Trinity Mirror to make 45 redundancies across Midlands & Scotland
Trinity Mirror is to make around 45 posts redundant across the UK, The Drum has learned.
The publisher has confirmed that 20 roles will be lost in Scotland while the NUJ has revealed that 25 posts will also be lost in the Midlands – 19 jobs in Birmingham and six jobs in Coventry as part of a newsroom restructuring.
A letter to staff from Trinity Mirror said: "These proposed changes are based on an evaluation of the rate of growth of our digital audiences, demand for digital content and the level of content we need for our printed editions. In the restructured newsroom, each and every member of the team will be fully focussed [sic] on building their digital audience and therefore their contribution to our digital growth. The emphasis will be on a flatter management structure, multi-skilled teams and more agile ways of working."
Simon Edgley, managing director, Trinity Mirror Midlands, said: “The proposals we have shared with colleagues today are quite significant in the change in structure we need to equip ourselves as a flexible, multi-skilled newsroom of the future. The decision taken to implement these proposals has not been taken lightly, it is necessary for us to adapt to commercial challenges and provide a structure that gives longer term sustainability of the business.”
On the Scottish restructuring, a Trinity Mirror spokesperson said: “While Media Scotland is seeing record growth in digital audience and revenue, we need to carefully manage our cost base in what is a challenging market. We are therefore proposing some changes which may mean the reduction of some editorial roles, mainly in management and production, a number of which could be voluntary. There are no plans to make any changes to our print portfolio.”
A message from Allan Rennie, managing director, Media Scotland and seen by The Drum explained that the restructure will impact the sports department, regional titles, print production and the studio. He also explained the expectation that reporters write for online purposes in the first jnstances and that the Paisley Daily Express would see the creation of an executive editor role.
"The Record and Sunday Mail move to a single Scottish edition structure with the exception of regional adverts," Rennie also explained.
A spokesperson told The Drum that the company hoped many of the redundancies would be voluntary.
Last month Trinity Mirror was ordered to pay victims of phone hacking, £1.2m and revealed that it had increased the money set aside as a provision for such fines to £28m