'Multimedia newsrooms' as Mirror Group cuts 200 jobs

Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) is to cut around 200 editorial jobs as it restructures its news operation, it said today.

It is bringing in new "multimedia newsrooms" to the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People.

Changes to be made are expected to result in around 200 editorial job losses across the three titles, of which a significant number are not employees of MGN Ltd but casual workers, it said in a statement.

It added: "Mirror Group Newspapers has now entered into a period of consultation with those staff likely to be affected. The company today has also launched a voluntary redundancy programme."

The changes will include the merger of news and features on each title into single content units, creating super pools of reporters and writers, the merging of digital and print publishing teams and the end of editionising the Mirror titles in Scotland, it said.

Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, said: "Our future is a multimedia one and we need to transform ourselves into an agile media business, ready to grasp the opportunities and challenges of the multimedia world we now inhabit.

"Our traditional skills and processes have to change to embrace the emerging platforms and keep our titles in good health. We cannot continue to do what we do in the way that we have always done it. We simply have to evolve in order to keep our historic and world famous newspapers as relevant and successful as when they first launched over 100 years ago."