ITV staff rocked by scale of jobs axe
JUST 36 journalists will be left to cover a vast slice of Middle England from the Welsh borders to the North Sea coast when ITV’s Birmingham and Nottingham operations merge.
The “devastating” cuts announced yesterday at ITV, which will see 61 posts shed across the two areas, look certain to bring compulsory redundancies to the Gas Street site, it was revealed today.
Broadcasting union BECTU said industrial action to fight the “savage” cuts could not be ruled out amid fury at the extent of the job losses announced to shocked staff at a mass meeting at the Birmingham studios.
Star presenters Bob Warman and Joanne Malin will battle it out with their counterparts in Nottingham for just two presenting jobs, while the sports desk at Birmingham will be reduced to one.
And an insider revealed that just 36 journalistic staff would be left to cover the whole of the merged region when Central Tonight is reduced to one programme covering east and west.
“We will be covering an area as far afield as Chesterfield, Lincoln, down to Banbury and Hereford and across to Peterborough and Boston,” he said.
“For sports stories, we will all have to muck in, whether you know anything about Aston Villa, Birmingham City or even Crown Green Bowling. In previous times, the sports desk had a staff of 15 or more.
“The mood in Birmingham is extremely gloomy. Even though staff saw it coming, I don’t think they thought it would be as bad as this. Compulsory redundancies are inevitable.
“In the Nottingham newsroom, there will be two correspondents, two reporters and one camera guy.”
Staff were told they had until October 16 to apply for voluntary redundancy. Those who choose to go will be out of the door by the end of the year. Nationally, a total of 429 permanent posts are being cut from the present headcount of 1,075 staff, reducing the number by 40 per cent to 646.
BECTU assistant general secretary Luke Crawley said: “This is a devastating blow to staff across the ITV regional news network.”
The cuts were announced as Michael Grade looks to save up to £40 million from its annual £120 million outlay on regional news.
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