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Manchester Evening News staff are 'devastated' by the announcement of 150 job cuts , including 78 journalism jobs, the National Union of Journalists mother of chapel at the paper, Judy Gordon , told Journalism.co.uk.

22 weekly papers within MEN Media, a subsidiary of Guardian Media Group, will have their production centralised at the paper's Scott Place offices, staff were informed today in a series of meetings led by MEN Media management.

39 jobs will go at the Manchester Evening News and another 39 will be cut at the weeklies, it was announced today.

The weekly papers will continue to be produced, but will be sub-edited and designed at the Manchester Evening News offices at Scott Place, Manchester, by a combined pool of journalists across the titles.

While the redundancies have not been announced as compulsory, it is feared by staff that not enough people will come forward voluntarily, and so cuts will have to be enforced, Gordon told Journalism.co.uk.

In a statement released by the Guardian Regional Media Group , its chief executive, Mark Dodson, said that the decision had 'been a very difficult one to make'.

"MEN Media's role is to produce great journalism for our readers, users and viewers in Greater Manchester. If we want to continue to be able to do this, we need to find a new, sustainable, lower-cost business model to support it. The economic viability of local and regional newspapers is under very real and imminent threat.

"(...) I deeply regret that it [job losses have] been necessary. Nonetheless, I do believe this is the right decision for MEN Media's future and for the majority of staff who will remain with the company," he said.

The news follows the announcement of a company-wide pay freeze , a move condemned by the Guardian and Observer NUJ chapels, who have proposed a motion of no confidence in the GMG board: "for announcing a pay freeze - which amounts to a pay cut of probably 3 per cent - while at the same time rewarding themselves with personal bonuses of up to 30 per cent of salary and greatly enhanced pension contributions."

The motion, which has been seen by Journalism.co.uk, also criticised the way in which management had made a 'naked attempt to bypass the chapels' in announcing the pay freeze.

"For the Scott Trust to allow such devastating jobs cuts like this to profitable regional newspapers that play a vital democratic role is totally unacceptable," a new statement from the Manchester Evening News and Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers National Union of Journalists (NUJ) chapels said today .

"For decades the Guardian has survived thanks to creaming off profits made by the Manchester Evening News and its weekly satellite newspapers.  Trying to squeeze every penny of profitability out of regional newspapers, with no thought to the effect on journalists' ability to do their job, flies in the face of the Trust's values and the principles behind the Guardian's liberal journalism," the statement continued.

"There is some hard talking to do now. We cannot stomach a pay freeze for the masses alongside bonuses for the top table," Judy Gordon, and the weeklies' Father and Mother of Chapel, Joe Slade and Bethan Dorsett, said in the statement.

"We anticipate real, practical difficulties producing our weekly newspapers alongside the MEN. We fear for local democracy and for the damage to  regional journalism," they continued.

"We are also completely opposed to compulsory redundancies and will not tolerate the sacking of any journalist. Management needs to understand that. They need to talk to us quickly and constructively about how we can avoid compulsory job losses. If they don't, we are in for a torrid time," the mothers and fathers of chapel said.

Staff in Manchester 'have been told that they are cutting there to protect the Guardian', an NUJ official told Journalism.co.uk. The Guardian pay freeze is still being discussed by members, the NUJ confirmed.

The Guardian NUJ chapel is refraining from further comment while talks are in progress, a representative confirmed today.

Meetings at the GMG titles in Surrey and Reading - the Surrey Advertiser and Reading Evening Post - are expected to take place tomorrow.

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Written by
Judith Townend

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