THE NATIONAL UNION of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned plans by publisher Reach plc to slash hundreds of jobs, including positions at local news website GalwayBeo.

The company – which publishes a range of local and national titles including the Irish Daily Star and Irish Mirror, and its UK parent title – announced plans on Wednesday for redundancies in around 220 full-time equivalent jobs in editorial teams.

As part of this, Reach said it was shuttering GalwayBeo and two other online titles based in Britain, AberdeenLive and KentLive.

Reach is the UK and Ireland’s largest commercial publisher.

The company blamed wider industry decline and rapid shifts in news consumption habits, with AI overviews and changes to Google algorithms resulting in a major loss of traffic.

However, it said it plans to create an additional 60 roles, resulting in a net reduction of around 160 jobs.

Responding to Wednesday’s news, the NUJ called Reach’s redundancies “relentless” and an “act of self-sabotage”.

Last year the company cut over 300 roles across editorial and sports teams as part of a major restructure.

The NUJ said that further rounds of redundancies have followed this year in regional print production and editorial teams, with UK print sites in Watford and Saltire also closing, resulting in hundreds of printworkers out of work.

The NUJ is now seeking clarity on the company’s plans and where the latest cuts will fall.

It argued that Reach remains a profitable company despite wider challenges affecting the media industry, with a promised £96 million (€111 million) operating profit for this year.

“Cuts after cuts, year after year, have left our members at Reach deeply demoralised,” Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said.

Davison said the cumulative effect of the redundancies has been “unsustainable workloads, unrealistic ‘content’ demands, and dedicated journalists living in constant fear” of losing their livelihoods.

“Continued cuts fundamentally undermine Reach’s recent strategic pivot to digital subscriptions and focus on original reporting, which had been broadly welcomed by our members,” Davison said.

“These cuts will have a direct impact on public access to news, with the closure of three online titles exacerbating the UK and Ireland’s local news drought and doing a disservice to readers.”