It looks like 69 production redundancies and reporters writing stories into boxes on the page, as far as the “World’s Greatest Newspaper” is concerned.
From: Ian Parrott
Sent: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 18:33 PM
To: Express; Star; Broughton; Glasgow; SundayExpress
Subject: Important information for Editorial Staff
We met today with the NUJ to tell them of our proposals to make significant changes in the editorial production areas of the Daily and Sunday Express in London which will result in redundancies among staff and casuals in the production areas.
The reason for these changes is that it is imperative for the business that substantial cost savings are made. This is the only way we can maintain a viable business able to cope with the problems of the national economy and the credit crunch and its continuing effect on us; the substantial drop in our advertising revenues and the continuing drop in our circulation figures.
These pressures mean that is inevitable that we have had to scrutinise all areas of the business in order to reduce costs.
We have an opportunity for change in Production because of the introduction of the new Woodwing editorial system which can allow us to revolutionise the way pages are written and edited and therefore reduce costs.
We are also discussing with the union a plan to move to 5 day working. This will mean a 5 day rolling shift arrangement for most Production staff in London and we expect to achieve further savings through this change.
This must lead to redundancies among Production staff in London and we consider that they cannot all be achieved through voluntary leavers. We have therefore started the formal consultation processes with the NUJ and expect to meet them over the next few weeks to reach some conclusions on numbers affected and other changes.
We will keep you informed of developments and progress. Staff directly affected by these changes will receive a letter to their home addresses confirming that their job is at risk of redundancy.
Ian Parrott
Group Managing Editor
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