Johnston Press plans to stop printing the Yorkshire Post in Leeds for the first time in its 258-year history with the loss of 25 jobs.
The BBC reports that that printing of the Yorkshire Post and its sister-title the Evening Post will be transferred to Dinnington, near Sheffield, and Sunderland.
The company’s chief operating officer Danny Cammiade said the new arrangement would ‘follow the pattern across the newspaper industry of printing being centralised into fewer but bigger and more modern plants”.
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He told the BBC:
The Wellington Street building would remain a base for nearly 500 editorial, commercial and support staff.
Any changes to printing would take effect in March following a full and proper consultation process.
The company also sad the new arrangement would ‘improve quality’and allow additional colour in the two newspapers.
Pete Lazenby, from the National Union of Journalists, said:
This is an end of an era of importance not just to the newspaper and the newspaper industry but to Leeds as a city.
It’s an event of historical importance and we shouldn’t allow this to pass without having some form of commemorative event to mark the occasion.
It’s a tremendously sad moment.
Stephen Hart, regional officer for Unite, which represents print workers, added:
It’s not a surprise really, we have had round after round of redundancies within the print facility.
We expected the final axe to fall.
Staff could be offered roles at the Dinnington or Sunderland plants but Hart did not expect many to make the move, according to the report.
In a recent interview the new chief executive of Johnston Press, Ashley Highfield, said he sees the company’s future being ‘beyond print”.
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