The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

NUJ

Northcliffe Media restructure plans condemned by NUJ

Author

By The Drum Team, Editorial

November 29, 2011 | 2 min read

The NUJ has condemned plans by Northcliffe Media to restructure its newspaper titles following the collapse of the sale of Kent Regional News and Media.

The proposed sale to Kent Messenger Group failed to go through at the end of last week, which will see the two weekly titles now close on 9 December, while weekly newspapers within the group will merge and free titles closed and redundancies made.

NUJ general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet said: “The Northcliffe model of media ownership takes a sledgehammer approach to local news provision. Northcliffe has inflicted cut after cut, trampling over quality journalism and local democracy in the process. If these plans go ahead yet another community will be denied their local paper.”

NUJ Assistant Organiser, Don Mackglew said “Northcliffe’s announcement could have great repercussions for the regional press. We have already seen in the last couple of weeks announcements of closures of regional titles across the Midlands and the North West and now it is happening into the heartland of Kent. How many more titles will disappear over the next 12 months?”

“The morale of the journalists at KRNM is already low since the proposed sale was announced in the summer and the uncertainty when the sale fell through, and this latest announcement now puts jobs at risk.”

The NUJ expects to hold talks with Northcliffe management on Friday.

NUJ

More from NUJ

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +