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Further job cuts at the York Press as more journalism is moved out of the city

Core of journalism being lost… the Press on Walmgate, York. Photograph: Richard McDougall
Monday 4 May, 2015 @ 8.08 pm News YorkMix
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Further jobs are being lost at the York Press as more of the journalism is shipped out of the city.

The newspaper is already edited from Bradford by Perry Austin-Clarke, also the editor of the Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Much of the Press‘s sub-editing and page layout is done in Newport, South Wales.

Now six more journalism roles are going at York, four of them on the Press – the deputy sports editor, the web editor, the part-time digital community publisher and a newsroom assistant.

Also going from the Walmgate offices are the editor and deputy editor of the weekly Ryedale paper, the Gazette & Herald. This too will now be edited in Bradford.

Meanwhile the roles of Press chief sub editor, night production editor, features editor and content editor will transfer to Bradford.

The journalists in these roles, including Press columnist Julian Cole, will either have to work in Bradford or take redundancy.

Changes are due to come into effect on June 1, 2015.

Sport production moves out

Francine Clee
Francine Clee
Press deputy editor Francine Clee is leaving. YorkMix understands that her role will be taken by Stuart Martel, currently the sports editor, and that all sports production on the York paper will be undertaken in Bradford.

News and sports reporters, feature writers and photographers will remain in York.

The cuts have been announced by the paper’s parent company Newsquest. Altogether 25 roles are to go across the company’s centres in York, Bradford and Darlington – where The Northern Echo is published.

Ten new roles are being created, including eight in newspaper production at Bradford. A new post for York is that of social media editor, in charge of user-generated content, or “UGC”.

Staff at the paper’s Walmgate HQ are said to be “shell-shocked” over the loss to the city of journalists with well over a century of experience serving York between them.

It’s another nail in the integrity and credibility of what could still be a fine paper serving the people of York.

But they don’t seem to be that bothered about serving the people of York. It’s serving their American paymasters and protecting their own dividends.

– York Press journalist

The journalist told YorkMix that the weekly Business Press supplement is now designed to the same template as the Bradford Telegraph & Argus and it is widely predicted that the whole York paper will switch to the T&A template.

‘Hurting the quality of journalism’

Flashback to February 2014, when Press journalists went on strike in protest at plans to move editorial jobs to Wales. Photograph: Richard McDougall
Flashback to February 2014, when Press journalists went on strike in protest at plans to move editorial jobs to Wales. Photograph: Richard McDougall

Chris Morley, northern and midlands organiser for the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said the new cuts “come as part of an endless stream of painful job losses and reduced pay and terms and conditions in recent years”.

The York Press “is now run 45 miles away from Bradford and daily production of most pages was exported to another country – Wales – just a year ago.

“Now they have come for more redundancies among staff that have more than a century of local knowledge and experience.

“How on earth do the accountants driving this programme think the people of York will be well-served by their actions?”

He said the impact would be felt across the city.

Losing a core of experience will inevitably hurt the quality of journalism our members who are left will be able to produce.

Inevitably that leaves the Press readers and the community in general all the poorer.

The NUJ is holding a meeting with Press journalists on Tuesday (May 5). Chris called on the readers of the paper to make their feelings known.

We will fight on behalf of our members to retain the best quality journalism possible.

I would like to take this opportunity to call on the people of York to make their views known on this to Perry Austin-Clarke, the distant Bradford editor in charge of The Press at [email protected] and to copy me in at [email protected].”

Chris said that the “loyal staff at the Press have endured five years of effective pay cuts with salaries being frozen” while the boss of Newsquest owner, US-based Gannett, “was lavished with a £7.5 million pay package last year”.

“The Press is still profitable but the demands to make super profits is leading local bosses to do what had been previously unthinkable.”

Newsquest statement

We asked Newsquest regional managing director David Coates to respond to the concerns in York. He has yet to reply.

David did issue a statement to journalism industry website Hold The Front Page. This is what it says.

“Over the course of the coming weeks we propose to make some changes to the structure of our editorial operations in York, Bradford and Darlington which we believe will help us meet the increasing demands of our growing online audience while at the same time placing the business on a more sustainable footing.

“The changes will result in some job losses but new roles will also be created.

“By consolidating production management of our newspapers in one regional centre, and centralising both daily and weekly content management in each centre, we believe we will be better able to manage the volume of work involved in producing our titles.

“Under the proposals, York-based and Darlington-based production roles would transfer to the Bradford production management centre.

“The company will be exploring ways of avoiding compulsory redundancies and minimising the number of employees affected. We propose that these changes come into effect from 1 June 2015.

“With immediate effect we are entering into a period of consultation with those who may be affected by this proposal.”

York Press boss to leave as editing process merged with Bradford

York Press journalists strike in battle to keep the paper local

City leader urges York Press owners to reconsider Welsh move

15 Comments
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Diane Petty
7 years ago

I think it is such a shame that York is struggling to hold on to another business. The York Press or Evening Press at used to be called has been declining for a few years. My dad used to work at the Press when the paper used to come out on an evening and carried todays news. Over the years there has been a decline in it’s content. I find it very disappointing that on several occasions I have attempted to get an article written about the achievement of one of the Local Scout Groups and how proud we should be of the young people, but no one has turned up or attempted to contact us for more information. If all some of the editors and the journalists are being cut from the York Office what chance to we have of fighting to keep this a local newspaper with local news.

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Kriss
7 years ago

Seriously – the Labour Party is responsible for the decline of the local news? What next – the weather?

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Peter Watson
7 years ago

How long will it be, do you think, before the Press has no physical staff presence in York at all ?

At the present rate of reduction of staff at their Walmgate offices, recently down-sized to sell the old premises off for student apartments, it can’t be too long now before the last out of the new building will switch off the lights forever and run the whole of the Press from remote offices in Bradford and Newport ?

Just think, you could create a York newspaper without having to be actually in York at all ! It could all be done with Google Streetview, Facebook, Twitter – you wouldn’t need to have any proper ‘paper’ involved or proper people in York in this brave new world of corporate thinking.

I am very sorry to hear the recent news that ten more members of the York office staff are to lose their jobs or be relocated to Bradford (gawd help ’em). Even the Editor of this Letters column is under threat of redundancy, I hear ?

I feel for all the very good journalists, editors and photographers who have served The Press for so many years who now find themselves at the sharp end of corporate decision making by their American owners many thousands of miles away.

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Paul S Cordock
7 years ago

My parents and grandparents had it delivered, and I did for 28 years up to last year, but, have stopped. I sometimes look at their website, but it’s gone downhill rapidly, much like many things in York in recent years…… under the Labour council!

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Jacqui Barker
7 years ago

It won’t be the York press , it’s sad .

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Keith Jackson
7 years ago

Bring back the Pink/Green Press I say.

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Lesley Smithson
7 years ago

Sad to see this.

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Donna Greenwood-Miller
7 years ago

The paper has declined in recent years but that’s to be expected with the advent of 24hr news coverage and the Internet. The Press is still better than most of the daily’s that fill their pages with celebrity nonsense. End of an era and another industry leaving York. Very sad.

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John Grant
7 years ago

End of an era!

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Diane Kelly
7 years ago

The staff at The Press work hard and put in extremely long hours for crap wages and bad management. I just hope you are never in the position of being made redundant and still have bills to pay and children to bring up. Angry of York

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Charlie Hodge
7 years ago

We still need a good local paper

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Steve Kendra
7 years ago

Stopped buying it years ago……

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Steve Bradley
7 years ago

To be fair The Press has been dreadful for years. I no longer buy it. The website is appalling and has the most user unfriendly interface I’ve ever encountered. They may as well just scrap the paper.

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Janet Bennett
7 years ago

Very sad for those affected and for York in general

0
Sandra Smith
7 years ago

Leeds wants to be the capital of Yorkshire

0

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