Global Radio starts another round of redundancies

Global Radio has implemented a further round of jobs cuts, which will mainly affect backroom staff at the group’s Xfm and Gold network of stations.

Global declined to comment on specifics but the total number of job losses are expected to be between 20 and 30 staff on the two station networks, which have struggled to keep listening figures up in recent years.

However, Global will also make members of the online team redundant, and is thought to be looking at even further job cuts in its marketing and design departments.

According to reports, the changes will mean that Xfm will be run by the programming team in charge of Capital, while Gold will come under the Heart Network.

Global, which is headed up by Ashley Tabor, was forced to make a large number changes and job cuts last year following its £375 million purchase of GCap Media.

A spokesperson for Global Radio said: “Global continues to evolve its structure to suit its new business model. This is in line with our strategy and it is the responsibility of the board to drive efficiencies where possible.

“This, as well as the current economic climate, means it is appropriate for us to constantly evaluate and adapt our structure to ensure our continued success. Unfortunately, this sometimes means the company has to take some tough decisions.”

The Xfm network, which used to be made up of four regional stations, has now been reduced to just two stations – one in Manchester and one in London.

In the latest RAJAR release, the overall Xfm network shed over 22.5% of its listeners year on year, although it remained relatively static period on period, at 863,000 (see BBC Radio 2 remains top national station).

The Gold Network, which was created after the merger of Capital Gold and Classic Gold in the summer 2007, was down by 19.5% year on year in the same period to 1 million listeners.