Archant has announced a “major restructure” of its East London, Essex and Kent newspapers, which will consolidate coverage into two groups.
Archant reporters and news editors across the affected papers will be split into two news sections: the first will involve the Romford Recorder, Romford and Havering Post, Ilford Recorder and its Kent titles; the other section covers the Newham Recorder, East London Advertiser and Barking and Dagenham Post.
In the current arrangement, reporters tend to work primarily for just one paper.
The restructure will see three current editors’ roles made redundant to be replaced by two new executive editor positions. One executive editor will cover each of the two sections, both based in Archant’s Ilford hub.
In a memo sent to staff yesterday, editorial director Laure Adams wrote: “The East London and Essex newsroom will undergo a major restructure in the coming weeks.”
She added that the changes will present “opportunities for reporters to take on specialist subjects such as education, health, crime, entertainment and politics.”
The Ilford office editor-in-chief, Malcolm Starbrook, will oversee all editorial operations, according to the memo. An Archant spokesman said “his role will be strategic” under the restructure.
The restructure will result in the loss of one editor and one editorial assistant, out of a total news team of 35 journalists.
Staff were told that the productions and sports desks would not be affected.
In March, the group announced plans to share more content among its East Anglian titles while moving production to a single Norwich-based uniit.
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