More jobs to go at Johnston Press in the North

Journalists at Johnston Press centres in South Yorkshire and Humberside face more job cuts under plans unveiled to staff today, says the NUJ.

The cuts, part of 18 redundancies sought across South Yorkshire Newspapers, would have most impact on the weekly South Yorkshire Times, according to the union.

The NUJ says the proposals include closure of the Goole Courier's office and the reduction of the editor's role at both Goole and Mexborough leaving a single editor based at the Selby Times' office to manage all three titles.

In addition,a reporter's role at Mexborough as well as an editorial assistant's post would be cut. Journalists working at the Doncaster centre for the sister Sheffield Star title are also being told that they will now report to the Doncaster editor-in-chief, as well as Sheffield editorial management.

The NUJ added that the company has blamed the cut-backs, which it wants to conclude within a month, on "underperforming advertising and circulation" and the need to reduce costs.

NUJ members will be holding an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the developments.

Chris Morley, NUJ Northern & Midlands Organiser, said: "These proposals show how flimsy are Johnston Press's claims to believe in local journalism to serve the communities where its newspapers circulate. How can a newspaper and website properly engage with the town when it has no editor?

"The ironic element here is that in this announcement, the company has chosen to attack the editorial department of one of the best performing title for circulation in its stable. The South Yorkshire Times has fought hard for its reputation as a campaigning newspaper that digs out stories people want to read but this seems to cut no ice with the corporate bean counters."

• More grim news for regional newspaper jobs. HoldtheFrontPage reports today: "Trinity Mirror is set to axe 26 jobs in Newcastle as one of its flagship evening titles moves to early-morning printing. The Newcastle Evening Chronicle, currently printed mid-morning, is to move to a single-edition structure with the aim of getting the paper into shops 2-3 hours earlier. It will mean a restructure in the editorial department that places 11 jobs at risk of redundancy, with a further 15 print jobs also under threat."
• On Monday the NUJ warned of a journalism jobs meltdown across the industry, in broadcasting and print, even before the latests job cuts were revealed.
  

MP calls for Parly debate on plight of local press

Enfield North Conservative MP Nick de Bois has called on Parliament to hold a debate on the ownership of the local press and the pressures facing newspapers trying to cover public bodies.

DeBois asked in the House on Thursday: "May we have a debate on the ownership and effectiveness of local and regional newspapers—including mine, The Enfield Advertiser and the Enfield Independent—since many editors throughout the country feel they are unable to scrutinise local public bodies? While it is not our role to run newspapers, I believe that, given the pressures on the industry, we should debate the implications of this serious matter."

In reply, Sir George Young said: "I would welcome a debate in Westminster Hall, or initiated by the Backbench Business Committee, on the health of local newspapers, in which we all have an interest. My hon. Friend’s question did not make it clear why they were impeded from reporting on certain matters, but if he writes to me, I will see what I can do, in conjunction with my right hon. Friend the Culture Secretary."

The Enfield titles are owned by Sir Ray Tindle's North London and Herts newspaper group which is facing fresh strike action from NUJ members who claim low staff levels are harming the quality of their papers and threatening their future.

The MP's website says: "With a large number of local newspaper editors expressing their concern that they are unable to regularly scrutinise local public bodies such as Councils and Courts (not to mention Members of Parliament!) Nick felt it right that parliament should have the time to explore the problem and its impact on localities."

He comments: "It is not the Government's role to run local newspapers, but local and regional newspapers do have an incredibly valuable role to play in supporting local democratic accountability and I would like Parliament to have the chance to highlight this and see if and how government may be able to help."

Grey Cardigan's on Twitter and he's had a scoop

That crusty old Evening Beast chief sub Grey Cardigan, the curmudgeonly columnist for Press Gazette, has joined Twitter @thegreycardigan and he's already had a Northcliffe scoop....

Editor caught out by reversed cricket report slip-up

Northern Echo editor Peter Barron is quick to say sorry to his readers today after a production error meant a cricket report was printed backwards.

He writes on his blog: "There are times when it's best to get the embarrassment over and say sorry as quickly as possible. Today is one of those days.

"Our report of the Nottinghamshire versus Durham cricket match has been printed in reverse. It looks like a foreign language but it's in English if it's held up to a mirror.

"I actually shouted across the newsroom 'Howzat happened?' before I realised the irony of my first word. There was a third word in between but it's probably best to gloss over it.

"The page was proof-read as normal but it seems that a button was inadvertently pressed at the point of transmission to our print centre with the result that all the text has appeared backwards."

Peter is known for his headline competitions. The headline on his blog is: 'Backwards step for our cricket coverage'

Torquay switch to weekly could herald more frequency changes for Northcliffe's daily papers

Speculation that Northcliffe is considering switching a number of its dailies to weekly or bi-weekly publication will intensify with the news today that the company's daily Torquay Herald Express is to go weekly from next month.

HoldtheFrontPage reports that the last daily edition of the Herald Express, which has an average daily circulation of 21,112, will be published on Friday 15 July, and around half of the current 32 editorial jobs on the paper will go. The first weekly edition will be published on Thursday 21 July.

It follows a review by new Northcliffe managing director Steve Auckland who tells HTFP: “The move to weekly for the Herald Express is part of our strategy to respond to the market and improve the long-term performance of the business."

Northcliffe took the Bath Chronicle weekly in 2005 and Trinity Mirror's Birmingham Post has also converted from a daily to a weekly.

Speculation within Northcliffe is that it is not just the low circulation dailies that could go weekly. It is believed that some big dailies in parts of the country badly hit by the recession could be forced to change frequency because they are no longer bringing in the resources to finance a daily operation.

Any switch in frequency is likely to have a big impact on the number of journalists employed on the dailies.

Rumours that Northcliffe might be considering turning some its dailies weekly surfaced in February as one of its daily papers advertised for staff on short term contracts.

More recently speculation centred on the West Country titles, with Torquay and Exeter mentioned as Northcliffe dailies that could go weekly.

Outside Northcliffe, there has been speculation that Trinity Mirror's Liverpool Daily Post might go weekly.

Sun dubs Panorama 'Scamorama' over 'fake' film

The Sun seems gleeful today in its coverage of the BBC having to apologise to Primark over using film in a Panorama programme about child labour being used to make cheap clothes that was, according to the BBC Trust, "more likely than not" faked.

I wonder if it's got anything to do with Panorama's investigation Tabloid Hacks Exposed which was broadcast in March.

It was billed by the BBC as "Panorama exposes the full extent of the 'dark arts' employed by journalists across the industry to get their story" and also looked at the phone-hacking scandal at the Sun's sister paper, the News of the World.

Primark has hit back at the BBC with its own site giving its side of the story.

Quotes of the week: Digital-first to deep-fried Mars

Guardian editor-in-chef Alan Rusbridger: “By becoming a digital-first organisation we’re taking the next natural step, one which we believe all newspapers will eventually have to take.”

Tom MacMaster after admitting he was the writer of the A Gay Girl in Damascus blog: "I never meant to hurt anyone. I am really truly sorry and I feel awful about this. Words alone do not suffice to express how badly I feel about all this. I betrayed the trust of a great many people, the friendship that was honestly and openly offered to me, and played with the emotions of others unfairly. I have distracted the world’s attention from important issues of real people in real places. I have potentially compromised the safety of real people. I have helped lend credence to the lies of the regimes. I am sorry."

Guardian readers' editor Chris Elliott after the A Gay Girl in Damascus blog was shown to be a hoax: "We know that when using social media – as we will continue to do as part of our journalism – the Guardian will have to redouble its efforts in establishing not just methods of verification, but of signalling to the reader the level of verification we think we can reasonably claim."

Henry Porter in the Observer on the phone-hacking scandal: "Don't let vested interests tell you this story doesn't matter: it does – to all of us, because on this issue rests the future health of politics, journalism and our society."

Emily Bell, interviewed by AdWeek on the diffrences between journalism in the UK and US: "Somewhat to my shocking surprise, journalism is taken much more seriously in the States. I think it has a lot to do with the Constitution and the First Amendment. I think people actually feel strongly about freedom of expression, and they feel strongly about having a free press. The idea of balance and rigor is very different from the U.K., where the [print] press tends to be much more competitive, much more biased in terms of how it presents its reporting. Broadcasting is the opposite."

Former Scotsman editor John McGurk on allmediascotland: "On a quiet Monday, The Scotsman is unlikely to sell much more than 30,000. The Johnston Press share price hovers at 5p, pricing the whole empire at little over £30 million while labouring with some £350 million of debt. Remember, they paid £160 million for The Scotsman alone in 2006, leased the building and then got rid of the presses. Their only real asset in Edinburgh is the title and today that is worth a pittance."

Roy Greenslade in the Evening Standard: "Most significantly, there is precious little money flowing towards news websites. Bloggers may well point to the broken business model of newspapers - but they have no alternative themselves thus far."

A police spokesman after a Manchester Evening News photographer was arrested while covering a street brawl: “A photographer was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace and on suspicion of obstructing a police officer. Officers brought the situation under control and the photographer was de-arrested and subsequently released.”

From a new pamphlet by the I'm A Photographer, Not A Terrorist! campaign: "As photographers working in public places, we are still treated with a suspicion that is undeserved and not experienced by most citizens going about their daily business. The unjust laws need to be challenged, as do the private security guards who routinely prevent us from working. We must continue to defend the right to document the world around us."

Julie Burchill in the Independent: "I can't explain why I enjoy being disliked; it might have something to do with being an adored only child and growing up with an almost sociopathic sense of self-esteem. Verbal humiliation for me is what flagellation is for judges; when you feel so impervious, what could be more exotic than, momentarily, being treated like the lowest of the low?"

Sarah Harrison, of WikiLeaks, on Julian Assange's bail conditions: "I'm British and I'valways been proud of our justice system. But this is just wrong. This is a man who hasn't even been charged and he's being treated like a caged animal."

Brian Aitken, editor of The Journal, Newcastle, on HoldtheFrontPage: "I guess the most far-reaching story of mine was revealing the deep-fried Mars bar to the world. I didn’t actually write the story because I wasn’t a reporter at the time but I told the Evening Express newsdesk about this craze that had started amongst pupils at Mackie Acedemy in Stonehaven in the fish and chip shop across the road from where I was living. Our story was picked up by the Daily Record the following day – and then it went global. The Journal’s latest campaign is the Great North Fitness Revolution which is aimed at reducing the obesity levels of the people living in the North East. You could say that is penance for me."