NUJ not game for Johnston Press free bingo offer

The NUJ has scorned a Johnston Press offer to the group's journalists to play free games of online bingo.

According to the union, JP is telling its staff that they can now play 40 free games of Johnston’s online bingo, proclaiming that this "staff offer is even better" than the 30 free games available to the group’s newspaper readers.

Noting that the group have made 230 journalists redundant in the past year, NUJ negotiator Jenny Lennox said: “It seems that the real lottery for journalists at Johnston’s is whether or not they will still have a job in a year’s time.

“We have been warning for more than a year that the Johnston Press group is being run into the ground. This once-proud newspaper group has destroyed the bond of trust with its journalists, and is destroying a well-regarded brand, further reducing the credibility of the titles in the eyes of its readers.

“It will take a lot more than Bingo to restore that reputation, and the NUJ demands that Johnston management begins today to work with its skilled and dedicated journalists to rebuild a stable of newspapers of which readers, staff and the group can be proud.”