News International to axe 90 jobs

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 06-Jun-07, 12:30

LONDON - News International is to axe 90 jobs across News of the World and The Times as part of a £10m cost-cutting drive, as exclusively revealed by Brand Republic yesterday.

The cuts - 30 jobs will be axed at The Times and 20 at the News of the World - will include editorial jobs but it is not known if marketing and sales jobs will be affected. The biggest job cuts will be made to editorial positions.

A News International spokeswoman refused to comment on speculation that cuts will be made on other News International titles.

At the News of the World, Louise Oswald, the editor of Sunday magazine, has resigned. News International insisted the departure was amicable.

She joined title in October 2005 from the National Enquirer. She had previously worked at the News of World and Emap's Closer.

Redundancies were expected across News International's four titles -- The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and the News of the World -- after a fall in profits and heavy investment in new colour presses and digital.

Sources claim the company is seeking across-the-board budget cuts of around 4%.

The proposed cuts at Wapping come at a sensitive time for parent company News Corporation as it attempts to buy Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones for $5bn (£2.6bn).

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chief executive, is trying to convince members of the Bancroft family, who control Dow Jones, to sell their stake to him, and news of the jobs cuts is a potentially embarrassing story for him.

Fears have been raised by WSJ journalists about possible cuts should Murdoch win control of the paper.

News of the World's ABC figure for April was down 6.7% to 3,361,668 copies.