THE Edinburgh office of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail is to close, as part of a streamlining exercise that has also identified 35 commercial and business administration posts – such as telesales, merchandising and reception – at risk of redundancy.
The move follows the creation last month of Media Scotland by newspaper publishers, Trinity Mirror, bringing together its national and local newspapers in Scotland, plus its websites, under the one umbrella organisation.
In a memo to staff, Mark Hollinshead, managing director of Trinity Mirror’s national newspapers division and also MD of Media Scotland, writes: “Many of our offices are not fit for purpose and as a result we will be closing the Dumbarton, Airdrie, Edinburgh, Irvine and Paisley offices. With the exception of Dumbarton, which will close at the end of February, the other offices will close at the end of March. As a result, some staff will transfer to Central Quay [the Daily Record and Sunday Mail’s head office in Glasgow] and some will transfer to other offices within our portfolio.”
For editorial staff in Edinburgh, the options are: working from home, from Trinity Mirror’s office at the Scottish Parliament and from the publisher’s West Lothian Courier newspaper office in Bathgate.
The Paisley office is the home of the Paisley Daily Express, which is part of Trinity Mirror’s network of local newspapers that used to operate under the banner, Scottish & Universal Newspapers, before its incorporation into the wider Media Scotland company.
There is to be a centralised telesales team, operating out of Central Quay, brought in from around the country.
One aim of Media Scotland is for greater sharing of editorial between its national and local newspaper titles.
Adds Hollinshead: “These changes form a crucial next step in the development of our new company as we work to shape Scotland’s biggest publishing business.”
