Unemployment levels have been on the rise over these last years, impacting all industries. Print publishing has not escaped this struggle and is forced to make the same sacrifices. Newspapers such as The Telegraph are investing more in digital publishing and cutting their print publishing to counteract their current losses and stay up to date. Could this be the beginning of the end for print publishing?
The Trinity Mirrors are making cuts of up to 75, full and part time, editorial jobs within their newspapers; People, Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror. With the economic struggles and success of digital publishing the Trinity Mirrors feel these cuts are necessary. The company’s priority is to cut staff from their voluntary departments first as much as possible. Trinity Mirrors, aiming to make as many cost effective changes as possible, will look into the partial merging of these three newspapers, as these are currently three separate titles.
“The Daily Mirror editor, Richard Wallace, will take on management responsibility for the merged "content and production hub" in addition to his current role.”[The] restructuring proposals for its UK national titles which represent the next stage in its aim to create one of the most technologically advanced and operationally efficient multimedia newsrooms in Europe," Trinity Mirror said a statement. The publisher added that the new operation will give editors greater "flexibility" and "increase the range and depth of regional coverage" with the recruitment of a number of district reporters.” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/01/trinity-mirror-job-cuts
The Independent is trying to avoid what they call ‘compulsory redundancies’. The National Union of Journalists has successfully negotiated between management to avoid this issue. The Independent’s aim to create a ‘seven day operation’ will put as many as 25 jobs at risk. This number was calculated from the ideal cost cuts the company are aiming to make.
"I am happy to confirm that we are now confident that if those taking voluntary redundancies complete documentation drawn up on the basis of agreements already reached with them, compulsory redundancies will not be necessary to achieve the savings required by the company in the changes to a seven-day operation," said Doug Wills, group managing editor of the Independent, Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard.” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/04/independent-avoid-compulsory-redundancies
The National Union of Journalists has stated these cuts will make The Independent the smallest editorial team within a national newspaper.
“ "We still have serious concerns about the editorial quality and individual identity of the newspaper titles once the seven-day integration takes place," said Barry Fitzpatrick, deputy general secretary of the NUJ. “But importantly we have stopped people being forcibly pushed out the door." “-http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/04/independent-avoid-compulsory-redundancies
The Times are also amongst these publications with their struggles and are aiming to cut at least 20 of their editorial jobs. These job cuts will leave less than 10% of the paper’s editorial team unemployed in an aim to cut costs and reduce losses. Unlike other publications the Times and Sunday Times will not be merging as there are too many editorial reasons and commercial benefits gained from keeping them separate titles. The Times have previously relied on their losses being subsidized by the profits of other International titles, for instance, The Sun. The choice to subsidize any losses is no longer an option for these publications as the other companies are not making the profits they used to either.
“John Witherow, the Times acting editor, has told staff that the age of News Corp titles being subsidised was coming to an end.” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/10/the-times-cut-20-editorial-jobs
“Times Newspapers' latest accounts show a total loss of £28.7m for the year to 1 July 2012 up from £11.8m the year before on turnover of £361m. This included a charge of £12.7m for a redundancy scheme and its operating loss for the year was £13.3m, up from £9.5m in 2011. The last round of job cuts at the Times and Sunday Times resulted in about 100 editorial posts being axed in late 2011 out of a total of 700 across the two titles.” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/10/the-times-cut-20-editorial-jobs
Cuts are continuously being made across all suffering print publishing companies. The majority of these losses are a likely result of the changing economy. This has resulted in print publishing being put on the back burner for now, due to digital publishing being cheaper and more convenient for the customer. Although the economy plays a vital part in the success of a business this could just be a case of print publishing becoming outdated, when faced with the growing success of digital publishing.
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