NUJ to Richard Desmond: sell Express Newspapers to someone who cares
The National Union of Journalists has called on Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers, tosell his titles "to someone who cares about journalism."
The NUJ believes Desmond is wilfully running his newspapers into the ground and its attack on the press magnate comes three months afterit called him "Britain's greediest billionaire".
The reason for the union's anger in July was the announcement of that Desmond's media company Northern & Shell was aiming to save about £10m from its annual bill by cutting 30% of the staff - some 200 jobs - on the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star andDaily Star Sunday.
At the time, N&S had just realised £463.3m from the sale of Channel 5 while its newspapers employees had spent six years without a pay rise.
The renewed anger comes in the wake of the discovery that N&Smade an operating profit of £37m in 2013. Although the wage and salary bill stayed almost flat at £78.7m, five directors received £1.96m in remuneration.
"Morale among his staff is at rock bottom," says the NUJ statement, which is hardly surprising. The union is gathering evidence of hardship faced by journalists across the four titles because of the pay freeze.
It is also planning to carry out a survey into workload pressure and stress following editorial cuts.
Laura Davison, the NUJ's national organiser, points out that the N&S's health lottery is draining money. It made an operating loss of £28.4m on revenue of £26.5m last year. Overall, it has lost £80m.
She says: "Why should journalists lose their jobs so he can prop up his failing health lottery? The NUJ believes the papers deserve a proprietor who values them and secures their future using the ideas and skills of the people who work on them, both in print and digital.
"Now the company is in profit, perhaps it is time for him to sell the titles to someone who actually cares about newspapers and quality journalism.
"In the meantime, there should be a moratorium on these cuts and meaningful negotiation over a strategic plan for the future of the titles, including a proper pay rise for staff."
Evidently, the NUJ is due to meet Express Newspapers' management for talks on Monday (13 October).
One special area of concern is about the declining situation at the Sunday Express. Its editor,Martin Townsend, is away ghosting Desmond's autobiography. The deputy editor, Rachel Jane, is on maternity leave.
So the paper is being edited by the hard-pressed news editor Stephen Rigley who has little more than 10 staff to call on.
A staff member told me: "It's meltdown here. We can barely produce a paper. It's a tribute to Stephen and the rest of my colleagues that the paper comes out.
"We don't know what Desmond wants, apart from the revenue of course. He shows little interest in theSunday Express. We would love it if he sold it."
He claimed that "things are going to get worse" at ExpressNewspapers because some of the most skilled members of staff, especially in the digital division, have volunteered for redundancy.
More people would have applied, he said, but for the fact that pay-offs are capped at £40,000.
Sources:NUJ/Private information