Editorial staff at the Hartlepool Mail have snubbed their new editor's offer of a £500 drinking session in a brewery, shortly after nearly 70 employees in the print department were made redundant.
Since Joy Yates joined the company in July there have been a number of changes, including the closure of the press room and repro departments, which resulted in the job losses — which are roughly half full-time staff and half part-time.
The Hartlepool Mail, which has been printed at a local site for 127 years, is now printed 20 miles away in Sunderland following the changes.
The paper's three editions, the last of which previously went to press at 1.30pm, have been cut to one, which goes to press at 9am.
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One well-placed source told Press Gazette: "The journalists are all pretty pissed off about this, mostly about the people who lost their jobs. One guy worked for us for 30 years and is now out on the dole."
Yates is understood to have wanted to thank her editorial staff for getting through the changes by taking them to a brewery and putting £500 of company money behind the bar, but the journalists declined the offer.
The source said: "You could say this editor couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery."
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