Journalism community rallies around those affected by Reach's redundancies

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The journalism community is banding around those affected by the latest wave of redundancies announced by Reach plc.

The UK news group is considering making 321 existing roles redundant and creating 135 new roles in what it describes as "the biggest reorganisation it's ever undertaken". That's a net loss of 186 roles across the company. It's a recurring pattern for Reach in recent years.

Job cuts include award-winning journalists who were leading innovative work and earning the respect of their peers. How does this make sense for the future of Reach plc?

David Higgerson, chief content officer, said via email: "For our editorial teams, we will need to adopt a different way of working from top to bottom, as we match our resources to our ambitions. It will mean that some jobs will sadly no longer exist, many will change, and around 135 new roles will be created, many in our live news network and video teams."

In an email sent to Reach plc staffers - seen by Journalism.co.uk - Higgerson underlined the company's priority growth areas: news where people live, developing loyal audiences, improving distribution and insights for video, an expanded "content hub", deeper coverage of sports and clubs, diversified revenue across digital subscriptions and affiliates, and streamlined production and operations.

Strength and solidarity

Losing your job sucks. Many in innovative roles, such as social media video and audience engagement, have said they have been affected and are now on the lookout.

Keep an eye on our jobs board for the latest opportunities in the media sector. But can you help? Do reach out to those made redundant if you are hiring - after all, there is a lot of excellent talent about to hit the market.

In the meantime, there have been many offers of career advice and coffee meetings from across our community.

Jon Birchall, who spent seven years with Reach and is now social innovation and strategy lead at Channel 4, described the news as "terribly sad" and offered to help affected colleagues.

Sam Morshead, a journalist with more than 15 years industry experience, provided a bounce-back opportunity for affected journalists.

He created CounterPress as a publishing platform which hosts his local sports team website The Moonraker. The numbers speak for themselves: 13 months in and his site has earned 600 subscribers at more than 90 per cent retention.

Other journalists can set up their own site through CounterPress removing a lot of the heavy lifting. More on the platform here.

Louise Ridley, now editorial director at The Female Lead, offered a listening ear from firsthand experience as someone who has been made redundant three times in her 17-year career.

Will Hayward, a former Welsh affairs editor for Reach plc title Wales Online, reminded everyone that he is running a scheme for Welsh investigative journalists that is still open for submissions. More details here.

Sarah Probert, a freelance media consultant with more than two decades of experience across Reach titles - most recently as executive editor of Birmingham Live - urged affected colleagues to maintain confidence in their abilities.

Jem Collins, director of JournoResources, generously offered one-to-one support and a three-month free membership that offers, among other things, free access to training courses.

Is AI taking our jobs? Reach says no

As part of the changes at Reach plc, BBC reports that despite the cuts, the news group saw £27m in pre-tax profit for the first half of 2025, citing AI-driven content recommendations that contributed an additional 10 per cent of page views.

When asked to what extent AI would feature in the new 135 job roles, Reach plc stated that the job cuts are not directly linked to artificial intelligence adoption, despite ongoing industry concerns.

However, Reach continues to invest in AI tools and recently appointed a specialist to oversee newsroom AI strategy. To that end, AI could feature in new roles. But the company maintains that its AI strategy reflects the company striving to be a tech leader and to make journalist workflows easier.