The introduction of Trinity Mirror’s Newsroom 3.1 to its Merseyside titles could put seven jobs at risk, the NUJ has claimed.
The company has announced a 30-day consultation period following the adoption of the scheme which sees content created to hit “key digital audience spikes” throughout the day and then be edited and packaged into the print titles for the following day.
The National Union of Journalists says that the changes – which have already been rolled out in other parts of the country by Trinity including the North East – will create one job for a digital story editor but require the loss of three subs, two reporters and one sports reporter at the Liverpool Echo and a reporter on the Wirral News.
There were eight compulsory redundancies when Trinity introduced the new digital-first process in its Newcastle and Teesside newsrooms.
Chris Morley, Northern and Midlands organiser, said: “Our members have known a Newsroom 3.1 restructure was coming, but the announcement has still come as a blow with an apparent substantial net loss of jobs if the plans are carried out as they are.
“This is in contrast to other centres where welcome investments in additional journalists’ jobs were made. We will be reminding management that digital output needs quality journalism just as much as newspaper production does if it is to be successful.
“Our members are at full stretch now, so we will be working hard with management to understand how they believe they can do more with less.”
