The owner of the Mirror and Express newspapers has announced plans to cut about 450 jobs as it looks to slash costs further.
Reach, which also owns the Daily Star and regional UK titles including the Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Mail and Liverpool Echo, said the job losses are part of proposals to trim operating costs by 5% to 6% in 2024.
The group said the extra savings would help it invest in boosting its online offering.
The firm is battling against a slump in the online and print newspaper advertising market, with digital revenues hit by Facebook and other large media platforms moving to deprioritise news.
Reach has already cut costs by up to 6% this year. In January it announced a reduction of 200 roles in a £30m cost-cutting drive after a slump in the digital and print newspaper advertising market.
Market conditions have continued to remain torrid; the value of Reach has slumped 30% over the last year, with its digital revenue strategy affected by large social media platforms, most notably Facebook, deprioritising news.
In its third quarter trading update, Reach reported a 13.7% drop in digital revenue as online page views slumped by 21% year-on-year in the first nine months.
Total print revenues also fell by 6% with income from newspaper sales and advertising declining.
The acceleration of the digital-first strategy is also expected to see the group’s remaining separate daily and Sunday newspaper operations – the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, Daily Express and Sunday Express – move closer to single seven-day publishing operations.
The company said in its latest financial update that it expected to make £95m in profits this year but remained focused on “driving efficiencies” and reducing operating costs.
In July 2020, Reach cut 550 staff, about 12% of its workforce at the time, in response to the Covid pandemic.
Jim Mullen, the chief executive of Reach, said: “Our industry has a history of change and the future will undoubtedly involve yet more. That’s why it’s essential we set ourselves up to win, by making our operations suited to an increasingly fast-paced, competitive and customer-focused digital world.”
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He added: “Hard work over the last few years means we have established ourselves as a leading digital publisher. But there’s more to do and today is about organising our business to deliver against that challenge.”