The NUJ’s Sheffield chapel will meet later today to discuss their response to the latest round of job losses announced by regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press.
Eight jobs have been earmarked to go across the Doncaster Free Press, Derbyshire Times, Sheffield Star and its sister title the Sheffield Telegraph.
Chief operating officer Danny Cammiade said: ‘Following a strategic review of the editorial production processes and photographic management across the North Midlands & South Yorkshire Publishing Unit, it is proposed to reduce the number of production journalists and chief photographers.
‘Should this proposal go ahead, there would be a loss of two roles in photographic and six roles across editorial production.
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‘Prior to any implementation the company will consult extensively on an individual and collective basis, explaining the procedure, considering all alternatives and endeavouring to mitigate the effects of the proposal through voluntary redundancy and redeployment elsewhere in the Group.”
The consultation period is expected to be completed by 27 July 27.
The union said that at the last NUJ meeting in Sheffield, journalists held a vote of no confidence in management after the Sheffield Telegraph editor and Sheffield Star deputy editor were made redundant earlier this month.
The latest round of jobs cuts comes after last Friday’s announcement that 19 editorial jobs are to go at the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post with the merger of the papers’ newsrooms.
Julia Armstrong, Mother of Chapel at the NUJ Sheffield Newspapers Chapel, said: “Yet again Johnston Press staff are paying the price of poor investment decisions that have left the company at the mercy of the banks.
‘The relaunch of the Sheffield Star and sister paper the Sheffield Telegraph this autumn should be an exciting opportunity but instead jobs are under threat yet again and the staff who are left are already stretched to the limit.
“We can ill afford to lose more journalists with decades of experience; the company should be looking for ways to keep those staff whose jobs are on the line so that they can deliver quality journalism to the people of South Yorkshire – it is what they want and deserve.”
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