NUJ accuses Northcliffe Media of 'betraying' staff over subbing cuts

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Northcliffe Media management have "betrayed" staff, the NUJ said today following reports that more than 50 sub-editing jobs are at risk on regional titles run by the publisher. In a release , the National Union of Journalists said it "condemned Northcliffe Media's announcement that over 50 staff may be sacked" as part of changes to the group's nationwide 'superhubs' operation, introduced 18 months ago. According to a report by Holdthefrontpage.co.uk , staff were informed yesterday of the proposals, which include plans to move some page-planning and design subbing roles back to the individual newspapers.

"Most of the production hubs are set to survive in some form, although some will only be used to provide emergency back-up, 'disaster recovery' and sickness cover," the report adds.

"The creation of the six nation-wide 'superhubs' last year, each handling subbing and other production operations for a number or titles resulted in swathes of redundancies at that time, with 'luckier' staff simply having to go through huge upheaval, moving their homes and families, in order to keep their jobs," the NUJ release says.

"The NUJ warned that this move would be destructive with the loss of crucial local experience and the remote nature of operations from the communities they were seeking to serve.

"This has been a betrayal of loyal staff who were forced to make hugely difficult choices to keep their careers at the cost to their personal and families lives."

NUJ Northern and Midlands organiser Chris Morley added: "Northcliffe management are guilty of gross incompetence in driving through a discredited hub system that anyone with any sense knew would fail, and now, just 18 months later, that is exactly what has happened.

"While we welcome a return of production back to its communities, this has come at yet another unacceptable cost - the loss of another key layer of experienced journalists and loading of more tasks on those left such as already overstretched reporters.

"This is hugely damaging – not just for staff who have been left bewildered by the company's topsy-turvy actions but also, crucially, for the cities served by the affected titles.In Nottingham, for example, the Nottingham Post now has only 11 reporters compared to 25, four years ago."

Northcliffe Media declined to comment.