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Independent's plan to restructure comment desks puts 13 jobs at risk
Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk, Thursday 7 February
DATELINE: 7/2/13
Thirteen jobs are at risk at the Independent as part of plans to merge the comment and Indy Voices desks, the National Union of Journalists has said. Barry Fitzpatrick, the NUJ deputy general secretary, said he was "deeply concerned" at the cost-cutting measures, outlined in an email to staff on Thursday. The Independent's NUJ chapel said last week it would ballot for industrial action if compulsory redundancies were made.
Plans to merge the two desks include the appointment of a new editor for both by the end of this week, according to the NUJ email. Katherine Butler is the Independent's comment editor; Amol Rajan is editor of Indy Voices, which was launched last year to compete with online rivals including guardian.co.uk's Comment is Free and Mail Online's RightMinds sites."The NUJ are deeply concerned about the lack of information and consultation involved in the changes to jobs at he Independent newspaper," said Fitzpatrick.
"It is simply not fair to treat a workforce in this way. It is very difficult for people to make decisions about their future career when they have not been given the chance to see any of the details."
It is not known how many journalists will work on the new merged desk, according to the NUJ email to staff.
The online comment initiative has helped grow traffic to the Independent website by more than a third since January 2012, to 970,899 daily browsers, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures released last month.
The Independent had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Last modified: Thursday, February 7, 2013
Your comments:
The main problem at The Grauniad and The Obs is that its highly-paid Editor-in-Chief is obsessed with digital first strategy, despite all the overwhelming evidence that this simply will not make any real money. The media is spending 80% of its R&D budget for at most a 5% increase in revenue.
Where Editors have stopped major stories going straight to digital, they sell substantially more copies. For example, a couple of years ago the Birmingham Evening Mail's then Editor, Steve Dyson, stopped a national exclusive on Aston Villa going onto the web for two days & sold an extra 20K copies that nite (that makes another £7K).
This insanity won't stop unless our members are prepared to oust Rubbisher.. He (and his precessor Peter Preston) weren't the best candidates. If they don't, there will be further major rounds of redundancies next year and the year after. The Scott Trust only has enough cash flow for another three or four years.
Yours fraternally,
Bro Chris Youett,
Business & IT hack
Posted by: Chris Youett via Barry White: 8 Feb, 2013 16:01:25Meanwhile, journalists on the Guardian and Observer have voted overwhelmingly for strike action over compulsory redundancies.
More than 80 per cent (81.6%) voted for strike action over the redundancies and to defend existing terms and conditions at the two titles.
Guardian News & Media said it needed to cut 100 editorial posts as part of a plan to make £7million savings to the annual budget. The NUJ, in negotiation with the management, has so far halved that target through agreed voluntary redundancies. The union has also asked for those identified as under threat to be put on a redeployment register.
Posted by: Barry White: 8 Feb, 2013 14:50:17
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World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
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UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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Previous stories
Journalism
John Witherow is appointed new editor of the Times
Guardian to become the most expensive mainstream 'quality' daily
Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks face Operation Elveden charges
70 journalists killed in six months
A victory for investigative journalism as PCC rejects complaint by Bell Pottinger
Sly Bailey to leave Trinity Mirror
A story for World Press Freedom Day - Imprisoned for telling the truth
News channels granted legal challenge to police call for Dale Farm footage
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How did Michael Delaney die, Mr Murdoch?
Fresh questions overshadow launch of Sun on Sunday
NUJ New Media website
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MPs urge council newspapers probe
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