the union’s official website — are under discussion.”

In the feature, Chris Wheal, freelance journalist and chair of the NUJ Professional Training Committee, says a multimedia website for the union could demonstrate its ability to do multimedia content ‘in a planned, well thought-out and funded way’. Wheal also suggests that such a site might require a full-time editor’s post with less responsibility for union duties.

Reactions to the PDF version featured alongside this article show little support for an PDF-only Journalist. “This completely undermines our faith in the newspaper and magazine business. Many members will not bother to access the NUJ site,” says one commenter, while another suggests the experiment will ‘damage links with members and decrease their support’.

This month’s trial has certainly provided some food for thought, but what’s the answer: pdf, hybrid or online-only?

NUJ’s Journalist magazine to go online-only

6 Replies

Next month’s edition of the Journalist – the magazine of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) – will be available only as a pdf from the union’s website.

The experiment is a chance to see which format members prefer, an announcement in this month’s edition explained.

But this is also a cost-saving strategy, as, according to the union, postage and packaging account for 60 per cent of the cost of the Journalist, which costs the NUJ in excess of £200,000 a year to produce.

Members will receive an email alert about the special edition, which will be available for download from March 17.

Web feeds in Independent’s newsroom could cause ’stress’

Leave a reply

The Observer’s media diary reports that the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is concerned over new plasma screens in the Independent’s newsroom, which display feeds from the paper’s recently relaunched website.

“We are worried that such large visual displays are being sited directly above staff, and the stress they could bring through visual disturbance and heat,” the NUJ is quoted as saying in yesterday’s Observer media diary.