Updated 12.46pm
THE MUNSTER EXPRESS newspaper in Waterford has announced it will be looking for 11 redundancies as management attempt to cut costs.
The newspaper’s staff were told of the plans at a meeting yesterday. According to the Unite trade union, managers said the eleven positions included one in advertising, two in distribution and eight in production in printing – whose roles are expected to be outsourced. It’s understood there is a 30-day window for alternative ways of making the savings to be found.
Eleven positions amounts to almost half of 24 staff at the paper, which is published twice a week and serves Waterford, south Kilkenny and south Tipperary.
Brendan Byrne, regional officer for Unite, said the cuts would “effectively kill the paper.” He added: “We recognise that these are difficult times but there are ways that can be explored and implemented to prevent what would tear the heart out of an institution in Waterford.”
He added that similar cuts had been avoided at the Connaught Telegraph and the Mayo Star, which were also looking at outsourcing production.
A spokesperson for the Irish branch of the National Union of Journalists told TheJournal.ie the union was “shocked to hear of the plans to make a significant number of people redundant at the Munster Express”, adding that officials “will be contacting the company to arrange talks as soon as possible”.
The Munster Express, owned by Munster Express Ltd, has been in operation for more than 150 years and is based in Waterford city. Figures published in June 2010 gave its average net circulation at just under seven thousand copies.
Management at the Munster Express could not be immediately reached for comment this morning.
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