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Trinity Mirror integrates Midlands' newsrooms resulting in job losses

Posted: 19/08/08 By: Laura Oliver

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Trinity Mirror is to integrate the online and newsroom operations of its Midlands newspapers resulting in a series of journalist job losses.

The introduction of a new editorial structure will 'require substantially fewer journalists' and voluntary redundancies will be sought.

The company will enter into a period of consultation with staff and union representatives about the job cuts, a press release from the publisher said.

"Despite the gloss put on it by Trinity Mirror, today’s announcement represents a massive blow to journalism in the Midlands," said Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), in a press statement.

"Let’s be clear: Trinity Mirror is cutting back on quality at its newspapers in pursuit of short-term, share price driven goals. It just goes to show how little the company values its readers in comparison to the demands of the City.

"Whatever the company may claim, you simply can’t take dozens of journalists out of your local operations and continue to report news to the same standard. Bosses at the company are sacrificing quality journalism to appease the short-term whims of the financial markets."

As a result of the changes the papers will be served by a single integrated newsroom and a centralised production unit.

A central multimedia desk will be created to take control of editorial content for the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury with particular responsibility for online platforms.

A similar hub will be developed to produce content for its Coventry-based titles, while a regional production unit will oversee the multimedia desks' work.

In addition a new work process of 'content creation, multimedia desk, page finishing' will be implemented and staff will receive multimedia training.

"The entire media landscape is changing at an unprecedented pace, which demands that we develop imaginative, new ways of producing content for our print titles and web sites. The changes we are implementing in Trinity Mirror Midlands represent a pioneering new approach to publishing. They will enable multimedia journalists to contribute content to a broad range of titles and across a variety of platforms," said Neil Benson, editorial director for Trinity Mirror Regionals.

The new set up will be based on the integration of Trinity's Media Wales division in April

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