Bringing Trinity Mirror’s Newsroom 3.1 to its Liverpool and Merseyside titles could see seven jobs facing the axe, claim the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Trinity Mirror is holiding a 30-day consultation period after the adoption of the scheme, whereby content is created to specifically hit “key didigtal audience spikes” throughout the day which are then edited and packaged for print titles the next day.

However, the NUJ has claimed that while these “digital first” changes, already rolled out by Trinity Mirror in other areas of the country (such as the North East), will create one job for a digital story editor, it would also lead to the loss of three subs, two reporters and one sports reporter at the Liverpool Echo and the loss of a further reporter for the Wirral News.

This follows the trend of eight compulsory redundancies following the introduction of the scheme in Newcastle and Teesside newsrooms.

Chris Morley, Northern and Midlands organiser, said:

“Our members have known a Newsroom 3.1 restructure was coming, but the announcement has still come as a blow with an apparent substantial net loss of jobs if the plans are carried out as they are.

“This is in contrast to other centres where welcome investments in additional journalists’ jobs were made. We will be reminding management that digital output needs quality journalism just as much as newspaper production does if it is to be successful.

“Our members are at full stretch now, so we will be working hard with management to understand how they believe they can do more with less.”

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Words: Peter Cribley