LONDON (Reuters) -Daily Mirror publisher Reach Plc will shed 321 jobs in a restructuring of the British news group that would also see the creation of 135 new roles, according to an internal memo shared with staff on Monday.
A legacy UK publisher traditionally focused on text, Reach Plc has been increasingly concentrating on multimedia – from podcasts to short video clips – as it adapts to the ways Britons consume news in the era of mobile phones and social media.
The more-than-a-century old company, which has both national and local news titles, also plans to trial subscription models for some titles this year, although its new boss Piers North reassured in July that the “bulk” of its content would still remain free to air.
“Our new structure represents the biggest reorganisation we’ve ever undertaken, even more than in the early days of the digital revolution,” Chief Content Officer David Higgerson said in a statement shared by the company via email. “The changes we are seeing in the landscape right now demand a wholesale change in how we operate and how we tell stories.”
Stressing the need to adopt a different way of working “from top to bottom,” he added that around 135 new roles would be created, many in the live news network and video teams at the company, which has a catalogue of more than 120 print and online titles.
(Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Alistair Bell)
