View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
February 1, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 6:08pm

MEN to cut 35 jobs as profits plunge

By Press Gazette

By Sarah Lagan

The Manchester Evening News is proposing to axe
lose 22 per cent of its journalists after staff were told
the newspaper’s profits were predicted to be down 42 per cent on
last year.

Up to 35 posts could be made redundant, 27 in editorial.

Regional chief executive Mark Dodson announced to staff that there would be a greater reliance on freelances.

It
is proposed that all six staff photographers would be replaced by
freelances and the news and features subbing departments merged.

Dodson
told staff they would have the opportunity to apply for voluntary
redundancy though he did not rule out compulsory job losses.

However
he also told staff that the company intended to rely solely on
freelance and casual photographers. There are six staff photographers
working on the paper at present.

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

MEN editor Paul Horrocks said
the company would consider redeploying staff elsewhere in the company.
He told Press Gazette: “Job losses are never good news. What we have to
do is ensure the quality of the MEN and its compelling content is
maintained and we are going to carry out a review of the edition
structure. We have to look at what we can achieve with less journalists
but this is an issue that has been forced upon us by a dramatic
downturn in income streams and unfortunately is being mirrored across
the regional newspaper industry.

“We have not only got to retain
the integrity of the MEN but also to make sure that our content can be
supplied into other media platforms that we own like the web and like
Channel M Television. We have been practicing convergence. It is
ensuring the journalists are still in the engine room but transferring
their content into other platforms as well as print.”

Horrocks
added: “I think this is the way forward. Print has suffered and we have
seen the difficulty in maintaining circulations. But compelling content
should be spread in to digital formats, online and maybe a city TV
channel to capture the classified advertising that’s been taken away
from us. The media landscape’s changed and we’ve got to react to it.”

NUJ
general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “We see no need whatsoever for
these shocking redundancies, to the contrary, the company should be
investing more in good journalists and good journalism.

“There
has been talk of broadening the digital presence and if this is the
case jobs should be transferred not lost. We will not tolerate
compulsory redundancies.”

Topics in this article :

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