NUJ asks Richard Desmond to rethink '70 editoral job cuts'

The National Union of Journalists has called on Richard Desmond to think again about an alleged bid make £5 million savings and cut 70 editorial posts at his four newspapers.

The Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, owned by Desmond's company Northern & Shell, will see sections axed and a number of desks merged, according to the union.

London newsrooms are said to be in line to lose 27 staff positions and the equivalent of 18 long-term casual positions, the NUJ reports, with Glasgow to cut 12 staff and six casuals, "representing almost a third of its staff in the Scottish office", and Broughton in Lancashire to lose two staff and 10 casual members of staff. 

The NUJ Express chapel met yesterday (Tuesday, 27 March) to discuss the cuts announcement and passed a motion rejecting the proposals.

According to the NUJ, the cuts will see:

• The publication of all weekly city pages axed while retaining the Wednesday and Sunday finance sections.
• The combining of sports desks for both daily titles at the London office.
• The combining of property sections for the Sunday and daily titles.
• The combining of motoring across all titles.
• A combined travel desk across all titles with sub-editing to cease in London and be undertaken at another office within the company.

February figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation showed the Daily Star Sunday doubled circulation in one year. For more on recent circulation figures of the Express and Star titles see circulation reports from Journalism.co.uk here.

The NUJ's motion passed yesterday states:
 
"This chapel rejects management's proposals for job losses and seven day operations in certain sections across the Express and Star titles. 

"Richard Desmond presented himself to a commons select committee as a responsible publisher but we deny that he can be any such thing when he is prepared to run four profitable national newspapers down to a point where they will no longer present value for the reader.

"We do not believe that Express Newspapers should be affected by the allegedly disappointing performance of the health lottery, one of the reasons given verbally to NUJ representatives for the cuts.

"We are also ashamed to see management seemingly running up the white flag and capitulating to the Murdoch empire's price war; another reason given for the proposed redundancies.

"We demand that Mr Desmond not only lays out a plan for the future of the titles but that he ends the four-year pay freeze and grants his employees a long-overdue rise."
 
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary added in a statement: "We are not surprised by Richard Desmond's greedy cuts for profit strategy.

"Desmond does not care for media jobs or quality journalism. Our industry needs investment and growth – not media barons like Richard Desmond who use the media to fill their own pockets and take away people's livelihoods." 

No one from Northern & Shell had responded to a request for information at the time of writing.

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