Claire Enders, founder of the consultancy group, told Reuters: "We calculated the total jobs in the media in the UK at about 400,000, that includes newspapers, radio, TV, production companies, advertising, and so on, at the end of 2007.
"Between the beginning of 2008 and 2013 we're expecting half of those jobs to go. The big employers are the regional press, magazines, local advertising sales. Real numbers are in print."
Another analyst, Screen Digest's Vincent Letang, predicted a "long slowdown before a potential recovery in 2012".
"Newspapers are in a long term irreversible decline and it's only the beginning for them. It's a brutal slowdown," he said.
Newspaper and TV groups have already made large cuts to their workforces in response to declining ad revenues.
ITV is reducing its workforce by 1,000 to 5,000 by early 2009 while Virgin Media is to cut up to 2,200 jobs, 15% of its workforce, by 2012. Channel 4 is also reducing its workforce by 15%, cutting 150 jobs.
In newspapers, regional publisher Johnston Press has reduced its staff by 12% since the start of the year. Up to 90 jobs are to be cut at the Independent and Independent on Sunday, it was revealed last week.
In addition, 400 people have left papers published by the Daily Mail & General Trust.
On Thursday the Telegraph Media Group announced reductions amounting to 10% of its editorial staff, a move that will put about 50 journalists out of work.
Reports have suggested that the Financial Times could make a raft of job cuts later this week.
Comments
What is this based on? Wild guess work? A need for free publicity?
In times of recession and depression there has NOT been a flight away from cheap entertainment and it will not happen now. Newspapers have been increasing cover prices above inflation and this has not helped sales. The so-called quality press has especially been suffering because they haven't bothered to notice that the UK is changing and there are less-and-less of "their sort of people."
\(The recession is actually a god send - given them another smoke screen to dive behind.)
Magazines are run on skeleton crews already and I think they are healthier than ever. There are more titles on the shelves than ever before. Modern tech allows them to survive on low subscriptions and sales.
The media \(especially the guardian) seemed to take great joy in trying to burst the dot.com bubble, before they themselves decided to stake the mortgage on it. Let us not try and talk the industry down - the media is part and parcel of everybody's life in the UK and always will be. Many industries would envy that position.
Peter you're a god send......
It is true that a lot of newspaper journalists are under pressure to hold their jobs, but this is partly due to the fact that the newspapers employed too many people. In particular not enough was done early enough to cross train journalists to write for the web as well as print. Extra people were hired instead without extra revenue being derived. It doesn't take a genius to work out the economic flaw in their approach. On the advertising side many did the same thing, recruiting online and offline teams. Most have changed and sales people can sell all inventory, both offline and online. There was bound to be a shake up at some point and we have all done ok during the boom. However even in this recession, which most predict to get worse before it gets better, there are opportunities for the most talented. At pfj we have over 250 media jobs advertised. Yes considerably down on this time last year, but sill 250 media opportunities for talented people.
@Paul tell that to journalists working on regional newspapers.
The National Union of Journalists is considering legal action over
the latest round of regional newspaper cost cuts and has unveiled
research showing 500 jobs have been axed in the past five months.
The
union is seeking legal advice on whether it should be allowed to
negotiate directly with the regional newspaper groups at a national
level when cuts, such as redundancies or pay freezes, are imposed
across the board.
At an emergency summit in London this weekend, NUJ representatives from Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror and Newsquest
agreed to launch a co-ordinated campaign against the job cuts and pay
freezes – which they fear will lead to longer working hours, increased
stress and declining quality.
As if the regional press wasn't already hard hit.
Also, to take this into wider context, there has been a massive restructuration of media industry going on for years now. While the number of traditional news room journalists has been going down steadily, new positions of editors, sub-editors, news filters and knowledge workers in general have been mushrooming for long time. And don't work the massive rise of people, who conduct 'media work', yet exist outside of the traditional media professional bodies - bloggers, technology companies, citizen journalists, etc..
I can't fathom these figures at all. The suggestion that the entire UK media industry workforce will reduce by half over the next 4 years just doesn't make sense. This 'research' has clearly been carried out by someone who doesn't have a sufficient grasp on the industry in general. Doubtless we will see further redundancies over the next 12 months, but the above comments are absolutely on the button in that many media owners have already cut staffing down to the bare minimum. The recession will make business tougher, but the overall UK advertising spend will not fall by 50% in the space of 4 years and this is the only major factor that could possibly contribute to such a wide scale reduction of the industry. People will still read newspapers, listen to the radio, browse the internet and watch TV. Media is absolutely ingrained into our lives, whether we like it or not. I can certainly see average salaries falling and a move towards a greater reliance on freelancers but the media market will remain and recover as it always has done........ and if anyone needs a good magazine publisher I'll be redundant and available from January onwards
Peter and Paul, I think that you are deluding yourselves. Publishing - I can't comment on the rest of the media - is undergoing a structural crisis which is being compounded by your 'god send' of a cyclical crisis. Magazines aren't 'healthier than ever' - point me at one magazine company that is feeling buoyant at the moment - and more titles on the shelves is not a sympton of current strength but the hangover of the ad boom. There are major closures coming and there will be firms that disappear - that's why jobs will continue to be lost even though staffing has 'been cut to the bare minimum'; the number of employees needed to produce a closed magazine is zero.
Whether 50% is an over-exaggeration \(and note that it doesn't seem to include web firms) will only be seen in the next four years, but don't try and pretend that it's not going to be brutal.
http://privatefraser.wordpress.com/
Clearly business has become tough but consumers are still spending and will continue to do so. Media companies seems to be using the economy as an excuse for a bit of over-zealous fiscal tight belting. One of them sacks a big trance of workers and suddenly what was previously unthinkable in the public eye become acceptable and everyone is at it. Take Haymarket for example, banging on in media week about being independent and not under pressure to wield the axe. Then I read in media week, eve magazine is closing and months later they are making redundancies. It's becoming contagious but it's not apocalyptic.
Comments
Peter Hayes - 01/12/2008
What is this based on? Wild guess work? A need for free publicity? In times of recession and depression there has NOT been a flight away from cheap entertainment and it will not happen now. Newspapers have been increasing cover prices above inflation and this has not helped sales. The so-called quality press has especially been suffering because they haven't bothered to notice that the UK is changing and there are less-and-less of "their sort of people." \(The recession is actually a god send - given them another smoke screen to dive behind.) Magazines are run on skeleton crews already and I think they are healthier than ever. There are more titles on the shelves than ever before. Modern tech allows them to survive on low subscriptions and sales. The media \(especially the guardian) seemed to take great joy in trying to burst the dot.com bubble, before they themselves decided to stake the mortgage on it. Let us not try and talk the industry down - the media is part and parcel of everybody's life in the UK and always will be. Many industries would envy that position.
Alan Kane - 01/12/2008
Peter you're a god send......
Paul Farrer - 02/12/2008
It is true that a lot of newspaper journalists are under pressure to hold their jobs, but this is partly due to the fact that the newspapers employed too many people. In particular not enough was done early enough to cross train journalists to write for the web as well as print. Extra people were hired instead without extra revenue being derived. It doesn't take a genius to work out the economic flaw in their approach. On the advertising side many did the same thing, recruiting online and offline teams. Most have changed and sales people can sell all inventory, both offline and online. There was bound to be a shake up at some point and we have all done ok during the boom. However even in this recession, which most predict to get worse before it gets better, there are opportunities for the most talented. At pfj we have over 250 media jobs advertised. Yes considerably down on this time last year, but sill 250 media opportunities for talented people.
Gordon Macmillan - 02/12/2008
@Paul tell that to journalists working on regional newspapers.
The National Union of Journalists is considering legal action over the latest round of regional newspaper cost cuts and has unveiled research showing 500 jobs have been axed in the past five months.
The union is seeking legal advice on whether it should be allowed to negotiate directly with the regional newspaper groups at a national level when cuts, such as redundancies or pay freezes, are imposed across the board.
At an emergency summit in London this weekend, NUJ representatives from Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror and Newsquest agreed to launch a co-ordinated campaign against the job cuts and pay freezes – which they fear will lead to longer working hours, increased stress and declining quality.
As if the regional press wasn't already hard hit.
Tomas Gonsorcik - 03/12/2008
Also, to take this into wider context, there has been a massive restructuration of media industry going on for years now. While the number of traditional news room journalists has been going down steadily, new positions of editors, sub-editors, news filters and knowledge workers in general have been mushrooming for long time. And don't work the massive rise of people, who conduct 'media work', yet exist outside of the traditional media professional bodies - bloggers, technology companies, citizen journalists, etc..
Rob Grainger - 03/12/2008
I can't fathom these figures at all. The suggestion that the entire UK media industry workforce will reduce by half over the next 4 years just doesn't make sense. This 'research' has clearly been carried out by someone who doesn't have a sufficient grasp on the industry in general. Doubtless we will see further redundancies over the next 12 months, but the above comments are absolutely on the button in that many media owners have already cut staffing down to the bare minimum. The recession will make business tougher, but the overall UK advertising spend will not fall by 50% in the space of 4 years and this is the only major factor that could possibly contribute to such a wide scale reduction of the industry. People will still read newspapers, listen to the radio, browse the internet and watch TV. Media is absolutely ingrained into our lives, whether we like it or not. I can certainly see average salaries falling and a move towards a greater reliance on freelancers but the media market will remain and recover as it always has done........ and if anyone needs a good magazine publisher I'll be redundant and available from January onwards
James Frazer - 03/12/2008
Peter and Paul, I think that you are deluding yourselves. Publishing - I can't comment on the rest of the media - is undergoing a structural crisis which is being compounded by your 'god send' of a cyclical crisis. Magazines aren't 'healthier than ever' - point me at one magazine company that is feeling buoyant at the moment - and more titles on the shelves is not a sympton of current strength but the hangover of the ad boom. There are major closures coming and there will be firms that disappear - that's why jobs will continue to be lost even though staffing has 'been cut to the bare minimum'; the number of employees needed to produce a closed magazine is zero. Whether 50% is an over-exaggeration \(and note that it doesn't seem to include web firms) will only be seen in the next four years, but don't try and pretend that it's not going to be brutal. http://privatefraser.wordpress.com/
Martin Corcoran - 03/12/2008
Clearly business has become tough but consumers are still spending and will continue to do so. Media companies seems to be using the economy as an excuse for a bit of over-zealous fiscal tight belting. One of them sacks a big trance of workers and suddenly what was previously unthinkable in the public eye become acceptable and everyone is at it. Take Haymarket for example, banging on in media week about being independent and not under pressure to wield the axe. Then I read in media week, eve magazine is closing and months later they are making redundancies. It's becoming contagious but it's not apocalyptic.