Trinity Mirror Axing Up To 85 Journalists In Birmingham, 10 Commercial Staff

The Birmingham Mail

If you thought the severe cuts in the newspaper industry last year and in the early part of 2009 were the end of the matter, think again. As promised by CEO Sly Bailey, Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) is still on the hunt for savings to make its £25 million target for this year, so it is making up to 85 jobs redundant at the Birmingham Post & Mail. The company warns that (via Guardian.co.uk) that the papers are set to lose £6 million in 2010 and that the losses could slide to £10 million if nothing more is done.

This means that even after 65 jobs were cut at the Post & Mail last year, an investment of £7.5 million and a 30 percent reduction in running costs, thanks to new working patterns devised by IBM, the papers still aren’t closer to profitability. Note the timing of the announcement: Thursday’s regional ABC results are likely to show a decline on the Post’s six-monthly daily average of 12,000 copies in H208, and no doubt executives have already heard the bad news.

So something’s got to give: more staff are leaving and the company is considering changing the Post from a morning paper to a weekly, and the Mail from an evening to a morning title — this just 10 months after the Post relaunched in print and online as a business-focused title. It’s also 10 months since both papers moved into new offices promising streamlined, cross-platform working practices. In July, Trinity shut 12 newspapers in the Midlands, shedding 94 jobs.

And it’s not just editorial staff that are feeling the pinch: the job reductions include 10 sales staff at Amra Trinity’s national sales agency for regional media, according to Media Week. The division handles sales for 180 newspapers and 300 websites, including those owned by Trinity and other publishers. The redundancies are voluntary; six are in London while four are in Manchester.

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