Newsquest has announced plans to fire all subeditors and replace them with "multi-skilled, cross-platform journalists".

According to the Press Gazette, the changes will take places at the following papers, Epping Forest Guardian, the Waltham Forest Guardian, Wanstead and Woodford Guardian, the Enfield Independent and the Borehamwood Times as well as the free Bishop Stortford Citizen and Waltham Forest Independent.

The new multimedia journalists will be responsible for "writing news and features; subbing and designing pages; shooting video; taking pictures; working the new content management system; blogging and writing news stories online; processing pictures for print and for the web and looking after trainees."

The multimedia journalists will have 31 point job descriptions which as been criticized as "ridiculous" and "horrendous" by one staff member at Newsquest. According to Press Gazette the new journalists will now "have to specialize in every area of the newsroom instead of being specialists in one area."

According to Newsquest managing director, Andy Thomas, the restructuring will allow the papers and staff to "take advantage of technology to introduce new workflows that will more readily meet the needs of the business".

According to NUJ assistant organizer Don Mackglew, "It is clear that they are not interested in their employees' wellbeing, but only interested in saving money and closing local offices. The new proposals will certainly increase the workload for the remainder of staff and affect the quality of journalism across all the titles."

Sources: Press Gazette