Trinity Mirror to axe 40 from Birmingham newsroom; Dyson and Reeves exit

Trinity Mirror has announced approximately 40 editorial redundancies for staff at its Birmingham division BPM, as part of plans to tackle a £6 million forecast loss for the division in 2010.

The plans will also see the Birmingham Post go weekly and the editors of both the Post and Birmingham Mail stepping down by the end of the year.

The cuts confirmed in a press release by the publisher are the result of a consultation on the future of its Midlands titles launched in August.

The bulk of the redundancies will come from the production unit at Fort Dunlop, which serves the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury and Coventry Telegraph, as a new streamlined editorial process is brought in.

The system, which has been trialled by Trinity's north west titles, allows reporters to write directly onto templates for story pages, the publisher explained.

The editorial losses also include a reduction in the number of photographers for Trinity's Midlands titles and a small reduction in staff for its weekly titles in the region.

"As many of these [redundancies] as possible will be sought through voluntary means," the publisher said in its statement.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned the cuts, which it says are worse than anticipated and are in addition to 17 redundancies announced in July and 70 in 2008.

NUJ members at the affected titles will meet tomorrow afternoon, the union said.

“It is the latest - and worst - betrayal in a long line by Trinity Mirror of its Midlands operations and is nothing less than the corporate equivalent of self-harm," said NUJ northern regional organiser Chris Morley in a statement.

"The company was hell-bent on an outcome aimed at saving vast, unrealistic and unsustainable sums of money from the start, irrespective of the damage this could bring to the newspapers, websites and the staff that work on them.

"It appears the consultation was a sham and used as a smokescreen to mask management planning for the assault on jobs and even the pay of journalists."
In addition to the newsroom cuts, approximately 42 posts at the division's transport, distribution and newspaper sales departments will be lost.

As part of the changes to the Midlands division Birmingham Post editor Marc Reeves and Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson have both chosen to leave their positions.

Dyson, who has spent 17 years with the company, will stay on until December to help bring in the proposed changes; Reeves will oversee the Post's move to a weekly title until the end of 2009.

The Post will now encompass a 100-page minimum weekly title and launch 'a daily online breaking news and comment service', according to the release.

In a blog post at the start of the consultation period, Reeves, who has overseen the relaunch of the Post's website and the development of its social media presence, suggested that a switch to weekly publication - rather than than moving to a daily title with fewer pages - would be a better option for the Post and its readers, even though it meant retaining fewer editorial jobs.

In addition to Dyson and Reeves' announcements, Dave Brookes, Coventry Telegraph editor, will become editor of the Birmingham Mail and editor-in-chief of all Trinity's Birmingham titles.

The former Sunday Mercury editor will be replaced at the Telegraph by Darren Parkin, who is currently editor-in-chief of Trinity's Coventry weekly series.

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