Local newspaper operator Newsquest has announced another round of cuts affecting its operations and titles in Cumbria.
The papers affected are the Cumberland News, Carlisle News and Star, and the Westmorland Gazette. Newsquest’s operations in the region have already been severely reduced following a previous round of cuts saw sub-editor, photography and reporting staff positions wiped out.
The UK’s National Union of Journalists reacted to the news, issuing a statement. In it they said; “Newsquest Cumbria is currently consulting on a proposal to make four of our feature writers redundant, replacing them with a reporter working across the group on features and entertainment content. Three of those involved work in our Carlisle newsroom, working for The Cumberland News and the News and Star, as well as our website.
“All are talented, highly experienced regional journalists, with more than 60 years of experience in their profession between them. They are trusted by many influential local people, and all have a profound knowledge of their community. One is currently nominated for his feature writing in this year’s O2 North West Media Awards.
“Should the redundancies go ahead, they will leave our Carlisle newsroom with just two senior journalists in full-time writing roles on the news side of the business. This will will damage our reputation in the community and therefore our business. It will severely limit our ability to provide quality journalism, leaving our titles largely dependent on junior staff and non-journalist contributors, who provide free content, some of it commercially driven.”
This latest announcement from Newsquest comes following the company’s acquisition of CN Group, with the NUJ‘s northern and midlands senior organiser, Chris Morley pointing out that the loss of jobs “has been staggering and undermined the claim at the time that the deal would enable the business to carry on ‘providing first class content’.
“What has been evident is that years of journalistic experience and know-how has been stripped out of newsrooms for the inconvenient reason that it is deemed too expensive to employ in news gathering.”