Monday 6 July 2009

New Trinity Mirror cuts in North East

NUJ members at Trinity Mirror’s Newcastle centre are to meet tomorrow to plan their response to the announcement of more editorial cutbacks, the union said today.
According to the NUJ, Trinity says it plans to cut 18 editorial jobs from its Newcastle operations, with a further seven jobs to go in Middlesbrough.
The NUJ says journalists were surprised by the severity of the cuts, which were announced to staff this afternoon.
NUJ Northern regional organiser Chris Morley said: “The announcement of these savage cutbacks have left people feeling shell shocked and angry. These latest cuts must represent about 10 per cent of the editorial workforce and come on top of reductions in staffing earlier this year.
“Journalists on these titles are already struggling to cope with the day-to-day demands placed on them since the last round of redundancies. It is hard to understand how the company expects people to continue to produce quality journalism with such depleted staffing levels.
“NUJ members will now decide on how they plan to respond. Combined with Trinity Mirror’s plans for cutbacks across the Midlands, the company’s stated commitments to local communities look pretty hollow. It is left to its journalists to stand up for quality on their titles.”
According to HoldtheFrontPage, six Trinity titles are to close in the North East. They are the South Tyne Chronicle Extra, North Tyneside Chronicle Extra, North-East Exclusive, and City Living, and on Teesside the Times series and the Yarm Town Crier. HTFP also says the Newcastle Evening Chronicle will be reduced to one edition a day and there may be cuts in digital staff.

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