REDUNDANCY 2008: A TIMELINE
June 18: Six jobs to go as Northern Echo, Darlington, scraps four of its five daily editions. The same day eight editorial jobs are axed at Newsquest’s York Press.
June 19: Johnston Press’s Central Counties Newspapers in Aylesbury announce a shake-up at its Midlands newspapers affecting 34 jobs.
July 15: Ten editorial jobs under threat at The Argus in Brighton as two daily editions cut to one.
August 6: Around 30 editorial, sales and distribution jobs are under threat at The Scotsman Publications in Edinburgh.
August 28: Archant announces 21 jobs are to go in its Norfolk division.
September 3: Daily Mirror sheds eight jobs from news and picture desks.
September 8: Around 30 jobs under threat at Trinity Mirror titles across North Wales and the North West. Seven weekly papers to close along with nine district offices.
September 10: Daily and Sunday Express and Star titles in London to lose 80 jobs, including more than half the sub-editors.
September 11: Three staff made redundant at the Johnston Press-owned Shoreham Herald.
September 18: Times Supplements make nine journalists redundant.
September 23: The Kent Messenger Group is to make 10 per cent of its 640-strong workforce redundant and close six regional offices.
Channel 4 axes 150 jobs to save £100 million.
September 25: ITV announces cull of 429 jobs around the regions of England and Wales as regulator Ofcom indicates green light for cuts in news and current affairs programmes.
October 6: 12 journalists’ jobs under threat at Newsquest London weeklies including the Waltham Forest Guardian, Wanstead and Woodford Guardian and Epping Forest Guardian.
October 14: Five journalists’ posts at risk as Archant Suffolk pools content at the East Anglian Daily Times, Evening Star and local weeklies.
October 15: Newsquest Bolton, Bury and Leigh to make five editorial staff redundant. This includes reporters, subs and photographers.G
October 21: Four editorial staff to leave Newsquest’s Bucks Free Press after job review at Newsquest titles in the south east.
Financial Times to lose 60 jobs, mostly in commercial departments and the library. In December FT offers short-time working to prevent redundancies.
October 27: Midland News Association, publisher of the Wolverhampton Express and Star and the Shropshire Star, to cut 120 jobs.
November 7: 28 jobs are to go at papers in Newcastle and Teesside as Trinity Mirror plans single integrated newsroom. Five district offices will close.
November 12: Daily Mail & General Trust is set to cut up to 300 staff across its London-based newspapers — the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, London Evening Standard and freesheets Metro and London Lite — as part of a 15 per cent budget cut. Eight staff are to be made redundant at the Dublin office which publishes the Irish Daily Mail.
Ten sub-editors jobs at risk as Newsquest Hampshire creates a centralised subbing unit across daily and weekly titles.
November 13: Lord Heseltine’s magazine publisher Haymarket, which publishes trade titles including Campaign and consumer titles such as FourFourTwo, axes about 50 jobs across the company.
Time Out magazine in London cuts 13 staff — 8 per cent of the workforce.
November 13: Trinity Mirror-owned Media Wales, which publishes the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the Celtic series of weekly papers, says it will shed seven editorial jobs — on top of 17 jobs lost earlier this year and a further eight vacancies which have not been filled. Journalists vote to hold a strike ballot if any members are threatened with compulsory redundancy.
November 14: Magazine group Emap’s Inform division, which publishes 21 magazines, is to lose 40 staff, 10 per cent of its workforce. About 20 of the jobs will be editorial.
The Independent in London is set to axe 90 jobs, the majority of which will come from editorial.
November 18: 80 jobs to go at the Cambridge News, Burton Mail and associated weeklies, managers at the Iliffe-owned titles confirm, about 40 each in the Staffordshire and Cambridge centres.G
November 21: Managers at the Northern Echo and its sister weeklies announce the loss of 17 editorial posts and the closure of five district offices as well as a pay freeze. NUJ members vote unanimously to hold a ballot for industrial action to fight cuts across the group.
November 24: Eight editorial jobs at risk under cost-cutting plans at the Midlands free weekly Observer Standard group.
Trinity Mirror is looking for 35 voluntary redundancies across its Scottish titles, the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail.
TM announces that it has axed 1,200 jobs and closed 44 titles in 2008.
November 25: Channel Island daily the Guernsey Press sheds ten jobs.
November 26: Job cull at the Torquay Herald Express sees three sub-editors lose their jobs.
November 27: Trinity Mirror announces plans to cut 78 posts in the north-west of England and north Wales, 59 are editorial posts — 43 on Merseyside, eight in north Wales, four in Cheshire and four in Huddersfield.
Cumbria Newspapers announces it is to shed 30 jobs and freeze pay. The group publishes the News and Star, Carlisle, and the North West Evening Mail, Barrow, and weeklies including the Whitehaven News, Cumberland News and Hexham Courant.
November 28: Around eight editorial jobs expected to go at Newsquest Bradford.
December 3: The BBC announces 70 job cuts in Scotland — on top of 96 already implemented, with negotiations on these only ending in September. Twenty posts in news and current affairs are among those targeted.
December 4: The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times in Glasgow want to get rid of 40 journalists, cutting their numbers from 250 to 210. All are told they must apply to keep their jobs.
Newsquest announces job cuts on weekly papers in Wales — with two to go in Milford Haven and one at Ammanford.
December 8: Four editorial redundancies are being sought by Newsquest from a staff of 22 at the Hereford Times and Ludlow and Tenbury Wells Advertiser.
This comes to about 2,000 jobs — though not all are editorial; in some cases the union does not have a breakdown of jobs.