'Disillusioned' spells out the subs' dilemma

'Disillusioned' in a posting on HoldtheFrontPage has outlined the dilemma facing subs as regional groups bring in centralised subbing.
Their comments follow the news that Northcliffe is advertising for subs after not being able to find enough of its own staff willing to move to a new centralised subbing hub in Hull.
They posted today:"Nationally it looks like this wonderful centralised subbing idea has been a failure. You only have to look at HTFP jobs to see that Hull is not the only place short of people to staff these new structures.
"Certainly at Northcliffe where the aim has been to retain their best staff for the 'centres of excellence' the reverse is what has actually happened with some of the papers' most able subs being the ones to opt for voluntary redundancy. And who can blame them.If they have anything about them, they must know they have good skills to take to another job maybe outside journalism and where they could well end up being paid better than if they had stayed and faced an effective pay cut due to the extra commuting costs plus the joy of working in what will probably turn out to be nothing more than a 'churnalism sweatshop' rather than the euphemistically termed 'centre of excellence'.
"What the management of papers seem to fail to understand is that sub-editors tend to be older journalists with families and children settled in schools. They have husbands and wives who have jobs themselves to share a mortgage.
"If one relocates they other one has to also. The fact is people simply don't want to relocate and in regional journalism it is not as if the money is so good that that alone will tempt them to follow their job. Plus many subs can see where this is all leading anyway - and the future is not bright for newspaper production staff. So they take the money and look new brighter horizons which could see them out until retirement.
"The result for the newspaper industry is that it ends up losing an awful lot of writing talent and experience - maybe newspapers should start looking at how best they can use the talent that exists on their payroll rather pushing its staff around and demoralising them to such an extent that many just want to jump the sinking ship and go somewhere else where their talents may end up being recognised, appreciated and properly rewarded."