Archant paper in talks over plans to merge staff on two regionals

Archant management are set for talks with NUJ representatives later today over proposals to merge staff and cut jobs on its regional newspaper titles the Ipswich Evening Star and East Anglian Daily Times.

Job losses are expected if plans for the Suffolk newspapers to share a pool of reporters and feature writers go ahead.

Proposals exist to combine elements of the newspapers' production while continuing to publish separate web and print editions for each title.

Archant confirmed that a meeting between management, the NUJ and representatives of the staff of the Evening Star would take place later today.

Fears exist that production roles at the Evening Star could be taken over by non-journalism staff if sub-editors from the paper are made redundant.

Staff at the Star, which already has a shared sports desk with the Daily Times, could face a round of redundancies over the next two months as part of plans to close the paper's printing presses and office by the end of the year, the papers' NUJ representative said.

"We will oppose any redundancies and oppose the introduction of non-journalism staff doing journalism tasks," said Martin Chambers, secretary of the National Union of Journalists' (NUJ) Suffolk branch, told Journalism.co.uk.

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