Copy-editors at Newsquest’s Weymouth subbing hub are facing redundancy as the regional publisher looks to stop all copy-editing at the Dorset office by the end of June this year.
In a letter to staff, regional production manager Carl Blackmore said 17 full time equivalent staff are at risk of redundancy, including copy-editors and regional co-ordinator roles.
Press Gazette understands 12 full-time roles and six part-time positions are affected, all of which are editorial, and that the redundancies could spell the closure of the Weymouth hub.
Newsquest said its “write to shape” project, which is understood to be where story shapes are preset on pages into which reporters then write their copy, had reduced the production workload “significantly”.
“Due to the continued decline of the workload, it is proposed that all copy-editing work will cease from the Weymoth copy-editing hub by the end of June 2017,” the company said.
Newsquest also said it “continued to face difficult trading conditions with sustained pressure on the profitability of the business”.
Consultations with affected staff begin tomorrow and run until 8 June.
The move comes two months after Newsquest announced that 14 FTE jobs were to go at its other subbing hub in Newport, Wales, with work moving to Weymouth.
The Newport hub once employed 70 staff checking copy and creating newspaper pages for titles around the UK.
The subbing hubs were creating to save money and led to many experienced sub-editors based at Newsquest local newspaper titles losing their jobs.
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