Up to 35 jobs facing the axe at ‘Daily Mail’ group

UP TO 35 jobs face the axe at the publisher of the ‘Irish Daily Mail’ and ‘Irish Mail on Sunday’.

DMG Media Ireland is seeking voluntary redundancies across the titles as well as at its websites Extra.ie and Evoke. ie. Employees were told at a meeting yesterday they could apply for an exit package due to falling sales.

In a statement, DMG said the restructuring was “part of a process to adapt the business in a rapidly changing media environment”.

The publisher employs 156 staff and the redundancies are open across all divisions, including administrative, sales, editorial and finance.

“The process will be open to all members of staff across all brands and channels, and is intended to deliver significant cost savings,” said DMG yesterday.

“Details of the enhanced redundancy package being made available have been shared with staff at DMG Media Ireland offices in Dublin today.”

It is understood that the severance package is worth four weeks’ pay per year of service on top of statutory redundancy.

CEO of DMG Media Ireland Paul Henderson said it would continue to ensure the business was future-proofed and could adapt and grow through what was “undoubtedly a challenging time for newspaper publishing and the continuously changing media landscape”.

Irish secretary of the NUJ Séamus Dooley said the news was devastating for hard-working staff. “Cuts in staff impact on editorial quality and publishers must be careful not to undermine the very reason why consumers buy newspapers,” he said.

The ‘Irish Daily Mail’ arrived on the news stands in 2006.