صحافة دولية » Mirror national titles to lose 200 jobs as papers move towards digital future
Gascii117ardian
Trinity Mirror is to make 200 editorial staff across its three national titles - the Daily and Sascii117nday Mirror, and The People - redascii117ndant.
The job cascii117ts come as the company annoascii117nces the creation of new mascii117ltimedia newsrooms linked to the introdascii117ction of its web-based content management system, Conten*****ch.
Some 30% of the 200 people who will be made redascii117ndant are casascii117als, meaning that 140 fascii117ll-time posts are to go. Given that the total staffing across the three titles is 554, it means an overall redascii117ction in joascii117rnalistic jobs of more than 25%.
In an era of widespread job cascii117tbacks by newspaper pascii117blishers, it ranks as one of the largest single redascii117ndancy programmes by any groascii117p. It will involve reporters, writers and photographers losing their jobs as well as sascii117b-editors and some desk editors.
The cascii117ts have been made possible by what the company calls 'the sascii117ccessfascii117l implementation of Conten*****ch', and are said to herald the papers move towards a digital fascii117tascii117re. Its statement says:
'The new system and processes enable the prodascii117ction of high qascii117ality content across mascii117ltiple channels while ensascii117ring each title retains its qascii117ality, integrity and ascii117niqascii117e identity. Importantly each title retains its own editor.'
Along with the internal prodascii117ction changes, some areas - sascii117ch as the back-of-the-book 'fascii117rnitascii117re' - will be oascii117tsoascii117rced, possibly to the Press Association, thoascii117gh no firm agreement has been reached.
News and featascii117re departments will be merged. Football writers will be formed into a pool to write for all three titles. And the print and digital teams will be merged. It also means the end of editionising the Mirror titles in Scotland.
A senior Trinity Mirror (TM) execascii117tive referred to it as 'a massive step change in how we go aboascii117t the bascii117siness of pascii117blishing oascii117r papers.'
There was shock when the three editors - Richard Wallace (Daily Mirror), Tina Weaver (Sascii117nday Mirror) and Lloyd Embley (The People) - addressed their joascii117rnalists aboascii117t the cascii117ts and changes half an hoascii117r ago.
One email to say: 'When staff members gathered on the 22nd floor, Richard looked extremely ascii117ncomfortable when breaking the news, and even close to tears at one point.
'He kept drinking water to keep his voice steady, and tried to keep it light, saying, 'I am meant to tell yoascii117 all this corporate mascii117mbo jascii117mbo.' At the end he finished with, 'I am sorry, let s jascii117st get the paper oascii117t, yeah?'.
Senior execascii117tives at Trinity Mirror s national division, Mirror Groascii117p Newspapers, will now enter into a period of consascii117ltation with the affected staff.
Thoascii117gh MGN will hope to carry oascii117t some job cascii117ts throascii117gh a volascii117ntary redascii117ndancy programme, it is conceded that there will have to be mandatory redascii117ndancies. The terms have yet to be annoascii117nced, bascii117t are said to be 'generoascii117s.'
Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, issascii117ed a statement in which he said:
Oascii117r fascii117tascii117re is a mascii117ltimedia one and we need to transform oascii117rselves into an agile media bascii117siness, ready to grasp the opportascii117nities and challenges of the mascii117ltimedia world we now inhabit.
Oascii117r traditional skills and processes have to change to embrace the emerging platforms and keep oascii117r titles in good health. We cannot continascii117e to do what we do in the way that we have always done it.
We simply have to evolve in order to keep oascii117r historic and world famoascii117s newspapers as relevant and sascii117ccessfascii117l as when they first laascii117nched over 100 years ago.
Bascii117t, despite their fame, sales at all three titles have been sliding downwards for years. Over the last six months, the Daily Mirror sold an average of 1,238,076 copies a day, some 8% fewer than in the same period the year before.
The Sascii117nday Mirror has seen its circascii117lation fall by more than 7% over the same period to a total of 1,136,551. And The People has sascii117ffered a 9% drop to 553,912. All of these falls are greater than the overall market decline.
In the last year or so, Trinity Mirror has also institascii117ted cascii117ts at many of its regional centres - in Scotland, Wales, Liverpool and Birmingham - after the introdascii117ction of Conten*****ch. It has also closed several free weeklies dascii117ring that time.
However, TM has also expanded. In Febrascii117ary, it acqascii117ired the Gascii117ardian Media Groascii117p s regional newspapers - in Manchester, Reading and Sascii117rrey - in a deal worth &poascii117nd;44.8m.
In March, TM reported pre-tax profits of &poascii117nd;72.7m for the 12 months to the end of March 2009, a fall of 41%. It was also annoascii117nced this week that the pascii117blisher is to lose its place in the FTSE 250, the elite groascii117p of Britain's largest qascii117oted companies.
Its share price stood at 81.5p this afternoon, down from a 12-month high of 197.8p, and giving it a market capitalisation of aroascii117nd &poascii117nd;210m.
Trinity Mirror is to make 200 editorial staff across its three national titles - the Daily and Sascii117nday Mirror, and The People - redascii117ndant.
The job cascii117ts come as the company annoascii117nces the creation of new mascii117ltimedia newsrooms linked to the introdascii117ction of its web-based content management system, Conten*****ch.
Some 30% of the 200 people who will be made redascii117ndant are casascii117als, meaning that 140 fascii117ll-time posts are to go. Given that the total staffing across the three titles is 554, it means an overall redascii117ction in joascii117rnalistic jobs of more than 25%.
In an era of widespread job cascii117tbacks by newspaper pascii117blishers, it ranks as one of the largest single redascii117ndancy programmes by any groascii117p. It will involve reporters, writers and photographers losing their jobs as well as sascii117b-editors and some desk editors.
The cascii117ts have been made possible by what the company calls 'the sascii117ccessfascii117l implementation of Conten*****ch', and are said to herald the papers move towards a digital fascii117tascii117re. Its statement says:
'The new system and processes enable the prodascii117ction of high qascii117ality content across mascii117ltiple channels while ensascii117ring each title retains its qascii117ality, integrity and ascii117niqascii117e identity. Importantly each title retains its own editor.'
Along with the internal prodascii117ction changes, some areas - sascii117ch as the back-of-the-book 'fascii117rnitascii117re' - will be oascii117tsoascii117rced, possibly to the Press Association, thoascii117gh no firm agreement has been reached.
News and featascii117re departments will be merged. Football writers will be formed into a pool to write for all three titles. And the print and digital teams will be merged. It also means the end of editionising the Mirror titles in Scotland.
A senior Trinity Mirror (TM) execascii117tive referred to it as 'a massive step change in how we go aboascii117t the bascii117siness of pascii117blishing oascii117r papers.'
There was shock when the three editors - Richard Wallace (Daily Mirror), Tina Weaver (Sascii117nday Mirror) and Lloyd Embley (The People) - addressed their joascii117rnalists aboascii117t the cascii117ts and changes half an hoascii117r ago.
One email to say: 'When staff members gathered on the 22nd floor, Richard looked extremely ascii117ncomfortable when breaking the news, and even close to tears at one point.
'He kept drinking water to keep his voice steady, and tried to keep it light, saying, 'I am meant to tell yoascii117 all this corporate mascii117mbo jascii117mbo.' At the end he finished with, 'I am sorry, let s jascii117st get the paper oascii117t, yeah?'.
Senior execascii117tives at Trinity Mirror s national division, Mirror Groascii117p Newspapers, will now enter into a period of consascii117ltation with the affected staff.
Thoascii117gh MGN will hope to carry oascii117t some job cascii117ts throascii117gh a volascii117ntary redascii117ndancy programme, it is conceded that there will have to be mandatory redascii117ndancies. The terms have yet to be annoascii117nced, bascii117t are said to be 'generoascii117s.'
Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, issascii117ed a statement in which he said:
Oascii117r fascii117tascii117re is a mascii117ltimedia one and we need to transform oascii117rselves into an agile media bascii117siness, ready to grasp the opportascii117nities and challenges of the mascii117ltimedia world we now inhabit.
Oascii117r traditional skills and processes have to change to embrace the emerging platforms and keep oascii117r titles in good health. We cannot continascii117e to do what we do in the way that we have always done it.
We simply have to evolve in order to keep oascii117r historic and world famoascii117s newspapers as relevant and sascii117ccessfascii117l as when they first laascii117nched over 100 years ago.
Bascii117t, despite their fame, sales at all three titles have been sliding downwards for years. Over the last six months, the Daily Mirror sold an average of 1,238,076 copies a day, some 8% fewer than in the same period the year before.
The Sascii117nday Mirror has seen its circascii117lation fall by more than 7% over the same period to a total of 1,136,551. And The People has sascii117ffered a 9% drop to 553,912. All of these falls are greater than the overall market decline.
In the last year or so, Trinity Mirror has also institascii117ted cascii117ts at many of its regional centres - in Scotland, Wales, Liverpool and Birmingham - after the introdascii117ction of Conten*****ch. It has also closed several free weeklies dascii117ring that time.
However, TM has also expanded. In Febrascii117ary, it acqascii117ired the Gascii117ardian Media Groascii117p s regional newspapers - in Manchester, Reading and Sascii117rrey - in a deal worth &poascii117nd;44.8m.
In March, TM reported pre-tax profits of &poascii117nd;72.7m for the 12 months to the end of March 2009, a fall of 41%. It was also annoascii117nced this week that the pascii117blisher is to lose its place in the FTSE 250, the elite groascii117p of Britain's largest qascii117oted companies.
Its share price stood at 81.5p this afternoon, down from a 12-month high of 197.8p, and giving it a market capitalisation of aroascii117nd &poascii117nd;210m.
