About 20 journalists’ jobs are understood to be under threat in the Irish business of publishing group Reach which owns the Irish Mirror and Star newspapers as well as a number of related websites.
The proposed redundancies are part of a major restructuring across the UK group which was formed when Trinity Mirror bought the Star and Express titles in 2018. Some 600 editorial jobs are said to be “at risk” overall with more than half that number − 321 − expected to go.
The company said it will create about 135 new roles as it pivots to place a greater emphasis on video, audio and web content. It said it will endeavorto redeploy those impacted by job losses where possible.
The move is not the first by the company to cut jobs and redirect resources. However, in a memo to staff on Monday, the group’s chief content officer David Higgerson said it would be the largest to date.
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“The changes we are seeing in the landscape right now demand a wholesale change in how we operate and how we tell stories,” he said. “For our editorial teams, we will need to adopt a different way of working from top to bottom. 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.”
The company has told staff it will enter a consultation period with them during which voluntary packages will be available but it is understood it will then seek to make up any shortfall through redundancies.
The NUJ described the proposals as a “devastating body blow to staff”. The union’s Irish organiser, Ian McGuinness said it would be seeking a meeting with management and would work to save as many jobs as possible.
The editorial operations at the Irish Star and Irish Mirror have been undergone a good deal of restructuring since 2020 when Reach bought its 50 per cent stake in the Star. The Star was owned until then by Independent News and Media and the combined organisation is small with about 100 staff in total based in its Dublin and Belfast offices.
Concerns have been expressed by the NUJ about the workload that will have to be endured by staff that stay on.
There has been a sustained reduction in the number of journalism jobs over the past 20 years as the impact of declining print sales, ad revenue and alternative news sources have been felt at the sector’s larger employers.
In Ireland, both The Irish Times and Irish Independent have shed jobs over the past year or so with a small number at the latter cut on an involuntary basis. RTÉ is currently running a larger programme as part of restructuring intended to cut wider staff numbers by about 400 over the next five years.
Reach, which also owns some of the UK’s best known local papers including the Birmingham Mail, Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News, employed more than 2,000 editorial staff at the end of last year. It said some of its cuts would be achieved by centralising design and production across multiple titles.
