Another blow to regional press as Midland News Association seeks a further 50 redundancies
In another jobs blow to the UK’s struggling regional newspaper industry, Midlands News Association (MNA) has revealed it is seeking 50 voluntary redundancies across all departments from January.
Midland News Association, which publishes the Express and Star and Shropshire Star, had already made 90 staff redundant at the Wolverhampton and Telford-based titles earlier this year -and 40 of these pay-offs were compulsory.
The two evening newspapers are among the country best-selling regional titles.
Media website HoldTheFrontPage quotes managing director Alan Harris as saying he is hoping most of the cuts will come through non-replacement and voluntary redundancy.
However, he said he couldn’t rule out compulsory job cuts.
Harris said: “This comes against a difficult trading year in the past year and we’re expecting 2012 to be just as challenging.
“We are hoping to get this through a strict non-replacement policy and voluntary redundancies.”