Journalism Job Cuts

[J.co.uk] Bristol branch of NUJ to protest over Evening Post cuts

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:35:35 PDT

The Bristol branch of the National Union of Journalists is due to hold a peaceful demonstration later today following news that 20 jobs were at risk with publication of the Evening Post’s Saturday edition to be stopped from next month.

The protest will take place outside an exhibition marking 80 years of the Northcliffe Media’s title from 6.15pm outside the Galleries in Bristol. The union branch says it has received much support from the local community.

Last week NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said the changes to the Evening Post were a “shock announcement”.

We call on the paper’s management to take steps to avoid job losses and enter into meaningful consultation with staff and their union representatives.

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[J.co.uk] NUJ invites News International journalists to meeting

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:59:12 PDT

The National Union of Journalists is due to hold a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, 2 November) to discuss the recently announced cuts to editorial within the Times and Sunday Times, which is open to member and non-member freelance, casual and staff journalists at the publisher’s titles.

Last month the Times announced it was to cut around 100 staff from the newspapers’ editorial workforce, with the bulk of those said to be to casual staff. It was also confirmed that 20 compulsory redundancies are due to be made from full-time staff at the Sunday Times, which is cutting 30 per cent of its casual editorial workforce.

Following this announcement the NUJ set up a meeting, which is open to any staff who wish to seek advice. It will be held from 1 to 3pm at the Captain Kidd pub, 108 Wapping High Street, E1W 2NE. The union has also invited representatives of the company’s in-house union NISA to attend if interested in working with the NUJ.

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[J.co.uk] #jpod in depth: Strikers on BBC picket lines

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:42:53 PDT

This week’s #jpod looks at the BBC strikes which have been held by members of the National Union of Journalists in recent weeks. Staff performed their second 24-hour walk-out in protest at compulsory redundancies at the broadcaster, this week.

According to the union, more than 100 people are at risk of losing their jobs at the BBC World Service and jobs are also said to be at risk in divisions including BBC Monitoring, BBC Scotland and potentially BBC Wales, BBC 4, BBC Sport and TV Current Affairs.

In this podcast we visit the picket lines to speak to journalists striking at a regional BBC outlet and hear their concerns, as well as Jonathan Lovett, father of the chapel for the NUJ at Tindle Newspapers in Enfield, to discuss the power of industrial action and how him and his colleagues won concessions from management.

You can sign up to our iTunes podcast feed for future audio.

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[J.co.uk] Johnston Press strike breakers brag about newsroom antics on Facebook

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:39:02 PDT

Johnston Press journalists picket the offices of the South Yorkshire Times

Johnston Press in South Yorkshire are out on indefinite strike over planned redundancies at five titles in the region. (See more from Journalism.co.uk about the strike action at this link).

Management have come in for a lot of flak from the unions over their handling of the strike, which included asking a 16-year-old schoolboy on work experience to stay on an extra week and help cover the newsdesk.

Further embarrassment for the company comes in the form of Tom Bills and friend Jack Reed. Tom – the son of Johnston Press managing director John Bills – and Jack were drafted in to help out on the newsdesk of the Doncaster Free Press, according to NUJ deputy organiser for the region Lawrence Shaw, despite having no journalistic experience.

But rather than hide their faces away like strike breakers might normally do, ferried through a picket line on a bus with wire mesh on the windows, Tom and Jack publicised their newsroom antics on Facebook, for the world to see.

Shaw spotted the Facebook status updates and reposted them on his blog.

They include such gems from Tom as:

workin in a newsroom in doncaster, av been for a couple of weeks! Its reaaaaalllly goood!:) x

is it bad that I found the word ‘erection’ funny at work in a story about a building being built?!!:)

sooooo bored at work I’ve actually started look at the clock more than my computer screen.

Bored, but managing to get though it:

just thinkin of the dollar atm!

As, I’m sure, are the journalists out on strike with no pay.

And from Tom’s equally eloquent friend Jack:

nothing get a man erect like doncaster editorial. lets toss each other off.

And:

can u listen to ur ipod in a newsroom wen ur sposed to be workin?

Humorous yes, but as Shaw points out, the move raises questions about John Bills’ judgement:

Why did he employ his own son and his friend to work in editorial when neither appear to have any journalistic training or experience, then allow them to sarcastically spout forth on facebook belittling the newspapers he runs? It reinforces the belief held by the NUJ that John Bills cares not a jot about the editorial coverage in the newspaper, or even the reputation of the papers.

Had any ordinary NUJ member been caught mouthing off on facebook in the same way, they would have almost certainly been sacked for bringing the company into disrepute. So seeing as John Bills is ultimately responsible for employing his son to sit in the office and mouth off about how crap it is working at the Doncaster Free Press, surely Johnston Press directors should be seriously questioning his suitability for running a newspaper group.

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[J.co.uk] ‘There’s no fat to cut away here’: BBC Sussex staff join nationwide strikes

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 03:38:21 PDT

BBC journalists in Brighton, hometown of Journalism.co.uk, are taking part in today’s nationwide strikes at the corporation over compulsory redundancies. Staff at BBC Radio Sussex formed a picket outside the station’s offices on Queen’s Road this morning (1 August) from 4am, leaving management to find non-union staff to present the station’s programmes.

The mid-morning show, which airs from 9am-12pm, was produced at the Sussex offices by stand-ins and broadcast simultaneously by BBC Kent Radio.

There are no compulsory redundancies proposed at BBC Sussex, but Paul Siegert, the NUJ rep for the region, told Journalism.co.uk this morning he feared that the implementation of BBC’s Delivering Quality First Strategy could lead to cuts at the station.

“We know that there is a thing that BBC management are looking at at the moment called DQF, which we call Destroying Quality Forever, which is going to mean that there will be 20 per cent cuts across the BBC, and so we are expecting that there will be job cuts in places like this if we don’t take action now.”

Danielle Glavin, Siegert’s deputy at the Sussex chapel and West Sussex reporter for the station, said: “We are just trying to protect the BBC, otherwise it will be desolated”.

John Lees, the station’s sports correspondent, was outside the BBC Sussex building at 4am this morning to begin the picket, about the time he would arrive for work. His part of the show was presented by another member of staff this morning. He said that no union members had crossed the picket line in Sussex, and that the staff were “standing firm” in today’s strike and in the indefinite work to rule beginning tomorrow.

“Either you’re an NUJ member or you’re not, and if you are you’ve got to support to strike. And we do.”

Also among the picketers was Kathy Caton, a World Service employee on a year’s attachment in Sussex. Caton is among those to have already been made compulsorily redundant, and would have been forced out of the BBC last month if she had still been working out of the World Service offices at Bush House, London. Because of her attachment to BBC Sussex, she has a stay of execution until next June.

She told Journalism.co.uk that there is “simply no fat to cut away” at the local station.

“Everything is done on such a tight ship, and to achieve the cuts that the BBC has planned means losing jobs, losing services and losing programmes.

“But there’s no slack here, people aren’t sitting around eating foie gras and swilling it down with champagne. It’s a tight ship.”

Caton will see out her attachment in Sussex until June next year, and then join the other World Service staff forced out by the cutbacks. The BBC intends to make 100 staff compulsorily redundant, out of a total of 387 job cuts across the World Service and BBC Monitoring.

She praised the World Service as “one of the finest things that the BBC is involved in”.

“What it produces versus its annual cost is extraordinary. To kill it off so fundamentally is something future generations will look back on and despair.”

The BBC has defended the need to make compulsory redundancies in order to achieve the savings set out by last year’s comprehensive spending review. Lucy Adams, the corporation’s director of business operations, said in a message to staff today that the corporation could not agree to the union’s demands for no compulsory redundancies.

“Following the cuts in central Government grants to the World Service and BBC Monitoring we have had to close 387 posts, meaning that regrettably there are nearly 100 staff who as a result are facing compulsory redundancy. We have been working with all these affected staff to ensure that they have opportunities for redeployment and retraining but we cannot and will not give preferential treatment to individuals depending on their union status.

“We hope the NUJ will realise that these issues are best solved at a local level, and a national strike that penalises all our audiences is not in the interests of their members, other BBC staff or licence fee payers.”

Hear Rachel McAthy’s interview with Paul Siegert below:

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[J.co.uk] ‘Embarrassed bosses’ stop strike breaking with work experience, NUJ claims

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:25:13 PDT

Johnston Press bosses in South Yorkshire, who reportedly asked a 16-year-old teenager to cover the news desk during a strike, have asked the work experience student to leave, the National Union of Journalists has claimed.

The teenager, who has just completed his GCSEs, had come to the group’s Selby Times for work experience but, when the strike to protect jobs and quality journalism began at the Selby Times, Doncaster Free Press and South Yorkshire Times on 15 July, management extended his engagement to get the paper out, the union has said.

He was put to work writing news stories – despite having originally asked the paper to do his work experience on the sports desk, the NUJ said.

Rival title the Selby Post reported the story.

NUJ negotiator Lawrence Shaw told Journalism.co.uk he believes “embarrassed Johnston Press bosses” asked the work experience teenager to leave after the paper went to press on Wednesday.

Around 25 members of staff are striking indefinitely, leaving the editor, sports editor and, at the beginning of the week the 16-year-old on work placement, Journalism.co.uk understands.

“In more than 10 years of being a union representative I have never seen a more determined group,” Shaw said.

Asked to confirm or deny the claims both the editor of the Selby Times and Johnston Press’ head office in Edinburgh declined to comment.

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[J.co.uk] Voluntary redundancies as Future Publishing focuses on digital

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:31:31 PDT

Magazine publisher Future PLC is to cut around 100 jobs based in the UK and worldwide – in a move favouring digital over print.

The job losses are expected due to “restructuring” in the company, following a 5 per cent circulation revenue fall in the past nine months.

In a statement, it said the websites were performing well and the main problems were in America.

In an email to staff, Future Publishing UK CEO, Mark Wood, said restructure would be likely to result in about 10 per cent of the firm’s workforce being made redundant. This however, would mostly be through voluntary redundancies.

The company – which publishes around 80 magazines and has 1,000 staff in Bath – said advertising revenue from its websites has offset a decline in print-related income.

The business is executing its operational review of geography and function, to accelerate the move of the US business to one that is a primarily digital business model, simultaneously reducing volatility associated with print data flows, and to reorganise the UK business, re-calibrating it to ensure faster adaptation to digital and more efficient execution of print.

The benefit of these steps will be to improve efficiency, reduce headcount, reduce property requirements, and help accelerate the most promising areas of digital product development.

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[J.co.uk] NUJ: Journalists demand ‘immediate talks’ as 22 jobs face cut at Media Wales

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:29:53 PDT

The National Union of Journalists claims reporters at Media Wales are demanding “immediate talks” with management following plans to cut 22 jobs at the publisher.

According to the union, under the proposals 10 district office staff, eight production journalists and four members of the sports staff would be made redundant. Media Wales, part of the Trinity Mirror group, publishes titles including the Western Mail, South Wales Echo and the Wales on Sunday.

The NUJ chapel members have unanimously passed a motion which states the chapel “expresses shock at the scale of editorial cuts being proposed”, adding that “it is determined to do everything possible to protect the jobs, wages and conditions of its members, as well as the quality of our products”.

Father of the chapel Martin Shipton said: “We shall be entering an intensive period of negotiation with management to mitigate the damage to our members’ livelihood and the newspapers we produce.

“Members are especially angry that while they are expected to lose their jobs or in some cases take pay cuts, Sly Bailey and her fellow directors continue to be paid obscene amounts of money.”

Within the motion the chapel also authorises its committee “to take whatever action it sees fit in association with the union’s national officers”, which could include organising a strike ballot.

In a statement Media Wales confirmed the proposals, which centre on the introduction of a single production team for news and features across the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and all its weekly titles.

This means cuts to the number of full-time roles in the editorial production department and the introduction of a new part-time system, the company said.

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[J.co.uk] Reaction round-up on News of the World closure

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:23:09 PDT

The morning after the announcement that News International is to scrap the News of the World has predictably spawned a variety of reaction from the blogosphere.

Despite rumours that folding the newspaper in favour of a seven day Sun had been on the cards for a while (TheSunOnSunday.co.uk, TheSunOnSunday.com and SunOnSunday.co.uk were all registered on July 5, albeit by a private individual), a source at News International confirmed today that a Sunday edition of the paper wouldn’t be on the cards for several weeks to come.

This morning Times today led with a story that the collapse in advertising was due to online protest and the final nail in the coffin for the paper.

The withdrawal of advertising appeared to be in response to a public backlash that had been led primarily on the internet. Thousands of people had used Twitter and Facebook to express their outrage at allegations of phone hacking at the paper.

This was after a list of the News of the World’s advertising clients had been published online, encouraging people to send Twitter messages to the companies to express concern at the activities of the paper’s journalists.

You can read the full article here (behind the paywall).

Emily Bell, director of the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism and former director of digital content for Guardian News & Media sees the decision as part of a long line of bold and audacious moves from the Murdochs, from the bid to buy the Times, to the launch of Sky News, and recently the proposed takeover of BSkyB.

James’s Wapping moment sees him making a gesture he hopes will be grand enough to soften the focus of any phone-hacking inquiry, bold enough to allow the company to extricate itself from present trouble and, in the process, allow him to reshape News International around the digital television platforms he feels both more comfortable with and which are undoubtedly more profitable.

But what about the wider implications? Many are agreed that the decision is brutal and the loss of 200 journalists terrible, but Andrew Gilligan, London editor for the Sunday Telegraph, argues that it could also give way to a muzzled British press in the future. As talk turns to how press regulation should be managed, Gilligan says:

For be in no doubt: hateful as the behaviour of some journalists has been, we may now face something even worse. For many in power, or previously in power, the News of the World’s crimes are a God-given opening to diminish one of the greatest checks on that power: the media.

Regulation was also on Alan Rusbridger‘s mind yesterday, when he took part in a live Q & A regarding phone hacking (before NI announced the News of the World’s closure). Rusbridger drew attention to alleged weaknesses of the PCC (the code committee of which Rusbridger quit in November 2009) and the quandary of state v self-regulation. Today the Press Complaints Commission sought to defend its work following calls for it to be scrapped by both Labour leader Ed Miliband and prime minister David Cameron.

This hasn’t been a wonderful advertisement for self-regulation. The short answer is that, no, the PCC can’t go on as it is. Its credibility is hanging by a thread.

We did say this back in November 2009 when the PCC came out with its laughable report into phone-hacking. We said in an editorial that this was a dangerous day for press regulation – and so it’s turned out.

The PCC has this week withdrawn that report and has a team looking at the issues and at the mistakes it’s made in the past.

I don’t know how Ofcom could do the job without falling into the category of statutory regulation. Does anyone else?

On her blog former Channel 4 presenter Samira Ahmed also draws some comparisons with the past, saying that the affair is “only my second major moral outcry against the news media” during her twenty years in journalism, the first being the death of Princess Diana. Hugh Grant has won public approval over the last week or so because of his overt opposition to phonehacking, but Ahmed is wary of putting people like Grant on a pedestal.

Many celebrities understand the privacy trade-off with press coverage, or get their lawyers to settle a payoff. Incidentally we should be wary of deifying celebrities, such as Hugh Grant, who have publicly defended the principle of rich people taking out superinjunctions to cover up their bad behaviour, when there might be a legitimate public interest. But I’ve met ordinary people over the years whose suffering has been deeply compounded by salacious press intrusion.

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[J.co.uk] South Yorkshire Times front page reports on journalist job cuts

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:14:17 PDT

The editor of Johnston Press title the South Yorkshire Times has reported editorial job cuts on its front page, receiving praise from the National Union of Journalists.

The NUJ congratulates the editor – whose own job is under threat – for “standing up for quality journalism”.

The article, headlined “Strike looms over Times job cuts”, states: “Journalists at South Yorkshire Newspapers are to ballot on strike action over a proposal by the company to axe half of the Mexborough editorial jobs at the South Yorkshire Times.”

Speaking to the NUJ, Jim Oldfield, South Yorkshire Times editor said: “This is real journalism in action. The Times is currently fighting a brave and protracted battle to keep its core towns from decimation during this recession, I make no apology for acquainting our readers with the changes being proposed for their champion title.

“I am pleased that the company appear to have had an adult reaction to the story.”

NUJ general secretary-elect Michelle Stanistreet said “This is a great example of our members standing up for quality journalism and we hope other editors will follow the example set by the South Yorkshire Times.”

Johnston Press Yorkshire journalists to ballot for industrial action

Rusbridger: Guardian digital first strategy will involve significant job cuts

Shropshire newspaper staff vote for strike ballot over job cuts

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[J.co.uk] Foreign Office in massive U-turn on World Service headline

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:01:37 PDT

The Foreign Office (FCO) has launched disciplinary action against a member of staff after a somewhat surprising headline appeared on its website today.

The announcement that the FCO has pledged an additional £2.2 million in funding to the World Service was titled: “Massive U-turn on BBC World Service funding”.

Obviously not the kind of language government departments normally clothe their massive U-turns in.

A spokesperson for the FCO said: “A web article with an incorrect and inappropriate title was up on the FCO website for 10 minutes this morning. That title absolutely did not represent the views of the FCO. This error has now been corrected and disciplinary procedures have been launched.”

Full Journalism.co.uk story on the World Service funding announcement at this link.

Image courtesy of Tim Montgomerie at Conservative Home.

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[J.co.uk] Newsquest South London: new four-day strike announced

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:21:30 PDT

Journalists at Newsquest titles in South London will go on strike for four days next week, from Monday 27 to Thursday 30 June.

The announcement follows a two-day strike last week. Staff are in dispute with the publisher over plans for a reduction in editorial space, redundancies across all sections of editorial, a review of a two per cent pay rise and an office relocation.

NUJ mother of chapel Thais Portillo-Shrimpton said today that staff had not heard from management since last week’s strike.

NUJ negotiator Jenny Lennox said: “We’ve had a very successful two-day strike last week, and it is worth noting that a dozen journalists have joined the union since dispute began. This reflects the deep anger of journalists employed by Newsquest at their bosses’ determination to avoid consulting with staff on the future of their papers.”

At the end of May, union members Newsquest titles in the area, which covers Surrey, Sutton and Twickenham, voted almost unanimously for strike action, with 22 out of 23 returns of a ballot in favour.

Staff have also been working to rule since 15 April.

Earlier in May the company announced 12 job cuts at a series of titles in the area, including the loss of the sports and leisure department at one of the South London offices.

Staff are running a strike blog which can be found at this link.

NUJ contemns disastrous Johnston Press job cuts in Yorkshire

BBC journalists to begin strike ballot over job cuts

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[J.co.uk] Guardian: ‘This was not a redundancy announcement’

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:37:58 PDT

Predictably, speculation about potential job cuts at Guardian News and Media (GMG) has been rife since yesterday’s announcement that the company was seeking to make £25 million in savings over the next five years.

The Telegraph reported this morning that a cull could go as high as 175 staff, and both the Independent and Evening Standard reported certain job cuts.

A spokesperson for GMG flatly refuted the number in the Telegraph article and told Journalism.co.uk today that yesterday’s statement “was not a redundancy announcement”. He refused to rule out job cuts, however.

“Yesterday’s briefing was not a redundancy announcement. We shared with staff our current position and a strategy to transform the organisation, and said we would work with staff and unions to achieve it. Of course no media company can rule out redundancies in the current climate, but we will talk to staff about issues like that first.”

Yesterday’s statement from GMG confirmed that the company suffered operating losses of £33 million in the last financial year and announced its newspaper titles the Guardian and the Observer would be switching to a “digital-first” strategy.

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[J.co.uk] Strike dates announced at Newsquest South London

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:58:48 PDT

Journalists at titles within Newsquest South London have announced that their planned strike action will take place on Wednesday and Thursday next week (15 and 16 June). The strikes follow a dispute over redundancies, a reduction in editorial space, a review of a 2 per cent pay rise and an office relocation.

At the end of May Journalism.co.uk reported that members of the National Union of Journalists at Newsquest South London voted in favour of strike action, with 22 out of 23 returns of a ballot in favour.

Staff at newspapers in the area, which covers Surrey, Sutton and Twickenham, have been working to rule since 15 April.

NUJ head of publishing Barry Fitzpatrick said: “Our members’ overwhelming decision to take strike action in defence of jobs and quality was the inevitable result of a wrong-headed management policy. But it is not too late for the company to show some sense and sit down with us to discuss the future security of the papers which are so important to our members and their communities.”

Earlier last month the division announced 12 job cuts at a series of titles in the area, including the loss of the sports and leisure department at one of the South London offices.

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[J.co.uk] Slate: ‘I would have loved to piss on your shoes’, and other parting shots

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:51:43 PDT

Slate’s Jack Shafer has rounded up some of journalism’s finest parting shots, the words journalists have found over the years to vent their frustrations with the “quacking mallards” in the editors’ and publishers’ offices.

They include the delightful:

“Don’t worry about me; I’ll land on my feet. I don’t regret coming here, even though I’ve been laid off now. In fact, my only regret is that you haven’t come to visit the Beacon Journal. I would have loved to piss on your shoes.” — Mark Schleub, in a letter to Knight Ridder CEO Tony Ridder, April 2001.

And the no-nonsense:

“It’s been a rough few years here, mainly because of the jackasses in Chicago who own us. To them I say, with as much gusto as I can muster in an email, fuck you.” —Dan Neil, upon leaving the Los Angeles Times for the Wall Street Journal, February 2010.

Full post on Slate at this link.

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[J.co.uk] Ely Standard editor cut in Archant restructure

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:28:00 PDT

Editor reportedly known for coverage of Soham murders loses job as paper's editorship merged with Wisbech Standard and Cambs Times

[J.co.uk] Johnston Press confirms further editorial mergers

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:43:00 PDT

NUJ accuses company of seeking 'more cuts and higher profits' to remedy 'difficulties caused by Johnston Press's own mistakes'

[J.co.uk] 12 jobs at risk as Cambridge weekly closed

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:42:00 PDT

Archant has announced the closure of weekly newspaper Cambridge First two years after launch, with around 12 jobs (six of them editorial) at risk of redundancy

[J.co.uk] 14 job cuts at Archant Suffolk in changes to dailies

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:12:00 PST

Job cuts proposed as Archant Suffolk makes changes to two paid-for titles, the Ipswich Evening Star and East Anglian Daily Times

[J.co.uk] ITN consults Channel 5 News staff over role changes

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:07:00 PST

Broadcaster confirms consultation with staff but insists the number of roles at Channel 5 News numbers will remain 'comparable'

[J.co.uk] Liverpool Daily Post to go weekly with loss of six jobs

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:30:00 PST

Publisher Trinity Mirror announces a move to weekly publication for the Post in January, with a loss of around six editorial jobs

[J.co.uk] Daily Mail publisher records operating profit drop of £13m

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:29:00 PST

Results for the past year report that Associated Newspapers' operating profit fell from £89 million in 2010 to £76 million in 2011

[J.co.uk] Independent and Standard announce merger appointments

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:59:00 PST

Evening Standard editors will lead business coverage across Independent Print Ltd titles while Independent staff will head up sport

[J.co.uk] More than 50 Trinity Mirror jobs under threat in Midlands

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:22:00 PST

Restructure will see up to 43 editorial jobs lost along with a production merger between Birmingham and Coventry titles and closure of three free weekly newspapers

[J.co.uk] Police Review magazine to close after 118 years

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:30:00 PST

Police trade title and associated products will close this month, with the publisher pledging to find new jobs for eight staff at risk of redundancy

[J.co.uk] Community Care closes print edition putting 11 jobs at risk

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:13:00 PDT

Reed Business Information takes 'difficult decision' over closure of magazine, which will put 11 jobs at risk but create four new positions

[J.co.uk] BBC must 'strengthen' savings approach, says NAO

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:40:00 PDT

A report by the National Audit Office identifies lessons to be learnt for further savings being taken by the BBC under the 2010 licence fee settlement

[J.co.uk] BBC defends Thompson's 'robust exchange' over cuts

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:36:00 PDT

Director general Mark Thompson heavily criticised by the National Union of Journalists after he told staff: 'no one is forcing you to stay'

[J.co.uk] Helen Boaden: Staff will 'bear the brunt' of cuts in BBC News

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 05:59:00 PDT

Director of news at the BBC Helen Boaden told staff that the News group will be cutting between 700 to 800 full time posts in savings bid

[J.co.uk] Bectu renews strike plans over BBC Wales redundancies

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:17:00 PDT

Bectu members at BBC Wales are planning a 24-hour strike later this week in a protest against plans to cut four editor roles

[J.co.uk] News International to cut 110 jobs

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:33:00 PDT

Internal email also reveals publisher of the News of the World has made just 23 positions available to staff left without a job when the tabloid was closed in July

[J.co.uk] Irish Post closes after 40 years with loss of 10 jobs

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:34:00 PDT

UK's largest Irish community title closed due to 'unsustainable' circulation and ad revenue levels

[J.co.uk] UK Riots: Entrepreneur & TV business expert is giving £850,000 worth of entrepreneurship grants to adults and youth in the wake of the UK riots and the economic slump

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:02:33 PDT

UK Riots: Entrepreneur and TV business expert is giving £850,000 worth of entrepreneurship grants to adults and youth in the wake of the UK Riots and the economic slump www.BeatTheCrisis.tv / 020 7183 2605 / pressdept@marshawright.co.uk.

[J.co.uk] NUJ 'stunned' by Newsquest cuts in North West

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:33:00 PDT

Fresh round of cuts would see three sub editors out of 12; one in three reporters in the three offices affected and one in six photographers made redundant

[J.co.uk] NUJ condemns 'panic' cuts by Trinity Mirror in Newcastle

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:48:00 PDT

Union has criticised the announcement of seven planned redundancies in the north east, which comes just weeks after the company revealed plans for eight job cuts at the Newcastle Evening Chronicle

[Guardian] I fear the NUJ is on its way to oblivion

Mon, 28 May 2012 04:28:45 PDT

It can hardly be a surprise that the National Union of Journalists is facing a financial crisis.

Its members are being laid off on a weekly basis due to the economic problems of newspapers and the BBC's news division.

Fewer employed members equals falling income. Add to that the rising costs of running the union, and the reason for its problems is obvious.

It is facing a deficit of £267,000 and is in danger of becoming insolvent. But this is not a sudden drama. It is hardly a secret that the union's finances have been pretty shaky for as long as most of us can remember.

When Michelle Stanistreet took over as general secretary last year she knew the score. She could see what was coming and was therefore aware that the cure would be painful.

Unions who make much of employers cutting staff cannot be other than mindful of the paradox of needing to do the same themselves.

I know many NUJ members - whatever their politics - are intensely upset about the rescue plan that Stanistreet has drawn up.

After all, who wants to see their union make their own staff redundant? Who wants to see their union go cap in hand to a bank to plead for a deal?

It strikes me that Stanistreet had few alternatives if, as she said from the start of her time in office, she wants to see the union stand alone.

In her interview with me last April, she said one of her major tasks was to maintain the NUJ's independence. She said:

"It is hugely important that we remain as a recognisable union for journalists.
I don't want to see us wither away and become like one of those ghost unions that hangs about with Unite. We have an unrivalled voice, a proper role."

At the time, Stanistreet also told me the union membership was growing. But in her report to the union's national executive on Friday she admitted that overall membership had declined by 18% in five years.

With the outlook for employment looking gloomy, the decline will probably continue. So there may be some members - a minority, I am sure - who wish to shelter within the arms of a bigger industrial union.

I happen to think that would be the worst of all outcomes for the union because it would lead inevitably to a total loss of influence.

In the recent past, it would be fair to say that the union has punched above its weight. Then again, I'd also concede that it has begun to look distinctly punch-drunk.

Every round of redundancies is greeted with an NUJ statement saying all the rights things about it being a disgrace and the members won't stand for it and there will be industrial action.

Then, inevitably, the members do stand for it and there is no industrial action. There are notable exceptions, such as the recent Financial Times dispute, and there is no doubt that NUJ officials have sometimes secured better terms for people made redundant.

Overall, however, there is a clear link between the long-run media downturn and the long-term decline of the union.

I already detect the beginnings of an internal struggle over Stanistreet's rescue plan. That, in itself, is one of the reasons why so many working journalists still scorn the union. They see no point in the bitter battles between union activists.

As for Stanistreet's plan, it depends to a large extent on her ability to charm the union's bank Unity Trust. It may succeed, because she is charming (and sensible and and apolitical). But I fear the long-term consequences.

I do hope I am wrong, but I cannot help feeling that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the NUJ as we know it.

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] The real reason for the firing of the New York Times chief executive

Mon, 28 May 2012 01:59:03 PDT

The Guardian reported in December that the New York Times's chief executive, Janet Robinson, was to step down.

There were no clues as to why she was going. But, if a New York magazine article is to be believed, it appears that the story behind her departure is very interesting indeed.

According to the writer, Joe Hagan, it involves a mixture of corporate strife, internal family rivalry and a personality clash between Robinson and the girlfriend of the paper's publisher Arthur Sulzberger Junior, Claudia Gonzalez.

According to Hagan, the imperious Robinson had long enjoyed something of a platonic marriage with Sulzberger.

This relationship soured as Sulzberger became increasingly preoccupied with the strong-willed Gonzalez who, it seems, was no fan of Robinson.

However, Robinson's firing - with a reputed $24m (£15.3m) pay-off - was not as simple as that clash might sound.

Hagan explains that the overarching issue concerned the ravaged newspaper business and its impact on the Sulzberger family's financial comfort.

Declining advertising revenue, a plummeting stock price and the three-year absence of a dividend eroded Robinson's job security.

Indeed, the lack of a dividend created such a feeling of discontent inside the Ochs-Sulzberger family that two years ago it too counselling from a company that specialises in disputes inside wealthy families.

It was Robinson's views on the company's digital strategy - or lack of it - that underlay her departure.

When she clashed first with Martin Nisenholtz, the company's digital chief, and then Michael Golden - a first cousin of Sulzberger who wanted a broader mandate at the company - Sulzberger didn't have the stomach to defend her.

According to the article, Robinson's dismissal was not unanimously agreed at board level. At least two directors were against her removal.

Sources: New York magazine/Reuters/Poynter

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Famous American newspaper to give to daily publication

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:29:56 PDT

Updated 5.45pm: One of America's most famous newspaper titles, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, is to end its daily print publication.

The paper's publisher confirmed that the newspaper will cease daily publication in the autumn, moving to three days a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. There will also be staff cuts.

His announcement followed a story by David Carr in the New York Times, which predicted both events.

The ending of daily publication will make New Orleans the largest US city without a daily paper. The Times-Picayune, with a circulation of about 155,000 on Sundays and 134,000 weekdays, will also be the largest American paper to shift to non-daily publication.

Carr further reported that the Times-Picayune's long-time editor, Jim Amoss, will leave the paper after assisting in the transition.

Two managing editors who were reportedly excluded from meetings in recent weeks will also be leaving. The paper's publisher, Ashton Phelps, announced his own retirement in March.

The staff of the Times-Picayune (it's a Spanish coin) were noted for having distinguished themselves during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.

After three days of online-only publication, the paper began publishing a print edition, and its follow-up coverage was praised as being deep and meaningful, wrote Carr.

The Times-Picayune, which was founded in 1837, was acquired by the Newhouse family in 1962.

Sources: New York Times/Poynter

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Northcliffe reverses decline - but editorial innovation is essential

Thu, 24 May 2012 01:44:59 PDT

Look again at those Daily Mail & General Trust results, as reported today by Mark Sweney.

The stand-out figures relate to the company's regional division. Despite recording a 10% loss in revenues, it managed to make a 38% increase in operating profit in the six months up to 1 April compared to the same period a year ago.

It was the first profit increase since the recession bit. Sure, it only amounts to £11m, but this was - in financial terms - a basket case of an operation a year or so ago before Steve Auckland was appointed as managing director.

He set about reviewing the whole division and, as a result, took a set of painful decisions. Four dailies became weeklies; some titles were closed or merged; pre-press operations, print and distribution were outsourced; and budget cuts also resulted in redundancies.

Auckland regards Northcliffe - which publishes 113 titles in three English regions - as "an unappreciated asset."

Auckland, now chief executive of the division, is a numbers man, of course. When he talks about assets, he is not referring to journalistic virtues.

But, as he would undoubtedly point out, if DMGT had gone on allowing the regional division's finances to slip away, there wouldn't be any journalism of any kind.

And he appears committed to ensuring that the business plays to its core strengths, meaning local content and local sales.

It is as well to recall that Northcliffe's annual profit in 2005 was £100m. It has been sinking ever since, as, of course, have the profits of its regional publishing rivals.

Even now, the ad revenue figures show just how bad things really are. They fell by 11% to £75m, with print ads declining by 9%. Digital ad revenue, incidentally, rose by 4%. And circulation revenue was also down 5% to £29m.

So how did Auckland secure a profit rise? By rationalisation - such as the dailies-to-weeklies initiative - and cost-cutting, of course.

Staff numbers were cut by 6% in the six-month period, down from 2,530 to 2,366.

And that will surely not be the end of budget cuts because Northcliffe's revenues fell by a further 6% in April and the first three weeks of this month.

Despite a rise in sales revenue (up 3%) ad revenues went down by 9%. Auckland's robust cost-cutting may look good for now, but can it be sustained if advertising goes on slipping relentlessly away?

He clearly believes it can because he sees the restructuring as the "first phase" and says: "We now have a pace and momentum to the business."

He argues that "the opportunities within digital are particularly exciting, as currently 90% of our regular print customers are not being served with a digital solution." So, "there's plenty of scope for growth."

Auckland points to Northcliffe having "a portfolio of incredibly powerful local brands that have strong ties with their community and outsell all national newspapers in their towns and cities."

That's all very well, but editorial innovation - as well as financial prudence - is necessary if the company's papers are to secure their place in the community.

For example, I ran a piece yesterday by Mike Rawlins, who runs a hyperlocal website, Pits n Pots, in Stoke-on-Trent, where a Northcliffe title, The Sentinel, is sold.

Rawlins and his partner found a niche in reporting and commenting on the city's politics because the paper had failed to do so.

Auckland must ensure that his editors have enough resources - plus talent, of course - to engage with the communities they affect to serve... and therefore to win back lost readers.

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Local newspapers' crisis: what hyperlocal means, and why it works

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:28:23 PDT

Today's extract from What do we mean by local?* is by Ross Hawkes, the founder of the hyperlocal news website Lichfield Live. He is also a senior journalism lecturer at Staffordshire university.

He argues that journalists working for traditional "big media", through a culture of centralisation, have become too remote from their audiences...

Patch reporters in the true sense of the word are a dying breed. Gone are those who are known by everyone who is anyone in their local area with a finger firmly on the community's pulse...

If you do not have your ear to the ground how can you accurately represent the views of the community?

That is not to say there is a need for a physical newsroom in the centre of a patch, thanks mainly to the tools that now allow the journalist to set
up a newsroom anywhere... But utilising this technology requires something that is not readily found in the modern newsroom – trust...

News is still the central ingredient in a media business but the difficulty lies getting bodies on the ground in an affordable way... The rise of the hyperlocal publishers has been testament to the opportunities being presented to those with an understanding of the modern, digital community.

One of the accusations regularly levelled at hyperlocal publishers is that no-one is making significant money from them yet. While this may be true, positive signs are there...

Part of the growth and perceived success of the new hyperlocal movement is down to passion and knowledge for the communities they serve – and recognising that "local" is no longer a catch-all term.

The idea of "community" cannot even be described as a purely geographic phenomenon, with many people having a greater empathy and connection to an online social group than to their physical neighbours.

The emotional connection between audience and publisher is particularly important in a society that is used to choice and being able to interact with their media, be it through phone votes, Twitter hashtags or red-button offerings.

For many of the successful hyperlocal sites, the "one of us" mentality and the open nature of the work has been crucial.

There is also the social currency factor. With many websites being run as voluntary, non-profit enterprises or sapling start-ups, there is a greater goodwill element involved in the support they get [which is] borne out in newsgathering.

Eyes on the ground have always been a crucial part of the local journalist's life. But the effect of this network within a community is increased thanks to the ready availability of social media.

The opportunity to interact with an audience in real time, all of the time, has allowed the new breed of reporters to put themselves firmly at the centre of a local, social circle.

By positioning themselves at the heart of their community, hyperlocal journalists can understand the needs and desires of the audience they are serving.

In the current, technology-driven and globally-connected society, the journalist has the ability to be at the heart of the community at all times.

It is important to recognise the difference between centralised services and centralised reporting. It is possible for a newsroom to exist beyond the realms of bricks and mortar, by utilising the many technological tools available...

If anything, this latest incarnation of entrepreneurial journalism at a local level is merely the industry going full circle to the days of pamphleteers and individual publishers.

The only difference is the platform and range of tools now available...

Content is still king

One of the key issues facing regional journalism is the inability to woo audiences in a defined geographic area. This is because the definition of local to the individual can vary, as can their point of access.

Traditionally, local media sprung up around closely-connected communities. But with a more transient and commuter-led society, the issue of how to get the product to market becomes far greater...

Journalists at a community level, fusing the power of communication granted by the internet and its many tools with rich, valuable local content, will be able to thrive.

The quality of reporting certainly cannot be undervalued, mainly due to the fact that for many local reporters this is the gap in the market they will be attempting to exploit.

In terms of the big, headline stories then speed is likely to be the space they are attempting to fill. However, in terms of longevity then it will be going back to basics.

For all the technological breakthroughs and tools now available, no-one has yet replaced the ability of a journalist to get their nose stuck in and dig out a story.

This is where big media's centralisation policy falls down. By not having the staffing levels or funding to make a case for sending a reporter to a parish council meeting or village fete, they are missing events that have real meaning to that particular community.

By going back to basics and patch reporting, the hyperlocal journalist can have a steady supply of stories that will appeal to a local populace, as well as raising his or her profile within the community.

Physical presence still carries more weight than faceless email. If centralisation is leading to lack of face-to-face contact, the situation is being compounded by the lack of value placed on communication as a whole within journalism and the wider media industry.

Speculative meetings and time spent establishing contacts do not make a mark in the plus column on the balance sheet...

Those media groups that are not able to adapt to the shifting face of localism and are not prepared to meet the demands of their consumers should not be allowed to distort the marketplace further.

It could be argued that attempts to support and underpin crumbling media businesses are actually acting against the public interest by blocking the rise of viable alternatives.

And the big newspaper groups cannot have their cake and eat it. After lobbying hard to prevent the BBC from offering an improved online offering for local communities, many of these organisations have failed to do anything to support the argument that they even had viable products worthy of protection...

The battle for local audiences

There is no doubt that lessons could be learned from both sides of the battle for local audiences.

Traditional media has years of experience behind it, while new start-ups and hyperlocal initiatives have the spirit of adventure within them.

However, the barrier between the two is still firmly up in some quarters. The phrase "citizen journalist" is often trotted out in a derisory manner by many of the old school within the industry as a way of undermining the efforts of some new model journalism enterprises to give greater power to their audience.

After all, reader interaction is nothing new. The letters pages of regional newspapers across the country for decades have been the original user-generated content...

Differentiating between journalism and information is crucial in the whole debate over citizen contributions, particularly when working out how to harness community engagement and support in a local arena.

Few members of the public actually have any great desire to be a journalist – those who do tend to train professionally. What they do have is a thirst to become involved in the discussion surrounding their community.

Often this manifests itself in allowing input into the finished piece, by providing an element of the published article and working with, rather than for, the reporter.

Hyperlocals have grasped this concept of partnership as opposed to top-down management of communities and the information and news contained within them. All of this begs the question: why doesn't closer integration exist?...

Most hyperlocal sites will not, at present, have the resources to regularly tackle a wide range of issues in great depth over an extended period of time – but this is the area where traditional media can utilise its knowledge and expertise.

Therefore, there is no reason why this new breed of ultra-local sites cannot act as a community news wire, breaking stories for the wider media to delve deeper into.

This theory of an almost two-tier journalism, created through partnerships, could lead to a greater sustainability for both traditional media organisations and their newer counterparts, improve the understanding of what local is and inform how best it can be exploited in a journalistic sense.

Tomorrow: The experiences of Mike Rawlins, the non-journalist who runs a news website in Stoke-on-Trent

*What do we mean by local? is edited by John Mair, Neil Fowler & Ian Reeves and published by Abramis. Available at a special Media Guardian price of £12 from richard@arimapublishing.co.uk

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] The real reasons for Warren Buffett's newspaper deals

Mon, 21 May 2012 02:24:16 PDT

Warren Buffett, often billed as the world's most famous investor, last week bought 63 local US newspapers for $142m (£90m).

This acquisition, by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group, has been trumpeted as illustrating some kind of counter-intuitive faith in the future of newsprint.

But one of America's best media commentators, Jack Shafer, isn't buying that line. Forget any romantic notions, he writes, Buffett "buys when he sees value that others don't."

He backs this up with a lengthy analysis of the reason for Buffett's previous forays into newspapers. In a word, profit.

Shafer reminds us that as recently as 2009, Buffett was bad-mouthing newspapers, saying that "they have the possibility of nearly unending losses."

Yet he bought the Omaha World-Herald for $200m in November. And earlier this month he told investors he thought there was a future for community newspapers, adding: "I think the economics will be ok."

Shafer is not entirely baffled by Buffett's change of mind, taking into account the Sage of Omaha's financial acumen. He writes:

"The Omaha deal looks like equal parts home town boosterism and faith that the properties retain some franchise cachet...
The Media General deal is slightly harder to decode... most of the towns where Buffett is now the press lord are backwaters... These small dailies and weeklies still retain franchise status because they cover local issues nobody else does, and they make money.
It's worth noting that Buffett did not purchase Media General's Tampa Tribune, an unprofitable paper in competition with the Tampa Bay Times... with no franchise value on the horizon."

He cites media analyst Ken Doctor, who regards the Media General deal as "more a feat of financial engineering than a newspaper deal" because it includes a $400m loan and a $45m line of credit at 10.5% interest in exchange for warrants that would give Berkshire Hathaway almost 20% of Media General.

And Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson of the Financial Times points out that the warrants obtained by the "well-meaning billionaire" are worth $19.5m.

So, once Media General dumps the Tampa Tribune, the company will essentially be a profitable TV station owner, a business that Buffett knows and likes. Then there is the valuable newspaper real estate too.

Shafer concludes: "Buffett's recent newspaper acquisitions don't indicate the industry has returned to health. But if he starts selling, you'll know that it's dead."

Source: Shafer's Reuters blog

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Johnston Press turns frees into paid-fors

Mon, 21 May 2012 01:57:18 PDT

Publishers are desperately trying a battery of tricks to breathe life into dying newsprint.

So dailies are becoming weeklies. Some weeklies are being merged, while others are being de-merged in hyperlocal experiments. Paid-for titles are becoming frees. And, contradictorily, some frees are becoming paid-fors.

The latest example is at the north-east division of Johnston Press, which is to convert three free newspapers - the Washington Star, Peterlee Star and Seaham and Houghton Star - as paid-fors.

Laughably, the company says it is taking this measure after "numerous requests from readers and advertisers."

What? Readers email in requests to pay for a paper they now get for free? Pull the other one.

The division's managing director, Stuart Birkett, also claims that the change will involve "an additional investment in journalism" to produce "three new bigger, brighter and better designed papers covering more local news, sport and information."

According to a Sunderland Echo source, the "additional investment" involves an Echo sub-editor leaving his desk job to become the sole reporter for all three titles. Surely not?

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Local newspapers' crisis: a story of hyperlocal success

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:51:49 PDT

Today's extract from What do we mean by local?* is by Richard Coulter, a former assistant editor at the Bristol Evening Post.

He left the Northcliffe Media title in July 2011 to launch a magazine, filtonvoice, which is an attempt to publish community journalism - in print...

When I left the Post I was not totally sure what I was going to do, but I was certain that new models for sustainable journalism... had to be created.

I had never detected any drop in the desire for people to be given information which affected their lives. What I had noticed was a reluctance to
go out and seek that news – and pay for it.

It is important to understand the context of Filton. It is a well-defined "town" within the Bristol conurbation, with around 12,000 residents in a mix of private and social housing.

There are three primary schools (four if you count the Catholic school just over the border in Bristol), one large secondary school, three churches, several strips of small shops and two shopping plazas with larger operators.

But it is large industry which has put Filton on the map. It is one of the UK's homes of aero engineering with Airbus, BAE Systems, GKN and Rolls-Royce all providing jobs over the decades.

There are fewer jobs now than there once were but it is still a large part of the community...

Filton is defined as a "priority neighbourhood" in the South Gloucestershire council area, with below average ratings on several measures, although this has to be taken in the context of the district, a relatively affluent part of the south west...

It also has small-scale local political issues while being at the heart of larger regional concerns... In short, it is ideal for hyperlocal news coverage.

It also helps, I might add, that I have lived with my family in Filton for 15 years. My eldest son went to a local primary, as will my youngest, and we are members of one of the churches...

Returning to my roots

I felt I understood the community well enough to set up a magazine. I knew how to report and sub-edit, I could design pages and I believed the community had enough going on to sustain a newsy, monthly magazine which would be delivered to every home and also be available in public places...

In issue one of filtonvoice [in October 2011], a gardener friend said he would place an advert... He secured three clients right away, giving him guaranteed work for eight weeks with the hope of more beyond. His small advert had paid for itself many times over.

The magazine gave him visibility in front of the very people he is seeking to sign up for jobs. This is hyperlocal at its most obvious. There is nothing clever or scientific about it: small firms getting their message to a niche audience, all of whom could conceivably use his services.

For him, advertising in larger publications would be more expensive and the majority of the readers would be unlikely to hire him since he is not local to them...

I felt I could create a niche from an editorial point of view, report on the town council and the traffic issues and the schools.

Yet I had to accept the magazine would not run on thin air – it had to match or exceed the commercial success of some of the advertising-led booklets.

My editorial stance was clear from the beginning... I wanted to offer Filton people stories which would affect their lives or which attracted a spark of recognition, perhaps a child in a play or a neighbour with an issue to raise.

I have some fixed features... stories from the local schools, with the cooperation of head teachers, comprehensive coverage of the town council, a column from our MP, what's on in Filton, letters and comments, and a column from the different church leaders.

In many ways I feel like I have returned to the roots of my career. The town council meets roughly twice a month and the issues are often of the bread and butter variety...

There is a danger in being too close to the councillors - some are neighbours, some I know from my days at the Post, and one is my brother-in-law!

The issues which they debate affect the readers but they also affect me... Yet this close-knit community has its advantages. When our deliverers had trouble getting in to some blocks of flats, it was a councillor and a local activist who stepped in and offered to sort it out.

There is real appreciation in some quarters that the community has a magazine which attempts to bring the issues to the people...

I can't claim to change people's lives but I try to engage the community... In some of my more fanciful moments, I aspire to be like the small town editors of American literature, at the hub of the community and shaping the debates...

Waking up in the middle of the night

The issues are real – in some ways mundane, perhaps, for the rest of the city – but vital for the 12,000 people in Filton.

Where I can, I take copy from local people. In terms of editing, I will correct errors but I try to retain the flavour of the original contribution.

The fashion page always features shops in or close to Filton. It is not the most demanding journalism in the world. The difficult part is being editor, reporter, chief sub and commercial manager all in one.

There are headaches with finding delivery people and making sure they do their deliveries on time. I had numerous discussions with printers until I found a gem of a firm with exemplary customer service.

I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, utterly certain that no one will ever advertise again.

I am fortunate to have teamed up with two former colleagues on the commercial side, which helps with those fears.

More than anything, my family is incredibly supportive. My wife, Bridget, writes the fashion page and my eldest son writes a column and delivers. It feels like an old-style, small family business, and that is probably exactly what it is.

Chasing up unpaid bills is hard. I am a novice at accountancy and I often feel like those music hall entertainers spinning plates. Occasionally, some of them fall off but as yet, not all of them at the same time.

All through my career as a journalist I had been struck by the chaotic approach to digital... The overwhelming feeling was one of people making it up as they went along while the brighter journalists and editors paid the penalty for this guesswork.

Crucially, I noticed how digital journalists assumed that everyone in the population was like them. So, as tablets became more popular, the assumption was everyone had one or would have one in a very short space of time. Likewise for smartphones.

As I speak to people in Filton, I detect no great feeling that tablets are omnipresent... I am no dinosaur and I am open to any innovation, but I cannot accept, at the moment, that large numbers of people find print an unacceptable method of consuming information.

Some people may not like paying for print publications... but that does not mean the medium itself is flawed. In time, things will change and possibly new and as yet unimagined gadgets will take over...

But for now, as long as we can get the magazine to everyone in Filton, it works. I have yet to hear anyone say they reject the concept of print, especially if it is free and delivered through their letterbox.

filtonvoice does have a website which is limited to breaking stories and content which has already been in the magazine.

I see no worth in devaluing a publication that is developing a sound business footing... The commercial model is based on offering advertisers certain numbers of magazines being delivered through certain numbers of letterboxes. I'm not sure digital can yet offer such good assurances.

What has been clear to me is that local communities have had a sense of being disengaged over many years now. Yet they crave information and they want it in a format which is delivered to them (and cheap... or free).

On Monday: The founder of Lichfield Live, Ross Hawkes, argues that partnerships between traditional media and local start-ups can pay dividends

*What do we mean by local? is edited by John Mair, Neil Fowler & Ian Reeves and published by Abramis. Available at a special Media Guardian price of £12 from richard@arimapublishing.co.uk

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Don't read it, sniff it - the daily newspaper that smells like bread

Fri, 18 May 2012 06:31:11 PDT

Journalists are supposed to sniff out stories. But today's issue of the Grimsby Telegraph is asking readers to sniff its pages.

If they do, they will discover that the paper smells of bread... supposedly.

In what the paper is claiming as a first for a regional newspaper, it is using new developments in ink technology to inject a smell into special scratch-and-sniff patches printed on the paper's pages. To be precise, the yellow patches appear on pages 1, 11 and the back.

It might seem like a half-baked idea - watch out for the puns - but the paper's deputy editor, Michelle Hurst, stresses that it's just a bit of fun.

Some readers are not so sure that it smells of bread. One thought it was more like cinnamon toast while another was convinced it reminded her of hot cross buns.

Editor Michelle Lalor says: "While news is, of course, our bread and butter, issuing a scratch 'n' sniff newspaper is a bit of fun to link in with a great promotion."

The Telegraph has been running a bread promotion all week by giving away toasters and toastie makers.

Now she says that the promotion, sponsored by Tesco, is culminating "with a free bread baton with every copy of the Grimsby Telegraph sold at Tesco Cleethorpes."

It's just an experiment of course, and we shouldn't get too sniffy about it. Given the difficulty of selling papers just now, a sales-winning gimmick is welcome.

After all, it isn't really commercially compromising since it won't stop journalists with a nose for news going about their daily tasks.

Anyway, glossy magazines have been doing much the same for years, so it's hardly a revolutionary idea.

Will it catch on with other papers? Probably not. On the other hand, it's amusing to imagine what certain titles would regard as an appropriate smell. Or what we think they smell like!

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Tindle increases his Johnston Press stake

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:15:01 PDT

Newspaper publisher Ray Tindle has increased his shareholding in Johnston Press, upping his stake by a further percentage point.

Last Tuesday, according to a BBC Scotland report, he bought 600,000 shares in the troubled regional chain, giving him 8% of the company.

In November last year, he held 7.17% after buying a tranche of shares. The share price has been becalmed at about 6p for weeks and its current market capitalisation is £38m.

Tindle's family-owned group is the 10th largest regional publisher with 73 local papers selling a total of 1.2m a week. Johnston Press is the second largest with 243 titles - including 19 dailies - and boasts a weekly sale of 6.4m.

But Tindle makes profits and has no debts. By contrast Johnston, though profitable, is weighed down by a debt of £350m due to borrowings in its years of acquisitions.

Tindle said: "I know they've got problems, everyone knows that, but they will survive the problems and you will find that they've got good titles."

Asked if he was interested in taking over the group, Tindle said: "That would be wonderful, but not possible".

On Thursday, Johnston Press is due to issue a trading statement. It posted a £144m loss last year despite substantial cost cuts.

Source: BBC

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Trinity Mirror boss Sly Bailey narrowly survives shareholder revolt over pay

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:09:52 PDT

Large number who rejected the remuneration report is seen as a 'warning shot' from investors

Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey has narrowly survived a shareholder revolt over her pay, after just 54% of shareholders voted to approve the remuneration report at the annual general meeting on Thursday.

The large number of voters who rejected the report follows a rebellion by major shareholders, who are unhappy with her £1.7m pay packet and the financial performance of the company. It comes in the wake of Bailey announcing she is to step down from the Daily Mirror publisher at the end of the year.

A source said that the rebellion is a "massive smack on the wrist" and a "warning shot" from investors, although if the report had been rejected it is highly unlikely company directors would have had to return any of their pay.

Investors voted to vent their mounting displeasure after a decade under Bailey's leadership, during which the publisher's market capitalisation has slumped from more than £1bn to £80m, and share price has fallen by over 90% to 30p. During that period, Bailey has pocketed more than £14m.

The lack of confidence in the structure of pay and bonuses at the publisher will put pressure on Jane Lighting, the former chief executive of Channel 5, who heads the remuneration committee at Trinity Mirror. However a spokesman said she will not stand down from the position.

More than 80% of shareholders voted to re-elect Lighting as a non-executive director, while over 85% voted in favour of reappointing Bailey for the rest of the year until a new chief executive is found.

Almost a quarter of shareholders voted against Trinity Mirror's long-term incentive plan, which outgoing chairman Sir Ian Gibson said was being reviewed and may be adjusted to include targets such as achieving digital strategy goals.

Speaking after the AGM, David Grigson, the former Reuters finance chief who will take over from Gibson on 3 August, hinted at more board changes over the next year and said that Bailey's successor will be "paid differently", with more of a focus on performance targets.

Shareholders bombarded Gibson with questions and criticisms on how the company had operated since Bailey became chief executive.

"It has been a strategy of despair rather than success and achievement," said shareholder Chris Morley, who is also a member of the National Union of Journalists. "Ever since she came in we have had year after year of cuts – and not always when the economy was bad – tens of millions of pounds of cuts and lots of good quality journalists, which has left the business weaker."

He called on the board to bring in a new chief executive who would "grow the business rather than cutting it into a thousand pieces".

Gibson, however, argued that the company is not in "crisis" and is performing better than many "privately-owned" rivals. He said Bailey had delivered on the strategy required in the economic climate, backed by the company board.

Bailey was not required to field any questions and disappeared immediately after her last annual general meeting.

Another shareholder said "I've been coming to this [AGM] all the time, I've got no confidence in the board, all I can say is you're all fired."

However Gibson said: "She has consistently delivered robust profits and cashflows and importantly set the digital basis for the group going forward.

He denied a news report that Bailey had been awarded a £1m pay-off. "We asked for that to be corrected, she is not getting a pay off she is working her notice."

He pointed out that since Bailey joined the Daily Mirror's publisher from IPC Media in 2003 she has had to manage the "worst and longest economic downturn this country has ever seen".

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Mark Sweney

[Guardian] Trinity Mirror chair defends Sly Bailey's pay and performance to shareholders

Thu, 10 May 2012 08:16:47 PDT

Shareholders angry as Sir Ian Gibson says outgoing chief executive delivered the right strategy for economic climate

Trinity Mirror chairman Sir Ian Gibson has defended Sly Bailey's pay and the way she ran the newspaper group, in the face of a barrage of criticism from investors at its annual meeting on Thursday.

Shareholders bombarded Gibson with questions and criticisms on how the company had operated since Bailey became chief executive.

He called on the board to bring in a new chief executive who would "grow the business rather than cutting it into a thousand pieces".

Bailey was not required to field any questions and disappeared immediately after her last annual general meeting.

Another shareholder said "I've been coming to this [AGM] all the time, I've got no confidence in the board, all I can say is you're all fired."

However Gibson said: "She has consistently delivered robust profits and cashflows and importantly set the digital basis for the group going forward.

He denied a news report that Bailey had been awarded a £1m pay-off. "We asked for that to be corrected, she is not getting a pay off she is working her notice."

He pointed out that since Bailey joined the Daily Mirror's publisher from IPC Media in 2003 she has had to manage the "worst and longest economic downturn this country has ever seen".

Bailey departs at the end of the year, and it is expected that up to 20% of shareholders will lodge protests votes against her pay and reappointment when Trinity Mirror publishes the results of its shareholder resolutions later on Thursday.

Her departure was prompted by investor unrest at her pay – £1.7m last year and about £14m in total since she joined the company in 2003.

Gibson said that the board had not acted improperly over its remuneration scheme, which is headed by Jane Lighting who is also expected to be on the receiving end of disgruntled shareholder voting.

He said that a comparison of pay at competitors, citing the Telegraph and Johnston Press, showed that the three executive directors at Trinity Mirror, including Bailey, were not overpaid.

"We haven't been rewarding people irresponsibly," he said. "These three people and the team around them face off against some of the biggest media teams in the world."

Gibson defended Bailey's strategy of cuts and closing local newspapers. During her time in charge, Trinity Mirror's market capitalisation has fallen from more than £1bn to about £80m and its share price is down more than 90% to about 30p.

"It is false to say that the business in 2003/4 or 1989 or even now is as efficent as it ought to be," said Gibson. "It can be more efficient and should be more efficient even now. This is a secure business, it is in tough times but it is not in crisis. Many of our competitors, if they were not privately-owned,would be in crisis."

He claimed that Northcliffe, the regional publishing arm owned by Daily Mail & General Trust, is worth "one tenth or one twentieth" of the £1bn it was valued at when it was put up for sale a few years ago.

"Johnston Press was once our strongest competitor [in the regional newspaper market], now it has just scraped into existence for another 12 months," he said, referring to the recent financial resturcturing announced as Johnston Press reported a loss of £144m for 2011.

"No one ever wants to reduce jobs, I guarantee you that," said Gibson, who added that if parts of the company, such as individual newspapers, are not viable they have to dealt with so as not to "risk the whole business".

Gibson said that it would be suicidal to invest enormous amounts of money into the business before the economy returned to sustainable growth.

"To try and bring [them] back now would drain profits so quickly businesses would disappear within months, not years. That is a fact," he said. "We only need a £50m decline in those profits and this business is no longer viable. Whatever strategy you want you can only implement it if you survive to implement it," he said. "To be bold when you bleed to death is not being bold, it is foolish".

He all but ruled out a potential sell-off of its regional newspaper business, pointing out that competition regulations would make a combination with a rival difficult and that the market conditions means that any deal price would not be in Trinity Mirror's interest.

He said there was significant value in its portfolio, pointing to the turnaround the company engineered after acquiring the regional newspapers owned by Guardian Media Group, publisher of the Guardian and MediaGuardian.co.uk, which included the Manchester Evening News.

"We made it profitable and expanded its reach within 12 months using management techniques some of you may not be happy with," he said. "We got it for a very low price because it was an asset that was expected to disappear. It is now a substantial and important part of our portfolio."

He said that while the print assets were "treasured" they would be milked for cash while Trinity Mirror focused on long-term growth, focused on digital products.

"We have planted an enormous number of digital seeds, some will fail," he said.

Gibson said that the company was undervalued by the stock market because of an "exaggerated fear" about the failure of the business model underpinning its flagship titles.

"[They are] expecting mass newspapers to die in a couple of years, not 10 or more," he said.

The other issue was the concerns raised about the often wildly swinging pension deficit, which stands at £176m, which Gibson said was due to the way it was periodically measured. He said the company was considering more frequent publication of the deficit to allay concerns and to show that fluctuations are normal and not a major concern.

Speaking after the AGM, David Grigson, the chairman designate who will takeover from Gibson on 3 August, said that wider changes at the Trinity Mirror board are likely over the next year.

"I think it is one step at a time. When we've got the CEO and are clear on the strategy then we can look at the board and ask if we have the right people at the table to support that strategy. But I wouldn't do that now. There are opportunities to refresh as people step off.

"Boards are constantly in need of refreshment, it is the same with

management, it is the same with companies."

He also hinted that if the right replacement for Bailey can be found then perhaps she may not stay until the end of the year.

"I'm really glad she is staying, we have some very important things to do and I don't want to leave any vacuum," he said. "Always, in any changeover, there is a risk of some degree of inactivity, a gap as a person comes in. My job is to minimise that impact."

Bailey's successor will be paid "differently" he said, marking the end of the remuneration packages of £1.7m or more that she has enjoyed, with much more focus on performance targets.

"There is scope to do things differently," he said.

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Mark Sweney

[Guardian] NUJ urges Trinity Mirror shareholders to withhold Bailey's pay-off

Wed, 09 May 2012 05:41:06 PDT

Shareholders attending tomorrow's Trinity Mirror agm will be lobbied by members of the National Union of Journalists.

They will be handed a letter as they enter the Hilton hotel at Canary Wharf, close to the company's headquarters. Signed by the NUJ's general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, it reads as follows:

Trinity Mirror owns some of the best-known and respected newspaper titles in the UK.
In 2003, when Sly Bailey took over as chief executive, it was a FTSE 250 company worth more than £1bn and with a share price of 380p.
Now, less than 10 years later, the same CEO presides over a company a shadow of its former self – a FTSE Small Cap valued at £80m and a share price of 30p.

Failure on an industrial scale by Ms Bailey has brought at least four years of no dividends for shareholders and misery for the workforce. She has axed more than half of all jobs during her reign.
The company's strength has ebbed away as she has consistently chopped away at the core business: its journalists and the quality journalism they produce.

During this disastrous period, the Trinity Mirror board continued to believe Ms Bailey should be paid as a successful FTSE 100 leader.
Unbelievably, she managed to amass payments worth £14m. Challenges by the NUJ at successive agms were breezily waved away by chairman Sir Ian Gibson who said it was "the going rate".

That was never true and it is demonstrably false today.
Following the example of Aviva shareholders last week, we urge you today to vote down the totally unrealistic Resolution 2 on directors' remuneration.
We suggest you vote against the re-election of Sir Ian Gibson and also Jane Lighting for approving the monstrous boardroom pay-outs as chair of the remuneration committee.
Sly Bailey said she will stand down by the end of the year. Let's not prolong the agony: we think she should go immediately and without the touted £1m golden goodbye.

It is clear that running a major media company without any main board directors having any journalistic background has been disastrous. We call on in-coming chair David Grigson to put this right.
Mr Grigson must also immediately scrap Sly Bailey's £15m cost cuts planned for this year and look to invest in and grow the company instead.

Yours sincerely, Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary

I ought to point out, after consultation with a Trinity Mirror source, that Bailey is not due to receive a pay-off, as matters stand at present. She is simply working her notice.

However, should she leave before her notice period ends, it is conceivable - but not inevitable - that she could receive a compensatory sum.

Sources: NUJ/Trinity Mirror

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] Local newspapers' crisis: how managements have tried to cope

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:37:12 PDT

Today's extract from What do we mean by local?* is taken from a chapter by Agnes Gulyas, a media lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church university.

In company with most analysts, she sees the crisis of local newspapers as a revenue problem rather than a readership problem.

Publishers have responded to the demise of their traditional business model in different ways, she writes. But she discovered, in a series of interviews with managing directors, that there are at least four "common elements".

They involve changes in operations, organisational culture, product portfolio and financial models. She explains them one by one, beginning with changes in operations...

Faced with significant decline in advertising revenues, most companies introduced cost-cutting strategies, including staff redundancies and restructuring.

It is estimated that the local newspaper sector has lost around one in five of its estimated 12,000 journalists since the mid-2000s.

Companies with more than one title often introduced centralised production facilities to cut costs and maximise advertising revenues.

Managers thought that with centralised hubs their organisations could deliver efficiencies, have greater flexibility in portfolio delivery, share relevant content more easily across different products and introduce uniform standards.

Strategies have also included modifications of job specifications of existing staff, new skills requirements and changes in working practices.

Historically, many local titles have been weekly publications with corresponding production cycles, which had to change dramatically with online activities to a 24/7 production culture.

Restructuring has also involved outsourcing and changing operational practices of non-core business activities in response to changing value chains.

Many companies now do not have printing facilities, instead they outsource printing. Another common response has been changing distribution patterns. Distribution of local newspapers is expensive due to the fragmented nature of distribution outlets.

As a response to the external challenges, many local press firms have cut distribution of their titles and have developed more targeted practices.

For instance, free titles are not put through people's doors any more in some places, especially in rural and semi-rural areas. Instead, they are distributed in supermarkets or on high streets.

Changes in organisational culture

Changes in organisational culture were cited in the interviews as high on the agenda of adaptation strategies.

Most local newspaper companies are incumbent and their organisational culture had been underpinned by core values such as "focus on tradition" and "solid and reliable".

However, there has been a general trend to move away from these types of traditional values towards a more flexible and adaptable outlook.

One managing director said: "We have to be fast, flexible … so that we can spot an opportunity, try it, and if it works carry on and if it doesn't then stop...

"So it's a state of mind... magazine publishers have been very good at this for a while, they'll try something and they'll launch it and they'll make money and then when it stops working they kill it.

"The regional press in particular has been very bad at closing things that don't work over their history. We have to learn how to do that. That's a culture shock."

Culture shock was also mentioned in other interviews: "We are starting to move from being an oil tanker to being a speed boat, and that's the best analogy I can give you.

"We all have to change our traditional attitudes and we have been seen as cumbersome, inflexible, and that's not how we will survive and thrive."

Changes in product portfolio

A common response to the external challenges has been revisiting the companies' product portfolio, which often resulted both discontinuing some products and introducing new ones.

Some local press companies have experimented with new type of print products, often specialist magazines targeted to niche audiences in their region/locality, such as regional sports, arts and events magazines.

In some cases these titles are published in partnership with local businesses or community bodies, which illustrates the increased importance of alliances and strategic relationships in the new market environment.

However, it was the introduction of multi-platform approach with multimedia content that provided the greatest opportunities for widening portfolios.

There has been a significant increase in the quantity of content offered online. Cross-media activities, exploiting content assets across as many platforms as possible, but especially offline and online, provided advantages.

Some firms have applied segmentation strategies, providing content and services for hyper-local fragments. However, organisations have faced a number of problems in monetising hyper-local provisions because of the relatively small audience base and lack of economies of scale.

Focusing on online content as a commercial product appears to have been unsuccessful so far in turning around the economic fortunes of local newspapers.

One of the central problems facing local online sites is that their audiences are small, local content is a small niche in the broader web.

The other main problem is competition. There is little evidence that the internet has expanded the number of local news outlets but online competition is fierce and comes from different sectors and platforms.

The growing complex nature of competition is illustrated in the following quote from a managing director:

"We're competing with every other information and consumer choice that is out there, and that means that we're competing with Google when it comes to finding a local plumber or a local electrician, we're competing with the BBC when it comes to online journalism, we're competing with eBay when it comes to buying and selling items.
"That's where technology if you like in its broader sense has made the business so much more complicated."

Another challenge for local newspaper organisations is that local news and information is difficult to monetise online...

Although there have been attempts to erect paywalls on local news sites, these were not successful and publishers such as Johnston Press and the Express & Star abandoned their experiments.

The use of smart phones and tablets, however, brings new opportunities... Several local press groups have introduced or are introducing apps...

For most local press organisations, digital revenues have been increasing in the last years, although not at the same rate as traditional advertising revenues have been falling. Digital revenues still amount to a small percentage of total revenues.

Changes in financial models

Strategies in relation to finding new finance models vary between local press organisations, but there is a general trend towards greater diversification of revenue streams. One strategy to compensate lost revenues has been to increase prices.

While circulations have been falling most local press firms have increased their cover prices and advertising rates.

Advertising rates for local newspapers increased by 55% between 2000 and 2009, which was the largest growth for any medium in the UK during the period compared, for instance, with an 18% drop in advertising rates in television.

Some companies have introduced hybrid financial model to maximise revenues and minimise costs for their titles.

This means that newspapers are part-paid and part-free, the title is freely distributed in targeted – often urban – areas and paid for elsewhere. This strategy is sometimes reversed where sales are particularly strong in urban areas.

Another strategy for diversification of revenue stream has been an increased emphasis on third revenue streams (after advertising and copy sales).

These new streams of revenues often play on strengths of traditional local newspapers: the power of their brand and their relationship with their audience.

Examples include merchandising activities, events, travel and insurance services, education and training, or affiliate marketing where publishers get paid a commission for linking a vendor with their audience.

However, a problem local newspapers have in this respect is that often they do not have enough information about their readers, which makes monetising customers difficult.

The UK newspaper market has a peculiar feature that only a very small number of people subscribe to local newspapers from the publisher. Most people buy the papers from a newsstand or get it delivered by the newsagent.

This means it is difficult for local newspaper companies to collect hard consumer data about their readers, which then could be used for third revenue streams.

In conclusion, Gulyas writes:

Although the traditional business model has been modified, a new business model remains elusive and with that the economic future of local newspaper organisations remains uncertain.

Tomorrow: Innovative ways to sustain community journalism by John Meehan, former editor of the Hull Daily Mail

*What do we mean by local? is edited by John Mair, Neil Fowler & Ian Reeves and published by Abramis.

Roy Greenslade

[Guardian] If we want to save newspapers, how about trying co-operative ownership?

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:00:22 PDT

In Dan Sabbagh's article yesterday, about Trinity Mirror's latest dramas, he argued that the regional press was "heading into existential crisis."

That view echoes many of the contributions in the book I am currently serialising, What do we mean by local?*

So, what is to be done? Is there a way to save an industry with a wrecked business model as it faces the unprecedented challenge of the digital revolution?

Step forward Dave Boyle, a champion of sports co-operatives, with a plan to transform the ownership of local and regional newspapers.

He has written a lengthy report for Co-operatives UK in which he makes out a case for papers to adopt a co-operative solution in order to survive and to go on serving the public (and thus go on serving the interests of democracy).

Called Good news: A co-operative solution to the media crisis, the study opens by reiterating the story we know all too well about the news media's triple crisis: commercial decline, technological challenge and ethical misbehaviour.

As we might expect, he is scathing about "the private-investor owned model", adding: "For all its self-described market-savvy and acute understanding of its readers, it turns out to be stuck with a radio that can only really tune into one frequency, namely the bottom line."

He links the ethical problems to that business model, and is not taken in by the argument that The Guardian's exposure of hacking somehow enhances the current method of ownership. He writes:

"Some defenders of the press point out that the hacking scandal was uncovered by the press, missing the wider point which was that the only paper to judge it newsworthy enough to devote significant resources was the only national newspaper owned in a completely different way."

Underlining the importance of public trust in the news media, he is not enamoured with (so-called) self-regulation or any form of state regulation. Boyle writes:

"Fear of censure by an outside body and its
consequences has a role to play, but much better is to have effective self-regulation within institutions in the first place, which works with journalists' own professional and personal ethics.
The first port of call must be the culture within the institution which makes it clear that wrong-doing and unethical practice will not be tolerated.
It's that sense of internal control that has been lost in pursuit of the competitive advantage that first-movers into uncharted unethical territory reap, where sales rise thanks to unethically sourced stories.
It's arguable that it was naïve to think it could be anything but; what part of institutions designed to make their owners and senior employees rich and powerful did we think would forever constrain them from pursuing unethical means of achieving those goals?"

By contrast, he argues that "in co-operatively owned media, members (be they readers, writers or both) would have to hold the journalists accountable for their work.

"Employee-owned newspapers would respond to the collective desire of the journalists to be well-regarded, trusted and secure in their work, and would be well placed to end the bullying culture that senior officers have used to keep many concerned journalists in check for fear of dismissal."

He is also unimpressed by the newspaper owners' response to the arrival of the digital revolution. They set up "terrible websites", he writes, and views the failure to grasp the potential of the internet as a further consequence of the requirement to make money rather than offer a public service.

The co-operative alternative

In the face of ongoing decline, Boyle calls on journalists - and readers - to take the initiative. "If there is to be a revolution in media ownership, it is a revolution that must be supported from below", he writes.

"Journalists must buy out their publications, readers must organise to save newspapers, both must come together to build online sites that re-imagine how a newspaper's function can be delivered in a different form."

Co-operatives have different forms, of course, as Boyle outlines. In worker co-operatives, for example, employees may own the business directly or through a trust.

Whatever the case, he believes such an enterprise "would have a strong sense of values, shared by all who wrote for it" and that would "connect" with readers.

It is also possible to have members drawn from both employees and readers in an arrangement in which neither dominate the other.

Then there is the thorny matter of funds. Should the co-op pays dividends each year or should it be strictly not-for-profit and reinvest all surpluses in the business?

There are no right answers, says Boyle, implying that such issues are secondary to the establishment of a co-operative form itself.

He cites various real-life examples of surviving co-ops - the West Highland Free Press, the Maidenhead Advertiser group, the Media Co-op in Canada - along with some that didn't last too long, such as the East End News and News on Sunday.

But lessons can be learned by failures, he suggests, and that should not inhibit people from trying the co-op alternative.

In a ringing conclusion that points back to the dawn of papers as well as towards the future, he writes:

"We need independent media to preserve the freedoms and rights slowly won by people who wrote, funded and read the radical pamphlets and polemics, and later a free press.
The news media we have has sold the pass on being a credible defender of its social role thanks to its ethics and its business model, but just because we don't have the media we'd like doesn't mean there's isn't a media we need.
And necessity is the mother of co-operation."

[Paper Cuts - US] The Stuart News, Indian River Press Journal, The St. Lucie News-Tribune: Unknown

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:15:07 PDT

Stuart, Fla.; Vero Beach, Fla.; Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Owner: E.W. Scripps Co.
Effective: Dec. 6, 2011

About 20 employees were laid off from the Treasure Coast papers. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] Lawrence Journal-World: 7

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:42:04 PDT

Lawrence, Kan.
Owner: The World Co.
Effective: Jan. 12, 2012

At least seven employees were laid off, including six from the newsroom. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 2

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:18:59 PDT

St. Louis, Mo.
Owner: Lee Enterprises
Effective: Feb. 22, 2012

One marketing employee and one IT employee were laid off. The company has not committed on the layoffs.
Source: Paper Cuts tips

Full disclosure: I work at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

[Paper Cuts - US] The Call, The Times: Unknown

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:12:42 PDT

Woonsocket, R.I.; Pawtucket, R.I.
Owner: RISN Operations Inc.
Effective: Feb. 10, 2012

Reporters, at least one advertising representative and at least one photographer were laid off. The papers’ publisher Barry Mechanic told The Valley Breeze “a couple reporters” were laid off as part of a restructuring plan. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: The Valley Breeze

[Paper Cuts - US] Kent County Daily Times, The Call, The Times: 7

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:06:38 PDT

West Warwick, R.I.; Woonsocket, R.I.; Pawtucket, R.I.
Owner: RISN Operations Inc.
Effective: March 13, 2012

Seven full- and part-time employees were laid off at the papers. “The restructure was a business decision based on the current economic climate,” publisher Nanci Batson told WPRI. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: WPRI via Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] St. Joseph News-Press: 21

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:50:21 PDT

St. Joseph, Mo.
Owner: News-Press & Gazette Co.
Date: Feb. 17, 2012

Thirteen full-time and eight part-time employees were laid off from the NPG Printing, which prints the News-Press and other publications in the area. Chief operating officer Lee Sawyer blamed lost contracts and a printing deal that fell apart during negotiations. Sawyer said most layoffs will be from the newspaper printing operation.
Source: St. Joseph News-Press via Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] The Sun News: 3

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:24:59 PDT

Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Owner: The McClatchy Co.
Effective: March 9, 2012

A reporter, a web developer and an administrative advertising supervisor were laid off. Remaining employees will be required to take a one-week unpaid furlough this year.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] Bandon Western World: 1

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:57:50 PST

Bandon, Ore.
Owner: Lee Enterprises
Effective: Feb. 3, 2012

A veteran reporter was laid off. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] Wellsville Daily Reporter, Genesee Country Express, Hornell Evening Tribune: 2

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:24:46 PST

Wellsville, N.Y.; Dansville, N.Y.; Hornell, N.Y.
Owner: GateHouse Media Inc.
Effective: Feb. 20, 2012

Production is being consolidated at the Hornell Evening Tribune. At least one part-time Evening Tribune employee and one full-time Daily Reporter employee were laid off. Other open positions were eliminated. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Paper Cuts tip

[Paper Cuts - US] Rockford Register Star: 11

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:25:14 PST

Rockford, Ill.
Owner: GateHouse Media Inc.
Effective: June 2012

Design and editing are being outsourced to a GateHouse design hub. “Up to 10″ employees will be laid off. Designers and copy editors can apply for, but are not guaranteed, a position in the design hub.
“We believe this decision will help us be more competitive, provide more unique content online and develop rich enterprise storytelling,” said David Arkin, vice president of content and audience for GateHouse, in a story on the Register Star’s website. One hub will be in Rockford; the other will be in Massachusetts.

In January, about a week after employees were told of the design and editing hub, an assistant editorial page editor who opposed the layoffs was laid off.

Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Rockford Register Star via Paper Cuts tip; Rockford Register Star via Paper Cuts tip; Rockford Register Star via Paper Cuts tip

[J.co.uk]

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:18:39 PDT

[J.co.uk]

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:19:32 PDT

[J.co.uk]

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:09:56 PDT

[J.co.uk]

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:37:01 PDT

[J.co.uk]

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:27:31 PDT

[J.co.uk]

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:39:35 PDT

MEN Media looks to axe 41 jobs from local TV venture

[J.co.uk]

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:21:06 PDT

Chicago Business: Chicago Tribune to cut 20 per cent of newsroom staff

[J.co.uk]

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:44:28 PDT

Ballot papers to be sent to 240 NUJ members over decision to cut 70 posts.

[J.co.uk]

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:35:29 PST

Plans to create new centralised production centres results in job losses at Hull Daily Mail, Grimbsy and Scunthorpe Telegraph

[J.co.uk]

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:55:48 PST

Weekly editors, feature staff and sub-editors may face cuts.

[J.co.uk]

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:35:59 PST

Cuts will hit Variety, Publisher's Weekly and Multichannel News, which loses half its full-time reporting staff

[J.co.uk]

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:51:59 PST

NUJ says list of volunteers accepted.

[J.co.uk]

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:14:17 PST

Cuts affect four dailies published by Controlinveste Media and will affect around 66 journalists.

[J.co.uk]

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:46:00 PST

New round of compulsory redundancies after voluntary scheme failed to meet target.

[J.co.uk]

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:19:37 PST

Staff numbers at East Anglian Daily Times and Ipswich Evening Star will drop by 20

[Private Frazer] Not waving, but drowning.

Thu, 03 May 2012 09:09:42 PDT

One I missed earlier…

Disappearing beneath the waves is the print version of Dive magazine, which is now digital only.

Last August the publisher said “We will continue to promote and sell our traditional printed magazine on the newsstand and through our extensive subscription base.”

And I do love how their sales graph takes the first couple of months sales figures and extrapolates that growth for a whole year in a straight line. Print or digital, there’ll always be someone with a graph that shows things are doing fantastically well.

[Private Frazer] Self-confessed Lawyers

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:19:35 PDT

There is one fewer lawyer in the world (the magazine publishing world that is) as The European Lawyer has ‘joined forces’ with The Global Legal Post.

Before: two magazines; after: one; so I would, suggest, your honour, that that’s ‘joined forces’ in the sense of ‘closed’.

[Private Frazer] Loss of Vitality

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:47:12 PDT

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone to hear that Vitality Publishing called in the administrators on Friday.

As soon as Private Frazer heard that Attitude had been spun off to form a separate company, leaving Vitality with Loaded and Superbike, it was pretty obvious that something was up. The (ex) directors of Vitality have a certain amount of form in this regard.

And so it proves. The questions asked over the fitness of the company that IPC were in such a hurry to sell to remain unanswered. As does the fate of the magazines and of the employees.

For some reason the word ‘bastards’ springs to mind.

[Private Frazer] Off their food

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:50:46 PDT

Like the very best baci di dama, Anthem Publishing’s Taste Italia magazine has delighted us momentarily, but leaves not a trace behind as it has now ‘merged’ with Italia magazine.

Ciao? Arrivederci? No, goodbye.

[Private Frazer] Vital Statistics

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:53:43 PDT

What are we to make of the news that Vitality Publishing has sold Attitude to a spin-off company to leave itself with just Loaded and Superbike magazine.

In 2010 Vitality bought four titles from the IPC bargain rail, Loaded, Superbike, Prediction and Hair. At the time, some eyebrows were raised at the opaque ownership structure of Vitality. Prediction seems to have been immediately floated off as some form of MBO, Hair was part of the portfolio of titles sold to Haversham in July 2011. With Attitude gone, Vitality is left with two magazines both of which suffered ABC falls of more than 25% in the last returns. Further to this, back in January Vitality itself became the subject of a management buyout.

The new owners of Attitude have this on their website (links added)

The new owner is Attitude Media Limited, a joint venture company that draws on the strengths of the magazine’s previous custodians – Triactive Media’s Justin Sanders and Vince Nicholls, who retain a substantial shareholding – and newly introduces Mash Media’s events publishing specialist Julian Agostini (Exhibition News, Conference News) and contract publisher Darren Styles

One of the ‘directors’ of Vitality is listed as Griffin Corporate Finance, directors of which include Vince Nicholls and Adam Ward, who is also a director of TriActive and a former director of Interactive Publishing (who used to own Vitality). Justin Sanders was also a director of Interactive

I’m just a poor retired undertaker and philatelist and the machinations of yon financial types are above my head. Perhaps someone could draw a nice diagram to show how all these lovely people are related commercially?

[Private Frazer] Final Movement

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:55:13 PST

Private Frazer has commissioned a special version of Haydn’s symphony no. 45 (the ‘Farewell Symphony’) to mark the closing of Classic FM magazine.

The piece will be played entirely on bagpipes, which should ensure an audience almost as small as that for the magazine itself.

There will be no encores.

[Private Frazer] Ancient History

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:32:54 PST

Is it a futher sign of continuing decline and ultimate fall of the mighty empire of print that History Today have pulled the plug on History Review, their monthly journal for history students and teachers?

As JFK said “History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”

And how many magazines do we know that are trying to hold fast?

[Private Frazer] Leeders’ Swansong

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:30:32 PST

According to the Grauniad, The Leeds Guide – the city’s ‘what’s on’ magazine – has folded after 15 years.

Leeds Guide Ltd also produced Plush, for ‘affluent, sophisticated and stylish, high spending individuals’ in Harrogate. Either nowt much goes on in Harrogate, or this too has been terminated as the last ‘editor’s letter’ on the website is dated 17 November.

[Private Frazer] Glass half empty

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:42:19 PST

Time gentlemen please! After 140 years the Brewers Guardian is abandoning its print edition to go online-only.

[Private Frazer] We’re saved! (correction)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:35:05 PST

A small aside: last month Future made a big song and dance about having generated 75,000 subscriptions from the Apple newsstand.

The current ABC figures show a net drop of over 100,000 on their print editions in the past year. That’s 100,000 per issue, so call that in excess of 1 million single copies over a full year’s distribution.