THE PUBLISHER of the News of the World is to cut over 100 jobs in the coming ten months, as it ‘evolves’ how it operates in the current industry climate.
In a memo emailed to News International staff, Tom Mockridge said the company had been ‘seeking efficiencies for some time’ and expected to reduce its workforce by around 110, Reuters reports.
The memo, released by the company itself, added that its three remaining print titles – The Sun, The Times and the Sunday Times – would have to review their use of casual and freelance staff.
“From today,” the Press Gazette quoted, “we will be announcing changes to our business, starting with the areas first affected, and yesterday we begin consultation with our staff association NISA over the proposals.
“Despite this tough news, I have great confidence in [News International] and our future. We are continuing to invest in new products and quality content to protect our future and better equip us for the changing markets.”
This morning a spokeswoman for the company declined to comment on whether any jobs would be lost at News International’s Irish operation, which publishes The Irish Sun and the Irish edition of The Sunday Times.
The closure of the News of the World meant 300 job losses at the company, including 22 on the paper’s Irish edition. The company employs 3,000 workers in total across its operations in the UK and Ireland.
News International has pledged its assistance to try and find work for those staff, and said in the memo that the company had left over 100 internal vacancies unfilled.
21 former members of staff are to be employed in a new ‘digital business’, while other jobs will be created in the development and management of a new customers management system.
Mockridge took over at the helm of News International in mid-July after the resignation of Rebekah Brooks, who was the editor of the News of the World at the time it engaged in the majority of its phone-hacking.
The company yesterday announced that it was putting its former premises at Wapping in East London up for sale.
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