UK: Journalists' union launches crisis summit

Posted by Rosemary D'Amour on November 28, 2008 at 1:27 PM

The National Union of Journalists representatives from the UK's "big four" newspaper groups will be holding a crisis summit Saturday following a "spate of job cuts across the regional press" in an attempt to offset an economic fallout.

Union representatives from Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, Johnston Press and Northcliffe will hold the meeting in London with NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear to find a "plan of action," including lobbying and possibly strikes, against an onslaught of redundancies facing the region.

Hold the Front Page reports that the "shake-up" of Trinity Mirror Northwest has cut 78 jobs, and senior management has been severely reduced at Newsquest. 30 jobs have been "axed" at CN Group in addition to eight jobs at the Observer Standard group and ten jobs at the Guernsey Press. Sub-editors are "under threat" at the Herald Express.

The goal is to create "short-term concrete plans" and "long-term plans and ideas" during the meeting, Dear said.

The union wishes to create a "political campaign about the future of local media," Dear said, "which we believe has a vital role but which local media companies are happy to allow to wither away."

Source: Hold the Front Page