Regional subbing jobs may be outsourced to PA

HoldtheFrontPage reports today that two major daily newspapers in Yorkshire may have their subbing operation outsourced to the Press Association.
It says that the editors of both the Yorkshire Post and the Yorkshire Evening Post attended a presentation at parent company Johnston Press's Edinburgh HQ last week. Union reps at the two Leeds-based titles say that when they asked management what the meeting was about, they were told that it was to discuss the possible outsourcing of subbing work.
Johnston Press has refused to comment to HTFP, despite being one of its four owners, but it reports that "it is understood that outsourcing is one of a number of options being considered."
Peter Lazenby, joint father of the Yorkshire Evening Post/Yorkshire Post NUJ chapel, is quoted as saying: "We knew the editors were up in Edinburgh so we got a meeting with management.
"We were told they were having presentations from three firms, one of which was the Press Association, about possible outsourcing of subbing work.
"It was made clear to us that there are options and one of those is the outsourcing of subbing work at the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post."
If subbing was outsourced to PA by Johnston it could start a trend across the regional press, leading to a loss of sub editing jobs. Some national newspapers are also thought to have talked to PA about the agency taking over some of their subbing operations.