Web Integration - Papers Hold Pay Talks, BBC Cuts Due This Week
By Robert Andrews - Mon 15 Oct 2007 12:25 AM PST
Journalist-management talks over pay for multimedia reporting have stepped up at two national newspapers, with online cuts resulting from BBC newsroom integration also likely to come this week.
- Guardian: After meetings with bosses on Tuesday, National Union of Journalists’ newspaper organiser Barry Fitzpatrick told Press Gazette “some progress” had been made at Guardian Unlimited, where the paper wants to increase the working week from 35 hours to 40, scrap a cap on continuous working of nine days in any fortnight and ask some staff to work across print and the web. It’s an attempt to move the website from 16-hour-a-day operation to 24/7, but staff want more than the 4.8 percent, inflation-only pay rise on offer; talks continue this Thursday. Fitzpatrick: “We are hoping that what we achieve at The Guardian might offer a solution elsewhere for people looking to arrange a transition [to new media].”
- Telegraph: More serious at Telegraph.co.uk, where staff want a 7.5 percent pay hike after last year’s move to a swanky new multimedia newsroom in Victoria and have since been producing material for videos and podcasts as well as the usual. Management clearly don’t think they can sort it out through negotiation - Press Gazette reports they have set a hearing date with the government’s Central Arbitration Committee for help get a resolution.
- BBC: This comes with the BBC due to announce its cuts on Thursday after presenting a six-year plan to the BBC Trust on Wednesday. The Guardian rehashes the rumours we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks about on online cuts coming thanks to an integration of its TV/radio/web newsrooms, adding one journalist’s fears the move will yield fewer stories and fewer updates to BBC News Online: “With fewer of us, working across all three outputs, who do we file to first?” BBC News Interactive head Pete Cliton this month told paidContent:UK: “There will be a reality dawn about only having the money for fewer people.” Cutting the workforce by 12 percent has been rumoured as the corporation tries to plug a £2 billion gap left by the government’s refusal to grant it the license fee hike it sought. Trust chairman Michael Lyons told the weekend’s Andrew Marr Show there would be a smaller BBC that does less.
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