WITH a second tranche of applicants still to learn whether they are to receive voluntary redundancy from the Herald group of newspapers, details of who was successful from the first tranche are beginning to emerge – and the significant impact their departures are expected to have on the titles.
Last week, allmediascotland.com reported that Ian Bruce, defence correspondent at The Herald, and Alan Campbell, sports writer on the Sunday Herald, had both been successful in their bids for voluntary redundancy.
It was also reported last week that both the first and second tranches of applicants had added up to around 50 names.
Among those successful from the first tranche is Allan Laing, deputy news editor at The Herald and who has been at the paper for 34 years, plus Graeme Smith, The Herald’s north-east correspondent, who is also a long-server: approaching 30 years.
The voluntary redundancies follow staff reorganisation plans, announced last month, which required all but a handful of staff to re-apply for around 40 fewer jobs at the group’s Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times titles.
Herald TV critic, David Belcher, is also going, as is Ken Seaton, deputy chief sub-editor on the Evening Times.
