10 redundancies at Guardian News & Media

Posted by Helena Humphrey on December 11, 2009 at 5:20 PM

At least ten redundancies have been confirmed at the Guardian News & Media group, as part of a plan to reduce the operation of 1,700 by 100 over the next year.

In an email to staff sent yesterday, managing director, Tim Brooks wrote:

"I can now confirm that all conversations in commercial departments have taken place. Although many of the decisions have been driven by the need to reduce our costs to a more sustainable level in line with our reduced revenues, another key factor has been the need to create a more efficient structure for GNM."

Those set to go include the group's head of sponsorship, events and marketing operations, Sara Rhodes, who will continue on an occasional freelance basis, and Viv Taylor from the Human resources department who is starting up her own business and will continue a professional relationship with the group.

The roles of head of consumer and commercial marketing, web producer and audio development manager have been cut, alongside positions in the research and customer insight teams and accountancy.

The news comes as little shock as GNM has always made clear that it is also in the process of restructuring, and further redundancies are set to follow. Job losses across GNM's editorial staff will not be known until next year following the closure of the voluntary redundancy scheme on 31 December, with 68 employees so far having chosen to go.

Source: Guardian