NUJ fears Trinity Mirror shake-up will see more ‘standardised British content’ on Welsh titles

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said that job cuts announced by Trinity Mirror will "hugely undermine journalism" on its titles.

Trinity announced that there would be a net reduction of 40 members of editorial staff as it moves to become a "digitally-focused news operation".

Some 92 editorial jobs are to be cut from Trinity's regional titles in England and Wales and 52 new jobs are to be created split between the national and regional titles. Trinity is calling for voluntary redundancies.

Barry Fitzpatrick, NUJ deputy general secretary, said: “We calculate that more than 70 posts will be going in this massive shake up. Others are being created in digital, but many will lose out. This will hugely undermine journalism on these titles.

"It will have a serious impact on newsrooms across the country and the working conditions of staff. It is a short-sighted strategy which will rob communities of good locally-based journalism.

“The NUJ is now studying the proposals and we will be seeking talks at a national level, as this is clearly a national strategy.”

Media Wales today learned that 16 of the job cuts will target its journalists.

Father of the NUJ chapel there is now calling for Trinity to hold talks with the NUJ on a national basis over the matter.

"We are gravely concerned about the implications for our titles. One of the proposals is to close down our features department and create a unit based in Liverpool to produce generic features content across Trinity Mirror regionals,” said Martin Shipton.

“This will result in a loss of Welsh content in our paper and its replacement by standardised British material.

"Trinity Mirror has been making editorial job cuts for the last ten years, with ever more disastrous consequences for its newspapers. On this occasion there is no doubt that this forms part of a national strategy.

“We therefore call on the group to hold talks with the NUJ on a national basis.

"There are many unanswered questions about the workability of these proposals and we expect swift answers."

Topics in this article : NUJ