Telegraph Makes 90 Editorial Staff Redundant In Reshaping
The Telegraph Group has announced a “major re-shaping” across the entire company, designed to cut costs and raise funds for an ambitious investment of £150 million in new production facilities and improved colour printing.
The move is the biggest change to be introduced to the company since it was bought by the Barclay brothers last year. Amongst the cuts will be redundancies for around 90 of the company’s journalists, with staff cuts also being made in non-editorial departments.
Explaining the move in a letter to the company’s staff, Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of the Telegraph Group, said that the company needed the investment to survive and prosper in the future. The newspaper boss also stated that total pagination across the company’s papers will be increased by eight pages, and that the newspapers will get an extra eight pages of colour.
He said: “We will invest in the new production facilities to provide full colour newspapers to meet the aspirations of both our readers and advertisers. The £150m investment programme will be funded in part by a major re-shaping exercise across the entire organisation. This will see the number of journalists in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph reduced by about 90. Staff savings are already being implemented in non-editorial departments.”
The job losses will be handled through a formal consultation process between the company, it’s journalists and their representatives. The Telegraph Group claims its redundancy terms are “generous”, including pay in lieu of notice periods and redundancy payments calculated at four weeks’ actual pay for each complete year of service, up to a maximum of 52 weeks.
Justifying the redundancies, MacLennan said: “Journalists are the lifeblood of any newspaper and maintaining the quality of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph for our readers is vital. However, action to improve our production capability and secure our titles against the competition is also vital. That is why the measures of the kind we anticipate have the complete support of our editors.”
The two newspapers currently employ a total of 521 journalists on their staff, the redundancies will reduce that number by 17.2% to 431.
The Daily Telegraph has proved successful in attracting young and upmarket audiences in recent months, with data from the National Readership Survey revealing increases of up to 50% in the much sought after 15-24 age group (see Telegraph Sees Growth In Young Readers).
Telegraph Group: 020 7538 5000 www.telegraph.co.uk
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