REDUNDANCIES among journalists at The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister title could pass 100 — taking the total to nearly one in five of the two newspapers’ reporters and sub-editors.
Bosses at the newspapers, recently acquired by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, are believed to be preparing to announce that they are willing to make up to 105 journalists redundant from a workforce of 521. That would be an increase of 15 from the 90 job cuts announced nearly a fortnight ago, although it is possible that the 105 target — the top end of a range — will not be attained. No section of the newspaper is expected to avoid the cull.
Although voluntary redundancies are being sought, there are unlikely to be enough reporters willing to fill the gap. As a result all Telegraph journalists will be assessed to help bosses decide who should be made compulsorily redundant.
The uncertainty for Telegraph reporters is also likely to drag on into the spring. Increasing the redundancy target to more than 100 means that the period of employee consultation legally has be increased from one month to three months. That means journalists are unlikely to know their fate until May.
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Members of the National Union of Journalists are already preparing to hold a ballot for industrial action.
An estimated 55 per cent of the right-wing newspapers’ journalists are members of the union, which has warned that the cuts are “guaranteed to seriously impact the journalistic quality of the Telegraph titles”.
Murdoch MacLennan, the low-profile chief executive of the Telegraph Group, wants to make the job cuts to help to pay for a £150 million investment in new printing presses outside London.
Although the newspapers have been consistently profitable, earning between £35 million and £40 million a year before the Barclays’ takeover, the depreciation charge on the new press investment is likely to depress earnings by about £7.5 million a year.
Last summer, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, the reclusive twins who control a business empire spanning from The Ritz hotel to Littlewoods stores, bought the Telegraph titles in a hard-fought auction for £665 million — a price that was at the top end of expectations.