View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
February 28, 2002updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Anthony plans shake-up for GWR newsrooms

By Press Gazette

The first stage in a planned overhaul of GWR’s regional news operation is expected to be completed early this month.

News editors will report back to bosses with ideas for improving the news service and for tackling the problem of high staff turnover in 30 local newsrooms owned by the GWR Group.

The group’s programme director,  Dirk Anthony, said he had started the shake-up by asking news editors to come up with ideas for delivering "a better product".

Insiders told Press Gazette that a major overhaul in GWR newsrooms was under discussion up to 18 months ago.

High turnover in the newsrooms of GWR, which owns Classic FM and Mercury, as well as local stations such as Plymouth Sound, Chiltern FM, and Trent FM, was one of the key issues that needed to be tackled, Anthony told Press Gazette.

Journalists who are understood to be paid as little as £10,000 in junior roles are leaving GWR at a rate of one third annually.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

"We have got to have a better quality radio news service and a better working environment for our journalists," said Anthony.

"The UK news industry soaks up journalists, so we have to find a way where our staff sense there is a career path in our organisation that they would like to follow."

Anthony said that the ideas of news editors would be looked at but the overhaul would not take place until the summer at the earliest.

Changes in pay structure were being looked at, said Anthony, who confirmed that GWR was also considering establishing a central news hub where journalists would rewrite IRN copy for use in all its stations.

The planned shake-up has sparked fears that journalists’ jobs will be axed and the quality of local journalism could suffer as a result.

Industry insiders have expressed concern that editors were being asked to draw up proposals "that would ultimately put them out of their jobs".

Anthony refused to comment on whether job losses were in the pipeline, claiming that it was "too early" in the process.

By Julie Tomlin

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network