London (AFP)
The British press group Reach, owner of the tabloids Daily Mirror and Daily Express, announced Tuesday the reduction of 12% of its workforce, or about 550 jobs, weakened by the crisis arising from the pandemic of new coronavirus.
Reach said in a press release that it wants to save 35 million pounds a year (around 39 million euros) as part of this restructuring which also provides for a merger of the editorial teams of its national and regional press titles within a structure centralized.
At the local level, the commercial and financial teams will be reduced, while the management structure will be simplified.
"Structural changes accelerated in the media sector during the pandemic, resulting in increased consumption of our digital products," said general manager Jim Mullen.
"However, due to declining advertising demand, we have not seen an equivalent increase in our digital revenues," he added.
In the second quarter, sales fell 27.5% due to lower physical sales and lower advertising revenues.
In return, the Reach group has indicated that it will end the salary cuts imposed on its teams at the start of the pandemic, with the exception of members of management and administrators whose salaries will remain cut by 20%. The dividend payment has been canceled.
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