Peter Vandermarsh, chief executive of Media House Ireland, said the approaching storm meant it was time to repair the roof again. Just 10 months after announcing its last voluntary redundancy plans, the Irish independent publisher informed staff this week that further job cuts were necessary.
The company, which also publishes the Sunday Independent, Sunday World and Belfast Telegraph, as well as several regional newspapers, has an editorial staff of around 50 people, up from 549, or an editorial staff of around 338 people. The company hopes to cut 25 people from its editorial staff of 211 people. People working in other fields.
If enough people “don’t raise their hands”, Mr Vandermersch told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland that media houses should consider compulsory redundancies.
Mr Vandermersch characterized the job cuts as a “total transformation program”, but did not deny that the cuts would have an impact on the company’s workforce, who he admitted were “dissatisfied” and “shocked” by the announcement. As he pointed out, if you plan to fix your roof while the sun is still shining, that means the sun’s light is already weak.
The diagnosis of the underlying problem remains the same. The news industry is transitioning from print to digital media, but readers are not prepared to pay as much for digital products as they are for print, and digital advertising revenue is relatively low, leading media companies to cut staff. will be forced to. If you want to keep your roof intact.
[ Declining print sales to ‘outweigh’ digital growth for print-media publishers, says PwC ]
Plans known as “digital-only 2030” are underway across European media groups in anticipation of the imminent demise of Monday-to-Friday daily newspapers, but Vandermersch said the exact He reiterated that the date cannot be predicted. It could be him in 2029 or he could be in 2033. In any case, the roof will require further repairs. And in the future, if information leaks, there will be fewer newspapers to clean up the mess.