» Independent to retrench 23

Independent to retrench 23

December 4th, 2008

Three weeks ago, I reported that the Independent group were planning to merge all their sub-editing rooms into one national subs room. This was confirmed today in a note from Star Editor-in-Chief Moegsien Williams which also said they were aiming to reduce their editorial staff by 23.

Williams had declined to return my calls or emails on this subject, as had others at The Star. But his note yesterday said that “the company today started a consultation process with editorial production staff on a restructuring proposal. Once properly consulted and approved, the process will lead to the establishment of a centralised subbing operation for the group’s daily and weekend titles as well as all inserts.”

Implementation date for the national subs room is March 1, 2009.

Williams blamed the economic downturn: “The company’s trading position has been worsened by the steep decline in the SA economy in recent months. Our expectation is that the negative trading situation will persist into 2010.

“These conditions have given rise to the search for efficiencies in all disciplines. In this regard, Independent has taken substantial steps to centralise its back-office operations, outsource ad production and cut costs in a number of areas. The retrenchment of editorial staff has become unavoidable even after deep cuts to the editorial cost base. In this regard, vacancies have been frozen, group operations curtailed and lifter services have been slashed,” he wrote.

He added a brief one liner to try and alleviate anxiety: “The company and I undertake, however, to deal with the matter as quickly as possible and with sympathy and support.”

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Print

1 Comment Add your own

1. amandzing | January 5th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

cost cutting is, as always, to ensure the CEO’s and directors don’t have to take a cut in their salaries/bonuses. it would obviously be too much to ask one of the aforementioned to forgo the current model mercedes.

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Anton Harber: Media

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
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Daily newspaper sales, South Africa
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)
1960 - 681 053 (Population 17,3m)
1970 - 723 566 (22m)
1980 - 803 229 (27,5m)
1990 - 1 214 396 (35,2m)
2000 - 1 117 886 (44m)
2006 - 1 600 000 (47,3m)
2011 - 1 310 000 (49m)

(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)

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“When the Great Zucchini arrived that Saturday morning, Don had no idea who he was. Frankly, he didn’t look like a great anything. He looked like a house painter, Don thought, with some justification. He wears no costume. He was in painter’s pants, a coffee-stained shirt and a two-day growth of beard. He toted his beat-up props in beat-up steamer trunks, with ripped faux leather and broken hinges hanging askew.” - A classic of magazine profiling, by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

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Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011

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Introduction - The Troublemakers: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.

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