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 Dubai-based Gulf News has cut 19 staff, mostly from its broadsheet editorial team, as part of a process “integrating” its newsroom.
The head of publisher Al Nisr’s HR department sent an email to all company employees on Monday morning, informing them of the cuts. As of Tuesday afternoon, affected employees were still being informed of their specific situation.
In a statement emailed to AdNation, Abdul Hamid Ahmad, editor-in-chief of the paper, said: “Gulf News, a leading newspaper in the UAE, keeps improving its performance through the usage of technology and better productivity. Within that context, we have introduced a new editorial system, consolidated processes and centralised functions to further improve efficiency. And a step forward from that, we will be integrating the newsroom this month.
“As a result of these changes and restructuring driven by the use of cutting edge technology, some of the job roles have become redundant. These positions comprise less than 1% of our entire workforce. This was scheduled to take place after introducing the new technology and restructuring of the newsroom, along with the other service departments,” he added.
As Al Nisr reportedly
employs around 1,000 people, we’re not quite sure how the “1%” claim squares with 19 people laid off, but there we go.
According to sources close to the paper, the publisher moved a number of editorial staff from its free tabloid Xpress into the main Gulf News team, prior to these cuts.
The same sources also suggested the selection of those made redundant was done more on the basis of their relationships with management, rather than by specific roles being cut. This is of course a question of perception, not fact, and as such is unverifiable.
As Gulf News has been very publicly shrinking since the start of the economic downturn – and was particularly affected by the almost total collapse of property developer advertising – it is almost a surprise that it has taken the paper so long to make any cuts.
This cut is also relatively modest when compared with AMG’s reported axing
of 200 staff, and ITP’s laying off
of around 60 staff. We’re sure this will be of little consolation to those affected, however, as media jobs are becoming increasingly scarce.
UPDATE 04 June: Maktoob.com quotes the email itself on its story on the GN cuts. Interestingly, the email could appear to suggest that further cuts are possible in the near future.
"I regret to inform you that due to reorganisation, centralisation, the merging of certain functions and optimisation of work practices within the organisation, certain positions (have) become redundant," said the email.
"This resulted in 19 people being retrenched," it continued.
The email added that there "will be more changes with regards to certain positions".
Interestingly, Gulf News also picked today, of all days to publish pieces saying how good Gulf News is, and how many readers it has. The first piece, headlined 'Adapting to maintain dominance in the media' is a rehash of a talk given by GN's editor-at-large, Francis Mathew, at the World Association of Newspapers in Barcelona at the end of May.
The second piece, 'Gulf News circulation keeps growing consistently', does exactly what it says on the tin.
Well, as long as we're all clear about that, then.
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