Up to 75 editorial job cuts planned at Mirror titles and People

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Trinity Mirror has announced plans to cut 75 full- and part-time editorial staff from across its national titles, the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and the People.

The company announced a "wide-ranging" editorial restructure today which will see the creation of a "centralised reporting and production hub" to serve all three titles.

A Trinity Mirror spokesman was unable to say how the 75 planned job cuts will be divided between the three titles, which employ a total of 400 staff, as the publisher is currently in consultation with affected staff, but a statement issued today said bespoke editorial teams will be retained to work solely on each of the three titles.

Sub-editors are very likely to be affected, with the proposed restructure including plans to increase the amount of sub-editing outsourced to the Press Association.

The hub, according to today's statement, will allow for "greater flexibility of staff working patterns over seven days" as the publisher introduces a new seven-day rota. The proposals include the introduction of a new "peak-time resourcing" plan, which the company said would allow its national titles to respond more efficiently to peak periods of production and give editors access to a greater number of reporters.

Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, will take on responsibility for the new hub as well as retaining his editorship of the Mirror. Along with Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver and People editor Lloyd Embley, Wallace will continue to report to Mark Hollinshead, managing director of Trinity Mirror’s Nationals division.

According to Trinity Mirror, the proposals will "ensure the national titles are able to meet the economic challenges facing the industry and the technological revolution changing the way that readers obtain information".

They follow the publisher's 2010 introduction and investment in its ContentWatch editorial management system, which it said today "streamlines the production process and facilitates efficient online publishing".

"ContentWatch helped transform the newsroom and, using this as a foundation, these new proposals aim to create an even more efficient multimedia operation which will ensure a successful and sustainable future for Trinity Mirror’s national titles."

The National Union of Journalists called the planned cuts "massive", and criticised the publisher's top salaries including chief executive Sly Bailey.

"In a shock announcement this afternoon staff across all three titles were summoned to a meeting to be told of the cuts, which will see the centralisation of subbing and production across all titles and the pooling of features and news.

"The cull comes at a time when the total directors’ pay and pensions bill for Trinity Mirror last year was £3.9million - £1.3million of which was cash bonuses. Of that, Sly Bailey's package of pay and pensions was a staggering £1.7m, including a cash bonus of £660,000. However, the share price for Trinity Mirror today is 48p whereas 12 months ago it was 90p.

Michelle Stanistreet, the union's general secretary said the cuts "represent a depressingly familiar tale at Trinity Mirror".

"Rather than invest in quality products – and continue to build on recent growth in circulation on the Sunday titles – the strategy is to cut jobs and compromise quality journalism. Where is the strategy for growth and the future? Journalists are paying with their jobs for the corporate mismanagement and incompetence of Sly Bailey and her senior executives – yet still they continue to award themselves lavish pay."

The union said it will be organising meetings of members to discuss its response.

Today's announcement follows 35 non-editorial job cuts across the publisher's Scottish titles, announced last month as part of plans to close five offices and merge the separate business under one entity, Media Scotland. In November last year there were almost 50 job cuts announced from the publisher's Midlands regional newspapers.

In December it announced both a pay freeze for 2012 , following a "challenging year" in 2011, and the creation of 20 new digital roles in a regional restructure.