UK's Independent News & Media to cut 90 jobs in restructuring

The scale of the crisis facing the newspaper industry was highlighted yesterday when Dublin-based British print media company Independent News & Media PLC said it plans to axe more than a fifth of its staff.

Around 90 jobs are to go at its London newspapers, the Independent and the Independent on Sunday, out of a workforce of 430. Of these, 60 will come from the papers' 230 journalists.

"It is anticipated that the final number of redundancies will number around 90, of which a sizeable number will be voluntary, and the total savings will be in excess of £10 million ($15 million)," it said, adding that the moves would come into effect by early 2009.

It is believed that most of the journalists to be axed will come from the ranks of production staff such as sub-editors, with few reporters expected to leave when the cuts are implemented early next year. Although the company said a "sizeable number" would be voluntary departures, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) called for guarantees that no one would be forced to quit.

Chief executive Sir Anthony O'Reilly, who along with associated parties, owns about 28 per cent of the group, runs Independent News & Media. The publisher is under pressure to cut costs and debt in a difficult economic climate. Shareholder Denis O'Brien, a telecommunications entrepreneur who has a 26 per cent stake, said last week that Independent News & Media should sell its UK papers because they are "destroying a good business."

Instead, the group has decided to go in for a major restructuring involving job cuts and greater integration between the two papers to save costs. Last month the company said the two London newspapers would start sharing some services with other UK publishers to cut costs and make editorial workflows more efficient. It also plans to sell its stake in Australasian radio and newspaper group APN News & Media Ltd to cut its debt by about 800 million euros ($1 billion).