'When Desmond bought the Express titles in 2001 I think he thought he was buying Express Dairies as he has been milking us ever since'

Bleak assessment of life on the Express from the NUJ FoC Steve Usher, quoted on the NUJ Left website.
He says: "Richard Desmond’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for journalistic blood demands the sacrifice of a further 96 London jobs from a total of 600 across the Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express, Daily Star Sunday and their associated magazines.
"The Glasgow office is to lose a quarter of its staff – that is 10 from just 40 serving four national titles.
"Initial proposals, full of words like “eliminate” and “review”, indicate that no one is safe. Merging desks between titles and copy-sharing are strong possibilities.
"District reporters look set to be consigned to the history books, replaced by agency copy.
"The 1 January pay review for this year was postponed until 1 June. Then it was postponed completely. On the day we were due to commence pay negotiations for 2010, the company announced its latest cull.
"The NUJ chapel has warned management before that it views these constant cuts with anger. We believe they herald the demise of the Daily Express and Sunday Express as national titles.
"Redundancy exercises have become as regular as Daily Express splashes on the McCanns, or Jordan and Peter Andre front pages in the Daily Star.
"When Desmond bought the Express titles in 2001 I think he thought he was buying Express Dairies as he has been milking us ever since. He has paid himself millions in both salary and pension and then says the company is fighting for survival. I wonder why."