Concerned local MPs write to the Guardian
14 March 2009
The following letter from six Greater Manchester area MPs was published in the Guardian on March 14.
MEN redundancies
We want to highlight our concern at the announcement by Guardian Media Group of 150 job losses at the Manchester Evening News and its 22 weekly newspapers, including the successful Stockport Express. The weekly titles will continue, but their offices will be closed and the newspapers will all be written and designed at the Manchester head office by a "pool" of journalists. Local newspapers, like ours in Stockport, play an essential role at the heart of their communities and are written by a group of dedicated journalists who live and breathe their town. Local papers strengthen local democracy and community life and provide a forum for individuals and organisations. Long-time Guardian editor CP Scott said famously that a newspaper is "much more than a business". It has a "moral as well as a material existence". Sixty local newspapers closed last year. We call on Guardian Media Group to rethink its proposals.
Ann Coffey MP Stockport, Andrew Gwynne MP Denton and Reddish, Mark Hunter MP Cheadle, Andrew Stunell MP Hazel Grove, Tom Levitt MP High Peak, Nicholas Winterton MP Macclesfield
Read the letter on the Guardian website
The Guardian also printed this follow-up letter from MEN Chapel FoC, Judy Gordon, on March 16.
Job cuts at Guardian Media Group
It was heartening to read the letter (14 March) from MPs disturbed by Guardian Media Group's announcement of drastic changes at its weekly newspapers around Greater Manchester and at the Manchester Evening News, with the loss of 150 jobs, including 78 journalists. The company has similar devastating plans in Surrey and Berkshire.
The MPs rightly fear for the threats to democracy and the social fabric of communities. What they fail to mention is that GMG gave staff just 13 days to volunteer for redundancy or face being selected for compulsory job loss; 13 days to make possibly the hardest decision of their lives. This is from a company which has in recent years seemed to behave increasingly like "any other business" – look at the huge salaries and bonuses awarded to its executives, while the Guardian itself loses millions of pounds.
This should not be the behaviour of the parent company of the world's leading liberal voice, the paper I have read for 40 years and the company I have been employed by for nearly 30. Guardian readers will undoubtedly be shocked that GMG could behave in such a brutal way. CP Scott wanted his ideals protected and preserved - but not like this. It is not too late for GMG to rethink its plans.
Judy Gordon NUJ FoC, Manchester Evening News
Read the letter on the Guardian website
FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE www.nuj.org.uk