Twenty-three redundancies are being sought at The Irish Times website, ireland.com, as part of a plan to reduce financial losses for 2002 by £1.8 million.
The announcement was made at a meeting yesterday of website employees by the chief operations officer, Ms Mary Mangan, who said a review of the company had shown a need to achieve redundancies along with significant savings in non-payroll costs.
In a statement afterwards, Ms Mangan said: "The overall focus of the revised plan for ireland.com is to ensure the success of the company and maintain as many jobs as possible as we go forward."
The 23 redundancies, from a total of 56 positions, would save £500,000.
The National Union of Journalists said it did not accept that sweeping job cuts were the automatic response to the crisis in The Irish Times or ireland.com
Mr Michael Conway, chapel spokesman, said: "The NUJ does not accept shedding 23 jobs is the best solution if we are to preserve ireland.com's first-class reputation." The NUJ's Irish organiser, Mr Seamus Dooley, said: "In any restructuring the need to maintain ireland.com's deserved international reputation for excellence must be paramount. Alternative forms of reducing costs must be examined."
