NUJ view of deal with MEN Media

This is the NUJ's take on the agreement announced yesterday over MEN Media's restructure which involves 70 editorial redundancies and the closure of weekly newspaper offices throughout Greater Manchester.
The NUJ said on its website: "A deal over redundancies at Guardian Media in Manchester will mean pay rises for weekly-paper journalists moving into the group’s city centre office. Eight jobs previously earmarked for the chop have also been saved.
"Management still want to make 11 journalists on the Manchester Evening News compulsorily redundant. However they have agreed to extend the period for volunteers to come forward until the autumn."
It quotes Bethan Dorsett, Mother of the Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers South NUJ chapel, saying: “Our members have fought long and hard against the sweeping cuts proposed by MEN Media Ltd. While we deplore any job losses particularly as a result of compulsory redundancy, we are pleased that management have finally listened to our concerns.
“By making a stand, we have been able to save eight jobs and have made a significant step towards obtaining equal pay for staff working for weekly titles. The onus is now on our managers to enter into meaningful talks with the NUJ over the new house agreement.”
A new pay band in the agreement will mean rises of up to £2,000 for some weekly journalists, the NUJ said.
Manchester NUJ branch has pledged to continue with its campaign to support local journalism in towns where Guardian Media has closed offices.

Death by a thousand cuts: NUJ asks Johnston Press chief 'Where's your plan?'

The NUJ wants an urgent meeting with Johnston Press chief John Fry after more journalists within the group - this time in Halifax - joined their Johnston colleagues in Leeds and East Lancashire by balloting for industrial action over job cuts.
The Halifax journalists, who work on the Halifax Courier, Brighouse Echo, Hebden Bridge Times and Todmorden News agreed to a ballot after management refused to rule out compulsory redundancies and the imposition of reduced redundancy terms.
Chris Morley, NUJ northern organiser, said: “Journalists are telling the company that their policy of death by a thousand cuts is not acceptable at these newspapers and websites which have a historical role at the heart of their communities."
Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, said: “In Derry and East Lancashire Johnston Press journalists voted 100 percent in favour of industrial action of some sort. In Leeds they voted 97 per cent in favour of strike action.
“It is clear that the company policy of slash and burn with no apparent plan for the future has been rejected wholesale by their employees across Britain and Ireland.
“We demand – on behalf of Johnston Press journalists - an urgent meeting with chief executive John Fry to hear the company’s ideas for the future. If they won't give guarantees about quality journalism they should get out of the industry and sell their much-loved titles to someone who will.”

Big Four 'profiteering' publishers can't be trusted with future of local press, NUJ tells OFT

The NUJ in a submission to the Office of Fair Trading has claimed it would be "a disaster" for the local press if the current rules surrounding local newspaper mergers and acquistions are relaxed. It is a move that pits the union against the views of the chief executives of the seven major regional publishers.
The union has told the OFT that the "intense profiteering by the four main groups – Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, Johnston Press and Northcliffe Newspapers -- and their lack of investment in journalism and new media, means they cannot continue to control the local press.
“The inevitable fact is there is no longer the prospect of sufficient returns from local newspapers (and their websites) to sustain a model of ownership that requires a quarter or more of their revenues to be siphoned off to holding companies and their shareholders.
“If they were now to be permitted to consolidate their control of substantial areas of the country there would simply be a continued contraction of the industry – more than 50 papers were closed in the second half of last year – with fewer titles, even fewer journalists and a rapid fall in the amount and quality of news. It would be to accelerate a spiral of decline."
The NUJ document informs the OFT that there is “anger among journalists about the way the businesses have been run, very similar to that of the population at large about the banks.”
What the industry needs, the union says, is “new capital and new managers."
The NUJ claims that new companies would enhance competition in the sector, both through new launches and by taking over existing publications, buying individual titles or series on favourable terms from the present publishers. The latter course should be encouraged by such regulatory means as can be found.”
The union wants all takeovers sanctioned by the OFT and Competition Commission to carry enforceable conditions. These could include “commitments to invest in newsgathering, with a specified proportion of profits going into editorial resources and requirements over staffing ratios.
“There should be undertakings to retain titles in circulation, with locally and originally produced content. Companies could be required to make a convincing economic case when looking to cut jobs."
The NUJ's submission

NUJ to meet Culture Secretary over media cutbacks and job losses

NUJ leaders are to hold urgent talks with UK Culture Secretary Andy Burnham on the cutbacks and job losses engulfing newspaper publishers and TV companies.
The union says it is engaged in wide-ranging discussions on the future of the industry and later this month will put its case for strengthening local journalism to Burnham when he meets the NUJ Parliamentary Group.
Answering questions in the Commons this week, the Culture Secretary promised to meet the union and said: “We need to come forward with proposals to ensure that there are high-quality training and media at a local level across all media...The time has come for Parliament to take a greater interest in the health of journalism at local level, and particularly in how it might relate to skills and to the health of democracy.”
He referred to the reviews being conducted of the regulations on media ownership by the Office of Fair Trading and by Lord Carter's forthcoming Digital Britain report.
Newspaper publishers have been lobbying for a relaxation of the regulations governing local media mergers. Chief executives of seven of the top regional newspaper companies have formed the Local Media Alliance to negotiate directly with Government.
The NUJ says it does not want public money to go directly to the media companies that have "cut resources to the bone to satisfy shareholders" and is exploring alternative ways of boosting local media.
The union is setting up a Local Media Commission, consisting of industry and union figures and academic experts. It will meet in London on March 30. Labour MP Denis MacShane, a former NUJ president, has called on the Government to convene a newspaper industry summit to “stop the haemorrhage of journalist jobs and the closure on scores of local papers with question marks over the strength and survival of national papers.”

'NUJ needs to be part of the solution'

Media finance commentator Peter Kirwan has called for the NUJ to come up with some solutions to the problems of the newspaper industry, including helping redundant editors start local websites and journalists to launch bids for their own titles.
Kirwan makes the call in the latest issue of the monthly print version of Press Gazette (which is not available online) and says the NUJ as well as fighting for journalists should "strike out in unconventional directions".
He proposes it should recruit a standing team of dot.com entrepreneurs and out-of-work publishers to advise redundant editors on how to set up viable local sites.
Kirwan argues:"Very few organisations have an interest in developing ideas about alternative ownership. The NUJ could turn itself into a well-connected centre of expertise quite rapidly."
He says the union should run conferences where experts - lawyers, investors, publishers, entrepreneurs, charity directors - would look at alternative forms of ownership.
It should also help journalists who want to launch bids for newspapers they work for, something Kirwan suggests "could happen quite frequently if the big chains experience a really harsh 2009."
The problems facing the regional press are highlighted by today's ABC figures which show a number of daily newspapers have suffered circulation falls of more than 10 per cent, as Press Gazette reports.

NUJ backs report which bashed PCC and warned cuts are hurting editorial quality

The NUJ has welcomed yesterday's Media Standards Trust report which was highly critical of the Press Complaints Commission and warned of the impact cutbacks were having on journalism standards.
It was claimed by the MST that “standards of accuracy and responsibility are falling faster than ever in an increasingly desperate financial atmosphere, and with them the respect of both public and government.”
The NUJ said, in a statement, the MST report "echoes the NUJ’s argument that cuts in newsroom staffing and spending is having a catastrophic effect on journalism. In particular the reduction in the numbers of sub-editors has led to greater pressures and a rising level of inaccuracy in the press."
NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: “For years we’ve been highlighting the impact on our profession of cutbacks that are all about the pursuit of big profits. Our members are fed up with the frustration of not having the time they need to do their jobs. They take great pride in their work so it hurts when management cuts undermine the job they do.
“Self-regulation can work, but the current model isn’t up to the task. As a first step the government could bring the PCC under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act so that at least some of its workings are put under greater public scrutiny.”
The NUJ has argued that a "conscience clause" should be added to the Code of Practice, which underpins the work of the PCC, so that journalists could claim unfair dismissal if sacked by a newspaper for refusing to act in an unethical way. The union also wants papers fined if the PCC finds they have breached the Code.

'Don't rush to relax media ownership laws': NUJ

The NUJ has taken the opposite view to Trinity Mirror chief Sly Bailey and called on the Government not to rush to relax media ownership laws.
In a complete contrast to Bailey's claim that "time is running out" for the regional press (see post below), the NUJ's response to today's interim Digital Britain report is cautious on the proposed review of media ownership and merger rules by the Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Whilst on the one hand the government talks about the importance of plurality in the media, on the other it is considering a relaxation of the very rules that protect it.
“Politicians must take care not to allow policy to be dictated by media owners who have shown scant interest in investing in the editorial resources needed for quality journalism."

It's not just newspapers facing cut backs

With an estimated 600 editorial jobs lost in the regional press alone since last summer, the NUJ is having to consider how it will cope with a falling membership.
The union's National Executive Committee discussed at the weekend the liklihood that membership of the NUJ will fall during the current recession. NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear reveals on his blog: "Even with just a 2% year on year membership fall for the next three years the union would have a shortfall of £500,000 per annum by 2012. It means the NEC is having to look hard at how we can save money."

'Derry Journal survived the Famine, but we fear it may not survive Johnston Press': NUJ chapel

The NUJ chapel at the Derry Journal has called for an industrial action ballot in response to plans to push through compulsory redundancies
The chapel claims that up to seven editorial posts at the Derry Journal are under threat.
It said in a statement: "The Journal chapel strongly believe (and management have not disputed) that more job losses are likely to follow at the Derry Journal. The threatened compulsory redundancies at the Journal is the latest in a series of swathing job losses at the Derry newspaper, since it came under the ownership of Johnston Press in 2006.
"Since then, we have lost more than 50 jobs as one by one, printing, accounts and production jobs were moved out of Derry."
"We are determined to fight to defend our jobs and the integrity of the Derry Journal and we hope there will be an overwhelming vote for strike action. We will be asking for support from fellow trades unionists, our readers, advertisers, and politicians locally and nationally.
"The Derry Journal survived the Famine, but we fear it may not survive Johnston Press."

NUJ executive backs Newsquest York buy-out

The NUJ's national executive has said the union will explore ways of ending Newsquest's ownership of newspapers in York.
The move follows a call by the NUJ chapel at the Press and Gazette and Herald for the union to look at ways the newspapers could be bought-out from Newsquest.
Union members also hope that local business figures may come forward to finance a buy-out that would return the papers and websites to Yorkshire ownership.
Journalists on the papers have suffered redundancies and a wage freeze. Adam Christie, NUJ National Executive Council member for the North East of England, said: "The experience of journalists in York is an example of what is happening around the country as media companies try to maintain profit levels several times greater than major supermarket chains at the cost of local news and the cultural and democratic health of our villages, towns and cities."

Union hotline for cuts whistleblowers

The NUJ has launched a whistleblower hotline for journalists who want to reveal how media cutbacks have prevented proper reporting.
It follows the call from investigative reporter and author of 'Flat Earth News' Nick Davies, made at the NUJ's Jobs Summit on Saturday. He said: "We need to become whistle blowers in our newsrooms and show how cuts hit editorial performance."
The hotline is: email whistleblower@nuj.org.uk, telephone 020 7843 6381 or via the web. The union promises to protect the identity of all whistleblowers.

NUJ joins BBC Gaza aid ad ban protest

The NUJ today joined with broadcasting union BECTU to add to the chorus of condemnation of the BBC for refusing to run a charity appeal for the victims of the war in Gaza on the grounds it would compromise the Corporation's news impartiality.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear has written, with his counterpart at BECTU, to BBC Director General Mark Thompson claiming there is a danger the BBC will be seen as "biased in favour of Israel" and asking him to reconsider the ban.
The NUJ and BECTU letter in full.

'Murdoch and Dacre have brought all journalists into disrepute': Nick Davies

Journalists need to restore their status with the public as they battle against cuts and denounce those who have "betrayed" the profession, author and investigative reporter Nick Davies told an NUJ jobs summit in London today.
Davies, whose book 'Flat Earth News' attacked the easy processed news culture of "churnalism," told the summit: "We are not trusted or liked. We are misperceived."
He claimed: "If you ask people to name well known journalists, they will name people who are notorious. I am thinking of people like Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre. These people have brought us all into disrepute.
"Being judged by people on the performance of Murdoch and Dacre is like all Transylvanians being judged on Dracula's behaviour. We have to fight back against it. Our position is similar to that in which gay men and women found themselves in the 1950s and 1960s. They were unable to orchestrate their political strength to change the law because they weren't liked, they were shunned."
Davies said journalists should not be afraid to denounce the small minority who betray the profession and "remove the smear of their behaviour from the image of our profession".
He applauded the NUJ's "Journalism Matters" campaign and said it was vital to show the public they needed reliable, quality news more than ever and that "we need to become whistle blowers in our newsrooms and show how cuts hit editorial performance."
Davies argued that the corporate owners of the news media could not solve the problems facing the industry because "they are the problem". He said "they took over our newspapers, ransacked them for profits and readers lost trust in us" and their solutions to the present crisis were based on the priority of profits not news values.
Davies dismissed the rise of citizen journalism as "like saying if the movie industry collapsed we've got people at home with video cameras. There might be a slight decline in quality." He added that some other countries, like France and Holland, had "crossed the line" and provided public funding for the news media. "It should not go into the hands of Johnston Press but into the hands of working journalists," he said.
Davies ended by saying: "We matter. Most journalists are decent, honest, hardworking people. We should be allowed to do our jobs properly. I believe if we fight we can win and save quality news."

Update: 4:37 pm. Those attending the jobs summit backed a motion calling for a national day of action to defend quality media; a "co-ordinated industrial response" to compulsory job cuts and office closures, including industrial action "across employers"; a series of protests aimed at key company and industry events; and a lobby of MPs.

Herald move to put redundancies 'on hold' aimed at union reps claims NUJ

The surprise decision by Newsquest's Herald group in Glasgow to put its voluntary redundancy scheme "on hold" is aimed at NUJ reps, the union claims.
The NUJ says management at the company, which publishes The Hearld, Evening Times and Sunday Herald, stopped the scheme because they want the union's FoCs to sign away their rights to take legal action for victimisation.
The union has submitted grievances and tribunal claims on behalf of three FoCs for victimisation under trade union discrimination laws.
Allmediascotland reports: "Those who applied - they thought successfully - for voluntary redundancy are now being asked to apply for jobs they most probably have little appetite for. Around 40 journalists, from a first tranche of applicants, had heard, almost two weeks ago, they had been successful, prompting a second tranche, of about ten, to submit their applications."
Journalists were told in a memo from Herald editor-in-chief Donald Martin: “The voluntary redundancy process in editorial is on hold after talks with the NUJ broke down."

'FT makes £35,000 profit per employee'

The Financial Times makes £35,000 profit per employee the acting FoC of the paper's NUJ chapel David Crouch, told a rally held in the paper's canteen against proposals to cut 80 jobs - 20 of them journalists.
Crouch said the figure came from the FT's own accounts. According to the NUJ more than 150 members of the 220-strong chapel attended the the rally which was also addressed by veteran Labour politician Tony Benn. He told the gathering of business journalists: "Banking is far too important to be left to gamblers".

Dear blasts "greedy" newspaper bosses over state aid and relaxing ownership rules

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear is scathing on his blog about possible state help for the ailing newspaper industry or a relaxation of media ownership rules.
Both topics may be looked at in the Digital Britain report due out on Monday. But Dear says of the newspaper owners: "Does their greed know no bounds? Whilst they have made excessive profits over the past decade or so and failed to properly manage their businesses they now want taxpayers to bail them out - not because they are losing money but because they can't maintain such high profit levels.
"And on top of that they want further relaxations in media ownership rules as a way of solving 'the crisis'. Each time ownership rules have been relaxed we've been told this will solve the crisis, each time it has led to more job cuts, a fall in quality and a boost in profits - until the next crisis comes along.
"Any merger/takeover resulting from any relaxation of ownership rules should only be approved under conditions on investment, resources for news-gathering and employment rights. Anything less would simply be feeding the insatiable appetite of the corporate news industry."

Demand forces NUJ Jobs Summit venue switch

The NUJ’s Jobs Summit to be held on Saturday has been switched to a bigger venue after registrations far exceeded the 70-person capacity of the union’s Headland House headquarters in London's King's Cross.
It will now be held at The School of Pharmacy, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, close to the union's HQ. The summit's aim is to galvanise NUJ members to plan a response to the widespread redundancies, budget cuts and pay freezes currently being imposed across the media industry, particularly on newspapers.
Among speakers lined up for the event are Nick Davies, the investigative journalist and author of 'Flat Earth News' and Michael Klehm, of Deutsche Journalisten-Verband (DJV), the German journalist' union.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “The level of interest being shown in the summit just goes to show our members’ resolve against the latest media cutbacks. The event isn’t just about training people in how to respond to redundancies, budget cuts and pay freezes. Everyone will have a chance to add their ideas about how we can work together to challenge the short-term cutbacks that are damaging our industry.”
The latest job cuts in the regional newspaper industry have come with Johnston Press announcing a new centralised subbing system which could cut up to 49 jobs from its Midlands divisions.

'Let freed Guantanamo journalist into UK'

The NUJ is calling for an Al-Jazeera video journalist, who was detained for seven years at the US Guantanamo detention camp in Cuba, to be allowed entry to Britain.
It is urging that Sami El-Haj be given a visa to take part in a speaking tour about his experiences in Guantanamo, which is expected to be closed by President-elect Barack Obama.
The Sudan-born journalist was a video reporter for the Al-Jazeera TV news channel when he was seized by American forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and taken to Guantanamo. The union claims he was was tortured and brutally force-fed through several hunger strikes.
Sami El-Haj was released last summer and returned to Al-Jazeera in Qatar to resume his career, as a programme producer. In December he was invited to join a speaking tour in the UK organised by the group Cageprisoners and sponsored by the peer Lord Ahmed but the union says the British Embassy is refusing him a visa.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear has written to the embassy, stating: “Journalists around the world campaigned for Sami while he was locked up and mistreated in Guantanamo. Now we want to be able to hear his story directly from him, and so should anyone else."

Barrow dispute over as job is saved

NUJ members at the North West Evening Mail in Cumbria have called off plans for industrial action after the union claimed today it had persuaded Cumbrian Newspapers management not to press ahead with a threatened compulsory redundancy.
A sports writer facing redundancy has transferred to news, meaning no journalists on the North West Evening Mail will be made compulsorily redundant.

Tony Benn on menu in Financial Times canteen for journalists' day of action

Former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn will address a meeting of journalists in the canteen at the Financial Times as part of a day of action next week against proposed compulsory redundancies on the paper.
Management want to axe 20 editorial jobs but only eleven volunteers have come forward, according to the NUJ which is organising the day of action on Thursday January 22. NUJ members at the paper will wear stickers opposing the job losses and pledging support for the union’s 'Stand Up for Journalism' campaign.
The union claims to have seen a secret management document called "CCC" for "create-craft-complete" which would involve further job cuts. FT journalists have dubbed it “Cut-Cut-Cut”.