Welsh MPs have expressed their “deep concern” after Trinity Mirror announced it will be cutting 92 editorial jobs – including 16 in at Media Wales.
It has since emerged that Welsh daily the Western Mail is to give away up to 5,000 copies of the paper in Swansea from next month as it looks to take on Local World's South Wales Evening Post.
Trinity announced the job cuts, which will see a net reduction of 40 jobs across the company, last Tuesday as part of plans to become a "digitally-focused news operation".
Although it announced that around 52 jobs would be created across the company – 26 at national and 26 at regional level – Trinity also said that 92 jobs overall, 66 regional jobs, are set to be cut. It is hoping to achieve the cuts through voluntary redundancies.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the cuts could "seriously undermine journalists" and the move was condemned by the Media Wales chapel.
Following the announcement, three Plaid Cymru MPs – Jonathan Edwards, Llwyd Elfyn and Hywel Williams – raised the issue in Parliament through an Early Day Motion.
They highlighted the danger of a loss to Welsh-specific news content.
Primary sponsor Jonathan Edward said: "This House expresses deep concern at the announcement by Trinity Mirror that it intends cutting 92 editorial jobs; notes that Media Wales faces the loss of 16 job cuts, including a proposal to disband the features unit which is responsible for generating valuable Welsh-specific news content."
He also expressed “concern at the impact of such a development on Welsh democracy” and pointed out that Media Wales titles have faced cuts consistently for a decade. The MPs are urging Trinity to “urgently” hold talks with the NUJ.
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