Newsquest parent company results this week

Newsquest parent company Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher by circulation, reports earnings on Thursday, kicking off what is expected to be the ugliest quarter in recent memory for the newspaper industry, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The WSJ says: "Though there is little uncertainty about the short-term outlook, analysts and industry executives will be watching for any signs of a recovery in advertising.
"Declines in print ad revenue acceleratedthrough the end of last year, and if early returns this year offer no clearer view of a bottom, publishers could start taking more aggressive action, including closing papers or shifting operations online.
" 'We're expecting particularly dismal results from newspapers,' said Mike Simonton, an analyst with Fitch Ratings, adding that until classified ads disappear completely, there is 'no bottom in sight' for the current revenue trends."
WSJ reports: "Gannett, publisher of more than 80 U.S. dailies including USA Today, faces many of the same pressures as its competitors. Though most of its papers are profitable, profits are shrinking. The company's entire debt structure is due to mature by 2012. To alleviate pressure, Gannett last week announced a bond exchange to push out some of its maturities.
"Gannett has made some drastic cost-cutting moves at its newspapers to keep costs in line with dwindling revenue, including multiple rounds of job cuts and two furlough programs forcing employees to take unpaid leave. More changes could be in store, particularly as the outlook worsens for its flagship paper."
Story via Tom McGowran

Newsquest parent company in US asks staff to take week off without any pay

Editor & Publisher is reporting that Gannett, which owns Newsquest in the UK, is asking its employees to take a week off without pay.
The magazine quotes a memo from Gannett CEO Craig Dubow: "Today Gannett is implementing a furlough program across all U.S. divisions and at corporate headquarters. This means that most of our U.S. employees - including myself and all other top executives - will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter. This furlough will be unpaid. Unions also will be asked to participate. We are doing this to preserve our operations and continue to deliver for our customers while confronting the issues raised by some of the most difficult economic conditions we have ever experienced."
Could it happen here?

'If Newsquest's hidden agenda is to kill the title I congratulate them': ex-daily editor

Mike Woods, the former editor of the Dorset Echo , has given a damning verdict on the way Newsquest is treating his old paper.
In a posting on the HoldtheFrontPage website, part owned by Newsquest, Woods gives a scathing comment on the redundancies of veteran Echo reporter Harry Walton, news editor Paul Thomas and other staff.
He says: "I edited the Echo from 1984 to 1996 and remember the days when people queued at the town centre office to buy it moments after the first edition rolled off the press. It then had one of the best sales records of any UK regional daily paper - mainly due to an incredibly hard-working and devoted staff led by stalwarts such as Paul Thomas and Harry Walton. If Newsquest's hidden agenda is to kill the title I congratulate them. Sacking such people is precisely the way to do it."
Woods' comment is among an avalanche of postings giving Newsquest a pasting on HTFP. Many are highly critical of the Echo sackings with some accusing Newsquest of having an agenda to close the Dorset Echo and merge it with the company's Bournemouth paper. Altogether 20 jobs have been axed at the Dorset and Bournemouth centres.

Newsquest to axe Colchester Gazette editor

The NUJ has condemned a proposal by Newsquest to axe the position of editor of the daily Colchester Gazette and up to 13 editorial jobs on the paper.
According to the union, management want subbing of the paper to be moved to Basildon, where Newsquest publishes the Southend Echo, and the Gazette’s two editions - which cover Colchester and the coast - will be merged into one.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Our members in Colchester are not fooled by the notion of a paper without an editor. The daily paper in the area will effectively be an edition of the Basildon publication."

NUJ says more than 50 in Newsquest walk-out and industrial action planned for next week

The NUJ claims more than 50 of its members at Newsquest North East in Darlington, which publishes the daily Northern Echo, the Darlington and Stockton Times, the Durham Times and the Advertiser series of free papers, walked out at noon yesterday and stayed out all day in protest against job cuts and a pay freeze.
They returned to work this afternoon but have given management notice of more industrial action next week. The journalists are scheduled to meet again at lunchtime tomorrow – and have informed management of plans to hold a further meeting next Tuesday (January 13).
HoldtheFrontPage reports today:"Newsquest upped the stakes in the row over redundancies at the Northern Echo today by announcing it would dock the pay of journalists who staged a half-day walkout yesterday."
Meanwhile, NUJ members at the Newsquest-owned Press in York have voted to take strike action if compulsory redundancies are imposed at the paper. In a separate ballot, NUJ members voted by 72 per cent to take other forms of industrial action to fight a pay freeze imposed by the company.

Vote in favour of industrial action at Northern Echo publisher Newsquest North East

NUJ members at Newsquest North East, publisher of the daily Northern Echo, the Darlington and Stockton Times, the Durham Times and the Advertiser series of free papers, have voted 92 per cent in favour of industrial action against job cuts and a pay freeze, with 80 per cent backing strike action, the union said today.
Adam Murray, Father of the Newsquest North East NUJ chapel, said: “The big vote for action shows the strength of feeling against the cuts to our newspapers. We have been negotiating with management and are now discussing a handful of outstanding job cuts. I am hopeful there will be no compulsory redundancies. NUJ members are still upset about the pay freeze after years of hard work and high profits.”

Worse conditions for re-employed Herald staff

A longer working day and reductions in holidays and sick pay entitlement is the likely future awaiting staff at The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times in Glasgow, should they be re-employed after 250 staff were made redundant and asked to reapply for their jobs, allmediascotland reports today.
It is believed that up to 40 posts will be cut on the three Newsquest-owned titles. According to allmediascotland so-called ‘group news reporters’ - working across The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times - will be required to be available any day of the week, “as necessary for the business”. They will be paid between £25,000 and £35,000 a year.
The NUJ is continuing to explore a legal challenge against the mass redundancy move, which has been criticised by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond. See Can Politicians Save Journalists Jobs?

More bad news from Newsquest

MediaGuardian is reporting tonight that Newsquest is considering closing 10 free newspapers and a monthly in the North West. Meanwhile HoldtheFrontPage reports: "Newsquest North West is considering closing its £17m printing plant in Bolton which opened in 2001. If the move goes ahead, printing of its two dailies. The Bolton News and Lancashire Telegraph will switch to outside Newsquest. The decision comes amid what the company is calling 'extremely tough trading conditions and the expectation that revenues will continue to fall through 2009'."
The NUJ has accused Newsquest of "the betrayal" of its journalists in the North West, claiming the latest cuts have come within a couple of months of the last round in the region, during which journalists were told there were no plans for further closures.
NUJ assistant organiser Jenny Lennox said: “Given that just two months ago Newsquest North West management told us that there were no plans for further closures, it’s no wonder journalists feel betrayed. The removal of almost all editorial staff from Bury to Bolton means that after 155 years the Bury Times will have virtually no editorial presence left in the town."
Over the past three weeks, Newsquest has axed editorial jobs at the Northern Echo, Bradford Telegraph and Argus, Hereford Times and in Glasgow at The Herald, Evening Times and Sunday Herald. The NUJ has estimated that 500 jobs have been axed or left vacant by regional newspaper publishers since June.

Harry Conroy tells Newsquest: 'The Herald is not just another regional paper'

Former NUJ general secretary Harry Conroy has expressed his anger at Newsquest's plans to merge the editorial operations at The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times and make the journalists on the three papers redundant and reapply for their jobs. Up to 40 editorial posts are expected to be axed on the Glasgow papers.
Conroy, who has worked for both The Herald and Evening Times, says in a comment piece on allmediascotland: "Saddened, shocked, angry are just some of the emotions I felt when I read about the Newsquest attempt to bring their three titles under one umbrella and its demand that its journalists apply for their jobs back. We are talking here about more than a business, we are talking about an integral part of the democratic process.
"It is now more important than ever that Scotland, with its own parliament, is served by a diverse and high quality media. Newsquest have been accused before of treating The Herald in particular as just another regional paper. It is not. It serves a nation with its own legal system and a parliament which legislates.
"Newsquest should be told loud and clear to step back, to improve their industrial relations, and prove their commitment to Scotland and their titles. Democracy cannot be reduced to the size of their bank balance which is already showing a healthy profit from their Scottish titles. This move must be defeated."
Harry Conroy raises an important point. The Herald is seen as a national title in Scotland, hence Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond getting involved and urging Newsquest to rethink its plans. There is resentment in Scotland that Newsquest is simply applying the same template of cost cutting in Glasgow as it is to its regional titles in England. The Herald, and for that matter The Scotsman, have never seen themselves as "regional" newspapers.
HoldtheFrontPage reports today that Johnston Press is exploring a possible merger of production and photographic departments at its three Edinburgh-based newspapers, which may lead to job cuts. Evening News editor John McLellan has been charged with collating a report on production processes and picture desk at The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and his own paper by the end of the week. Johnston Press has consistently denied rumours that The Scotsman is for sale.

And you think it's bad here..

In the US, job cuts imposed by Gannett, which owns Newsquest in the UK, will end up eliminating around 2,000 posts across all of the company's 85 daily papers, except the Detroit Free Press and USA Today, according to Editor and Publisher magazine. The cutbacks, which will affect about 10 per cent of jobs in the company's Community Publishing Division, were announced in late October.
Also in the US, MediaWeek reports: "Newspaper and newspaper groups are likely to default on their debt and go out of business next year -- leaving 'several cities' with no daily newspaper at all." The prediction is made by credit ratings company Fitch Ratings which says in a report :"Fitch believes more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010."

Can politicians save journalists' jobs?

The NUJ is marshalling as much support as it can from politicians in the battle over redundancies at Newsquest in Glasgow, where all but a handful of the staff of around 250 on The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times have been told they will be made redundant and have to reapply for their own jobs. The union believes up to 40 jobs could be cut.
Rather than taking immediate industrial action the union is appealing directly to politicians and public opinion. Significantly, rather than just having the backing of the NUJ's Parliamentary Group of MPs, the union could today count on the support of Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.
He told MSPs in Holyrood: "If this was happening in another employer in Scotland, if an approach was being taken to make an entire workforce redundant, what would we imagine that the editorial stance of the Herald newspaper would've been?.....I think that the owners of the Herald group should think carefully about the credibility of the newspaper given the stance they have adopted."
It is always a good argument to ask newspaper publishers, when they are accused of some dubious behaviour, how they would cover the same story if it was someone else. For instance, closing down a local print plant with the loss of local jobs, or disciplining staff who speak out or represent a union, or when they refuse to comment to other media. It has seldom, if ever, made a difference.
Politicians are waking up to the fact that regional newspapers are under threat but their intervention will not be welcomed by publishers who will claim they are interfering in their right to manage their own companies. This is going to be some battle that will show if politicians can save journalists' jobs.

NUJ plans fight-back against job cuts and reveals '500 editorial posts lost since June'

A crisis summit meeting of NUJ union reps from across the local newspaper industry at the weekend has backed plans for a wave of protests and industrial action in the coming weeks, the union revealed today.
The planned action comes as new research figures compiled in the last seven days by the union show that more than 500 journalists posts have been axed or left unfilled at local newspaper groups since June. More than 30 local newspaper offices have been closed and 50-plus titles closed, the union says.
The NUJ has vowed to resist job cuts which it claims "damage quality, significantly increase hours and workloads, and threaten the health and welfare of journalists". A day of action against the cuts will be organised. Union reps also pledged to co-ordinate campaigns across workplaces to fight "imposed and unwarranted" pay freezes. The union has also urged editors to work alongside their journalists to defend "editorial independence and integrity".
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Instead of greater investment in quality online content, more localised coverage and strengthened editorial teams, for years the vast profits of local newspapers have been largely shovelled in to shareholders pockets, directors’ pay rises and executive pension pots, amidst reckless borrowing and poor investment decisions.
"Now the very people who plunged the industry into this crisis by demanding such excessive profits believe the solution is to axe journalists and freeze pay. They were spectacularly wrong in the past and are spectacularly wrong again. It is a false economy to put the ability to deliver scoops, quality content and strong local coverage in jeopardy. Local newspapers in print and online remain viable and profitable businesses. We can’t stand by and see this profiteering destroy our industry."
NUJ reps from Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror, and Newsquest have agreed to co-ordinate industrial action against compulsory redundancies; organise a union-wide day of action and a series of protests and activities against job cuts and pay freezes around "key" company and industry events; "expose instances of shareholder and management greed"; build community-based 'Stand up for Journalism' campaigns. They also plan to lobby members of the UK Parliament, Scottish Parliament and National Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland calling on them to back the fight to stop job cuts and save local media.

More job cuts expected at Newsquest today

The NUJ is predicting that the latest round of redundancies will be announced at Newsquest's Bradford centre today. NUJ members in Bradford have voted to ballot for industrial action if redundancies are compulsory. The union claims the expected job cuts would leave the company’s editorial workforce at 60 per cent of its strength, compared to eight years ago. It also says that management last week broke off pay talks, withdrew an offer of three per cent and imposed a pay freeze.
According to the NUJ, managers have said proposals for job cuts will be revealed to journalists on the Telegraph & Argus, Keighley News, Craven Herald, Ilkley Gazette and Wharfedale Observer. NUJ Bradford FoC Bob Smith said: "First, managers told staff they would get no extra pay...then, they dropped the jobs bombshell, saying the editorial department would be cut by ten per cent."
The NUJ claims there was a "David Brent moment" when group editor Perry Austin-Clarke revealed he had been offered a pay rise for taking on extra responsibility following the departure from the company of the Newsquest Bradford managing director Charlie Birrell.

Grey Cardigan:"Newsquest should be ashamed"

Press Gazette's columnist Grey Cardigan points out that the move by Newsquest in York to amalgamate the job of daily editor, managing director and weekly editor into the new role of managing editor will mean an industry first - a daily regional newspaper without a dedicated editor. As reported in the post below, Hold The Front Page revealed today 'Editors and MD to compete for single job' that in York, Press editor Kevin Booth, weekly editor Chris Buxton and managing director Steve Hughes have been made redundant and must now apply for the new managing editor's post. Grey Cardigan describes the move as an "utter disgrace" and says Newsquest should be "deeply ashamed". You can read his broadside 'Welcome to the editorless daily newspaper' here.

It's a different world for the BBC

The Guardian reports here today that the BBC is claiming that the blocking by the BBC Trust, following vigorous lobbying by regional newspaper publishers, of its plans to sink £68 million into expanding its local websites will cost 400 jobs, 200 of which would have been new posts.
That is little comfort for all the local journalists being made redundant who would love to work for the BBC. But it still seems amazing that the BBC could create 200 new local journalists' jobs in the middle of the worst recession in regional newspaper history. It has reached the stage where Hold The Front Page reports today that two editors and a managing director have been made redundant by Newsquest in York and are having to compete for one new post replacing their jobs!
I remember in the early days of the internet being at a conference at City University when an American asked the man who had set up the BBC's web operation what his business model was. What he wanted to know was what the BBC's profit and loss projections were. The BBC man replied "I was just told to create the best website I could." It's a different world.

Cuts, closures and pay freeze at Northern Echo

Newsquest announced today that it was axing 17 editorial posts at the Northern Echo and its related weeklies and closing five district offices, capping another terrible week of economic news for the regional press. Journalists throughout Newsquest were told yesterday a pay freeze was being imposed until April. The Echo district offices to close are in Stockton, Redcar, Barnard Castle, Richmond and Thirsk. NUJ members at the paper are to discuss the cuts on Monday. Trinity also imposed a pay freeze this week and Northcliffe warned it would have to make "significant" savings next year.
Update: The NUJ members voted to ballot on industrial action and say they are totally opposed to compulsory redundancies.