View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
February 28, 2002updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Emap wields jobs axe in wake of ‘hard times’

By Press Gazette

Keenan: "restructure at all levels."

Staff at Emap Active and Emap Automotive have been warned they could lose their jobs in a radical restructure brought about by market difficulties.

The move is expected to result in at least 60 job losses and the closure of the B2B title AutoTrade, which will be folded into Automotive Management.

Paul Keenan, chief executive of Emap Consumer Media, said the "reorganisation" was the culmination of a two or three-month review. There are around 900 staff at the Peterborough offices in total.

Keenan said he could not confirm the number of job losses until the consultation process was completed in five weeks time, but he said the restructure would affect all levels of the business, including journalists.

"It is about getting the business in the right shape in these harder times," he told Press Gazette. "Every effort is being made to make sure staff understand what is happening and why it is happening."

It is understood staff will be asked to justify their jobs and in some cases, suggest alternative roles.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

"What we believe is that the action we are taking now will be the action that is necessary to get the business in the right shape," Keenan added.

Mike Sherrington, the NUJ’s national magazine organiser, said: "I have been aware of problems within the group for some time and the NUJ will be looking closely at the legality of what they are trying to achieve." The cutbacks follow a profit warning by Emap in the summer and the announcement of a 4 per cent fall in total turnover to £547m in the company’s interim results last November.

Emap chief executive Robin Miller admitted the advertising world was in "turmoil" at the time of the announcement and warned then that "the water is going to get choppy" (Press Gazette, November, 2001).

Some journalists fear the job losses could end up being as high as 100.

 

By Ruth Addicott

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network