THE AXE DROPS // BORIS JOHNSON OFFERS HIS SUPPORT

We have had another round of redundancies announced at one of our south London offices.

This time, MD Roger Mills decided to make the whole of our sports and leisure team redundant, one news editor out of the two we have left, one web designer out of two, and one commercial features writer/sub editor - eight journalists in total.

The announcement came despite the fact that the editorial department devised a revenue-generating idea, which could potentially earn Newsquest at least £1.4 million a year nationally.

The idea was presented to Newsquest London and national bosses last week, with the intention of generating money and saving our jobs, and will be put into practice from Tuesday (sales staff have already been trained to do it), as they accepted it works and may be extremely profitable.

So they have accepted the new idea, are putting it into practice, but have refused to give us any time to find out whether it works and may help save our jobs.

This week, Mayor of London Boris Johnson came out in support of our newspapers.

He said: "As someone who has been involved in journalism for all of his professional life, I think what local papers do is absolutely crucial in keeping local people informed about developments in life and their area.

"Most people get their information from local papers and I hope whatever Newsquest are doing, and I wouldn't like to second guess their reasons for it, but I hope it will not affect the excellent coverage of news provided across the series."

News reporters will be required to take on sports and leisure, but the NUJ chapel has already made clear we will not accept any extra workload.

Mr Mills is clearly dismantling our newspapers in London, apparently to make savings of £210k by the end of June. From what I have been told in meetings with senior management, Newsquest operates with quarterly targets, which regional MDs must meet, and which is an incredibly short-sighted way of conducting a business in our chapel's opinion.

The NUJ has long claimed that all profits made by Newsquest nationally are passed on to our parent company in America, Gannett and the ever increasing demand for higher profits by their shareholders makes it impossible for Newsquest to continue delivering a meaningful service in the local newspaper industry.

Proof of it is the fact that our editorial space continues to shrink, our staff is being made redundant and our newspapers are soon to be turned into advertising leaflets with the odd news story crammed in.

Our much-loved titles (Croydon Guardian, Richmond and Twickenham Times, Surrey Comet, Kingston Guardian, Epsom Guardian, Sutton Guardian, Wandsworth Guardian, Wimbledon Guardian and Streatham Guardian) will not be able to hold councils to account, cover meaningful and relevant stories, carry out investigations, cover court cases, crime, education and other areas - we will not be able to provide the service good local newspapers are expected to deliver.

Moreover, graduates fresh out of journalism courses or NCTJ training will be at risk of missing out on the excellent training still provided in local newsrooms, a true stepping stone for news reporters aspiring to get a steady foundation in this industry.

Our strike ballot's result will be announced on Tuesday, May 31, and I will update you as soon as I get it.

Background:

Members of the NUJ across Newsquest's south London titles have been working to rule since April 15. They voted in favour of industrial action after management failed to reach an agreement with the union on four issues.
Following an announcement that editorial space would be drastically reduced from February this year, members of the union feared for the jobs of reporters across all sections, news editors and sub editors.
The union sought guarantees from management that there would be no redundancies and that editorial space would be increased.
Members also demanded the 2pc pay rise due in April, after Newsquest lifted its three-year long pay freeze nationally.
The fourth issue related to moving offices from North Cheam to Sutton. Many members of staff saw their train fares increase by up to 30pc, but have been denied financial support from the company to cope with the change for a period of time after the move.
Union members offered Newsquest an extra hour of work per day to run alongside the work to rule, to show their commitment to producing high-quality newspapers, but managing director Roger Mills has not yet replied to the offer.
The union has also offered to take the dispute to ACAS, but again, Mr Mills failed to respond to this date.
Four journalists who have either left or taken voluntary redundancy will not be replaced and more redundancies have just been announced.
We have a total of 38 journalists working across two offices - Sutton and Twickenham.

VINCE CABLE 'VERY CONCERNED' ABOUT NEWSQUEST LONDON'S REDUNDANCIES

Business Secretary Vince Cable said he was “very concerned” to hear about planned redundancies at the Richmond and Twickenham Times, one of Newsquest south London’s titles.

The Twickenham MP said: “It’s a very important part of the local community and the Richmond and Twickenham Times has long been a highly regarded local paper with a good record. It is something that binds the community together.

“I know it has been under financial pressure for a long time because of the internet and problems with advertising but this is very worrying news - I’m very concerned about it.”

Last week, NUJ members voted unanimously to ballot on strike and two senior managers at Newsquest South West London were hit with unanimous votes of no confidence in the wake of an announcement of further redundancies at the company.

Members took the action against managing director Roger Mills and director of advertising Dene Stuart following the decision to make an unspecified number of editorial staff redundant while the group's titles continue to make substantial profits.

Members believe the redundancies, which will take place within the next three months, are a direct result of mismanagement by Mr Mills after he took on responsibility for Newsquest East London and Newsquest London in addition to his role as Newsquest South London MD.

They have also lost confidence in Mr Stuart over his failure to implement new ideas to bring in revenue through the group's well read newspapers and websites.

The redundancies have been ordered by Mr Mills despite Newsquest recording profits of £71.7m in 2009, a third of which is provided by its London arm.

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STRIKE BALLOT

Following an announcement of redundancies in Newsquest south London, which includes all the titles mentioned in this blog's header, our NUJ chapel unanimously voted to ballot on strike, on Thursday, May 5.

We'll keep you posted.

NEWSQUEST LONDON'S ACTION IN THE NEWS

Our industrial action has been in the news - stories have been published by the Press Gazette, Hold the Front Page and Journalism.co.uk.

You can read them here:

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=47064&c=1

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2011/news/strike-ballot-to-be-held-after-redundancies-announced/

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/south-london-newsquest-staff-vote-unanimously-for-strike-ballot/s2/a544019/

VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

We have passed a vote of no confidence in London managing director Roger Mills and advertising director for south London Dene Stuart on Wednesday, May 4.

Here are the letters sent to them on behalf of union members:

Dear Mr Mills

This is to notify you members of Newsquest South West London's branch of the NUJ unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in you yesterday afternoon.

The vote followed the announcement that a further wave of redundancies will come into force across the group's south west London titles in the next three months, despite these titles continuing to make substantial profits.

Members believe there is no basis for making these redundancies given the group's profitability, and feel you have made the decision after becoming out of touch with day-to-day managing in South West London after taking on your roles in East London and London-wide.

We feel your continued reliance on cost-cutting to increase profits shows little of the vision which would be expected of a senior manager in other private companies.

While editorial staff have consistently worked above and beyond their contracts to create decent, sellable products which are respected in the community, they have seen scant leadership qualities from you in return.

This lack of respect for the quality of our products runs in direct contrast to the policy of your predecessor Howard Scott - a valued managing director who was never properly replaced when he left last year.

*********************************************

Dear Mr Stuart

This is to notify you members of Newsquest South West London's branch of the NUJ unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in you yesterday afternoon.

The vote followed the announcement that a further wave of redundancies will come into force across the group's south west London titles in the next three months, despite these titles continuing to make substantial profits.

Members believe there is no basis for making these redundancies given the group's profitability, and have lost confidence in your ability to implement new revenue-making ideas at the group to lead us out of the recession.

These financially straightened times were not unexpected, and there has evidently been no substantial planning to combat any loss of revenues.

We are hugely concerned that a number of very good ideas were thought up by senior management at a 'brainstorming' session three months ago, but as far as we are aware have not been implemented.

While editorial staff have consistently worked above and beyond their contracts to create decent, sellable products which are respected in the community, they have seen scant leadership qualities or vision from you in return.