Bristol News & Media: Existing home of the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press (Picture: Lewis Clarke)
Up to 11 journalists are to be made redundant at the Bristol Evening Post (BEP) and Western Daily Press (WDP) newspapers, in a wide-ranging shake-up which will see content for the West Country’s morning regional publication managed from Plymouth.
Staff at the Temple Way offices of Bristol News & Media were warned on Friday in an email from editor-in-chief Mike Norton that changes were to be made – with redundancies a likely outcome.
In meetings this afternoon, staff were told that the WDP news desk would be moved to Bristol with the loss of two jobs. The news desk staff were invited to apply for the three positions open in Plymouth – 120 miles away.
WDP editor Andy Wright – who joined the paper in October 2005 following the resignation of Terry Manners – is to take early retirement.
Alan Qualtrough, the current editor of the Plymouth-based Western Morning News (WMN) – the regional daily paper for Devon and Cornwall – is to become editor-in-chief of the two titles. The WDP would retain its own independent editor following the shake-up, reporting to Mr Qaultrough.
Production of the WMN will move in the opposite direction to the existing sub-editing hub at Bristol, which will be replicated in Plymouth – where the The Herald, Plymouth, the Herald Express, Torquay, and the Express and Echo, Exeter, will be produced. More than 20 sub-editing posts in Torquay and Exeter potentially are at risk, while five jobs will be created in the Bristol hub to sub WMN pages. Production of WDP pages will remain in Bristol.
Meanwhile, in Bristol, two reporters from the BEP are expected to lose their jobs, while three sports sub-editors and staff working on digital publications are also under threat.
Editor of the BEP, Mr Norton, said the changes would “have a positive effect on the Western Daily Press. While the paper’s content will not change, it will be driven by a new content desk with a radar screen covering the entire South West”.
The WDP will be redesigned along with the WMN to give the two papers a similar look and feel, which Mr Norton added could bring “a new lease of life and an exciting new era for the Western Daily Press”.
The changes announced today come almost exactly one year since around 40 journalists were made redundant from the BEP and WDP – a reaction to the slump in advertising caused by the recession and falling circulation figures.
Hardest hit, the WDP lost most of its independent reporting staff – with two district reporters in Somerset and Wiltshire, and two desk reporters in Bristol remaining.
The move, staff were told at the time, was to “secure the future” of the WDP. While it has survived the recession so far, recent figures showed circulation of the title – which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008 – were down more than 10% to just over 34,000 copies per day.
The BEP meanwhile saw sales fall 7% in the latest ABC figures, to just over 43,000 copies a day – a fall reflected nationwide, with only two out of 86 daily regional titles managing to increase sales between July and December.
Another unfortunate example of a 'regional' media outlet being de-localised. In particular it enrages me when Mr Norton claims that the new paper will have a 'radar screen covering the entire South West' Is it reasonable to accept that Bristolians and the Cornish face exactly the same issues?
The plight of the regional newspaper is saddening.