AS reported as breaking news on allmediascotland.com, early yesterday evening, all but a handful of employees at the Herald group of newspapers – The Herald, the Sunday Herald and the Evening Times – have been made redundant and invited to re-apply for their jobs.
The move – announced yesterday afternoon on the first day of new editor-in-chief Donald Martin’s tenure – involves 250 staff. There are around 210 posts they can go for.
Martin was appointed editor-in-chief on Tuesday, after having previously been editor of the Evening Times.
Paul Holleran, Scottish Organiser of the National Union of Journalists, was quoted on the BBC website, describing the move as a “brutal attempt at forcing changes”, referring to moves to merge the production of all three titles into one entity.
He is further quoted: “No-one in the workforce will be surprised that this is the first action of the new editor-in-chief, Donald Martin. To say he’s getting off on the wrong foot is the understatement of the year.”
This morning, he wrote to colleagues: “I met Tim Blott [Herald group managing director] last evening and held wide-ranging talks about the whole situation.”
