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March 2, 2017updated 07 Nov 2023 7:57am

Croydon Advertiser, Surrey Mirror and other titles moved 20 miles by Trinity Mirror after closure of Redhill Office

By Freddy Mayhew

Trinity Mirror is set to close an office where four newspaper titles are produced and move staff some 20 miles away.

A total of 21 staff at the publisher’s office in Redhill, Surrey, will be moved to Guildford, also in Surrey, to join colleagues on titles including broadsheet the Surrey Advertiser (office pictured).

Titles being moved include the Croydon Advertiser, Surrey Mirror, Crawley News, the East Grinstead Courier & Observer and the Dorking & Leatherhead Advertiser.

Redhill is seen as the spiritual home of the Surrey Mirror, which was first published in the town on 26 July, 1879.

A spokesperson for Trinity Mirror confirmed the move to Press Gazette and said there would be no further redundancies as a result of the relocation.

Press Gazette reported in January that Trinity Mirror was making 78 people redundant across its network of regional newspapers in an extensive restructure of its operations.

The publisher has also created 44 new roles, including 17 video and digital production posts, which affected staff can apply for. It also stopped recruiting for 35 existing vacancies.

Trinity Mirror has said it plans to create about a dozen production hubs as part of the restructure. The Surrey Advertiser office in Woking Road (pictured) is understood to have been used as a hub for a number of years.

All titles affected by the move were owned by Local World before the publisher was bought out by Trinity Mirror in 2015 for £200m.

As a result of the Local World deal Trinity Mirror group revenue grew from £593m to £713m and pre-tax profit grew from £109.6m to £137.5m for 2016.

Trinity Mirror cut £10m from Local World budgets last year and plans to cut a further £15m this year.

Earlier this month, Press Gazette reported that Grimsby Telegraph and Scunthorpe Telegraph editor Michelle Lalor was exiting her role under the restructure plans and that the titles would “move forward with no editor”.

Lincolnshire Echo editor Charles Walker is also understood to have stepped down last month. All three titles were formerly owned by Local World.

Picture: Google Maps

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