Personnel Today risks 12 jobs by dumping print edition

Reed Business Information (RBI) title Personnel Today is to drop its print edition putting 12 jobs at risk.

The magazine will go online-only after its 29 June issue. The most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures for the title suggest an average net circulation of 43,633 for July 2008 to the end of June 2009.

The publisher told Journalism.co.uk that 12 jobs were at risk but would not confirm if these were purely editorial posts or a mixture of editorial and non-editorial roles. Four new jobs will be created, resulting in a net loss of eight positions at the title.

The Personnel Today Awards and sister print titles Occupational Health and Employers Law will be unaffected by the changes. The cuts follow one editorial and one editorial support redundancy at the title announced by RBI in November last year.

A source close to RBI told Journalism.co.uk that the publisher is blaming the migration of recruitment revenue online, which suggests there is no longer a market for a quality print weekly.

In February 2008 parent company Reed Elsevier announced the sale of RBI and its UK magazine publishing arm. The sale was later terminated with Reed Elsevier citing poor market conditions.

In April 2009 RBI UK announced a voluntary redundancy programme, as part of plans to cut 50 staff. These proposed cuts came in addition to 35 planned redundancies announced in January last year.

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