Trinity Mirror is closing five offices in Scotland a month after announcing plans to merge the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail with sister company Scottish and Universal Newspapers.
The closures will result in the loss of 35 non-editorial jobs in areas including telesales, merchandising and reception.
The Edinburgh office of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail is to close, along with Dumbarton, Airdrie, Irvine and Paisley offices – after Trinity Mirror Nationals MD Mark Hollinshead said they were ‘not fit for purpose”.
In a memo sent to staff yesterday Hollinshead said that, with the exception of Dumbarton, which will close at the end of February, the offices will close at the end of March.
The move will see some staff transfer to other offices in Trinity’s portfolio including Glasgow.
Editorial staff in Edinburgh will be given the opportunity to either work from home, from Trinity’s office at the Scottish Parliament, or from its office in Bathgate, home to the West Lothian Courier.
“These changes form a crucial next step in the development of our new company as we work to shape Scotland’s biggest publishing business,’said Hollinshead.
In December Trinity announced the creation of Media Scotland, a merger between the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail and sister company Scottish and Universal Newspapers.
It resulted in the departure of the editor-in-chief of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, Bruce Waddell, who had been in the role for the last eight years.
Trinity Mirror Nationals Mark Hollinshead became the MD of Media Scotland and Allan Rennie – who was previously editorial development director for Trinity Mirror Nationals – was appointed editor-in-chief of the new company.
Last week it emerged Trinity was in redundancy talks with several senior editorial figures at Media Scotland.
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