STV STAFF WALK OUT AFTER 59 JOBS AXED
Channel will be binned and news team cut to bone
STV staff walked out yesterday after bosses announced plans to cut 59 jobs and pull the plug on their struggling new channel just a year after its launch.
Senior broadcasters including news anchor John McKay and political editor Bernard Ponsonby were among journalists who gathered outside STV’s riverside HQ in Glasgow to protest about plans.
STV2, launched in April 2017, will close at the end of June with the loss of 25 jobs.
In addition, the Glasgow-based firm are planning to cut 34 posts from their news operation, as part of a plan to save £1million a year.
In February, Rob Woodward was replaced as chief executive by Simon Pitts.
Yesterday, Pitts said: “News is fundamental to the STV brand and we remain committed to
offering the best news service in Scotland. However, given how quickly news consumption is changing, it is vital that STV evolve to stay competitive.
“We are therefore launching a comprehensive change programme – STV News 2020 – that will see us invest in skills, technology and digital as well as delivering cost savings. “A s a result of the challenging economics of local television and anticipated increased competition from BBC Scotland, we have taken the difficult decision to close our loss-making STV2 channel to focus our future content investment on STV and the STV Player.” John Toner, of the National Union of Journalists Scotland, said: “The announcement to cut 59 jobs across STV news and STV2 is a devastating blow to staff who work tirelessly to provide some of the best news and current affairs programmes in Scotland.
“The NUJ will work with STV management to try to reduce the number of redundancies required and we are resolved that compulsory redundancies will be strongly opposed.”
STV2 operate five city-based TV licences – serving Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Ayr. They said terms have been agreed to sell STV’s local TV assets to That’s Media.
Scottish Labour’s culture spokeswoman Claire Baker MSP said: “This is a devastating blow for staff at STV and the wider creative and media industry.
“It will stick in the craw for many that the news was delivered by a CEO who was awarded a ‘golden hello’ of more than £800,000.”
The news comes after the BBC announced that plans for their new Scottish channel have been pushed back to February.