Our continued commitment to Liverpool
The radio airwaves and website forums of Merseyside have been buzzing with angry reaction to our announcement that we are shifting printing of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo to Oldham.
Much of the indignation stems from misunderstandings, so today we would like to set the record straight.
Our newspapers will continue to be researched, written, designed and created in the heart of Liverpool, to provide the best and most in depth news coverage of Merseyside. Hundreds of people will continue to be employed by us here in Liverpool to achieve that.
Our company has decided that we will in future print the newspapers in Oldham - which, as anyone who lives there would tell you, is as much a part of Manchester as Southport is of Liverpool.
That hard decision was taken to keep our business viable in the very difficult economic circumstances the world is facing at present.
Our current presses at our Old Hall Street base are reaching the end of their useful lives, and the cost of replacing them here would have been astronomical.
Our company owns a print works in Oldham, which we can expand for £7.5m to cover our Liverpool printing needs - a fraction of the cost of rebuilding from scratch in this city.
That has a direct impact on around 100 of our loyal, committed and hard-working colleagues here in Liverpool. Some will be able to take new jobs in Oldham if they choose, but others face redundancy.
That is a cause of enormous regret to all of us here, but there is simply no alternative if our newspapers are to continue to be printed.
To those who suggested that they would not read our newspapers again because of this decision, we can only ask what they think this will achieve?
Our commitment as champions for the Liverpool city region is not changed one iota by this sad but inevitable business decision. We hope you will continue to support us, too.
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Mark Thomas
You ask what a boycott of your papers would achieve. I say a drop in your profits, an end to your control over the local media and hopefully another company starting up printing locally.
I notice that no comments have yet been printed concerning this matter. I find it hard to believe that there has been no interest in this subject or is your commitment as "champions for the Liverpool city region" also to include censorship?
LIVING IN SOUTHAMPTON, I APPRECIATE THE NEWS FROM MERSEYSIDE. IT IS A SHAME THAT SOMETHING OF THE HERITAGE OF THE CITY IS TO DISAPPEAR AT A TIME WHEN LIVERPOOL IS NATURALLY AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE WORLD'S INTEREST. HOWEVER, AS LONG AS THE NEWS IS AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE LIVING LOCALLY AND ON THE STREETS WHEN THEY NEED IT, ONE CAN ONLY SUPPOSE THAT WHERE IT IS PRINTED IS IRRELEVANT. WHAT IS RELEVANT IS THE LIVELIHOD OF OUR WORKERS - AND THERE ARE MANY EX-PATS FROM LIVERPOOL AND BIRKENHEAD IN SOUTHAMPTON. AFTER ALL WHERE DID CUNARD MOVE ITS OFFICES TO - AND NOW THEY ARE - AS CARNIVAL - OPENING AN EVEN BIGGER ONE RIGHT IN THE CITY CENTRE.
It's clearly been a tough but necessary business decision and I for one fail to see what can be achieved by turning on either the Daily Post or Liverpool Echo, who have always fought the city's cause?
Despite Andy B's cynical views - I for one will carry on buying and reading both papers.
Elizabeth L
Trinity Mirror doesnt print the main evening paper for the GM area- the Manchester Evening News. This would have been a great opportunity for Trinity Mirror to bring ALL the printing jobs to a Trinity Mirror heartland namely Liverpool, where the Mirror, Post and Echo outflank all the opposition.
Is this the end of getting our Echo's at reasonably early times during the day- after all they will have to travel from the printing presses in Oldham. Thats at least half an hours delay for a start.
I'm angry about this decision, but what is even more unforgivable is the way it was reported in yesterday's Post 'New Printing Plans for DP/Echo'.
If this was any other high profile Liverpool company it would have been splashed on the front page '100 jobs go at ...'
Nice touch burying it on the same day as another senior council officer walked away with an obscene amount of our money.
The people of Liverpool have been betrayed. Hang your head in shame, you fraud.
When are you stating your campaign to save 100 jobs?
What abysmal double standards.
You have lost your credibility and this reader
Tommy H, I'm sorry to hear that
you are "angry" about our decision to preserve the livelihoods of as many of our Liverpool workers as possible by taking the only choice that made any kind of commercial sense in very difficult circumstances. I hope you never find yourself in a position to have to make a similar decision.
As to the positioning of our story, it was a business story, and we made it the lead on our business page. That's hardly hiding it away.
For the record, I've worked in journalism in this city throughout my career, it's the city of my birth and I am very proud of it. How exactly do you think the people of Liverpool have been betrayed? Because if I thought for a second that was true, I would be on your side in this argument.
I'm no fraud, and you should be ashamed of yourself for making such an allegation when you clearly know nothing about me.
Dave, your point about the travel time from Oldham is quite right, but it's also true that the new presses will run quicker. I can't speak for the Echo, but I do know they will be ensuring their newspapers will be available when customers want to buy them.
Andy B, not quite sure where you are coming from with your transparent hatred of the company I work for. From the tone of your comment nothing we do is likely to meet with your approval. Did we write a story that upset you at some stage?
Tony B, I'm genuinely sorry if we have lost you as a reader, but the only double standards here are yours. We've explained in some detail why the decision had to be taken. It should be obvious to you that if people stop buying the paper it threatens hundreds more Liverpool jobs. Is that really what you want?
Thanks to the rest of you for your comments so far.
Re Trinity Mirrors mealy-mouthed words about costs, and the spin from the editors of the Daily Post and Liverpool Echo that Oldham is not Manchester. How deceitful! Oldham is known as a large town in “Greater Manchester�; our local news media always describe it as such, as does the national media. Type in the word Oldham on the Internet and you will find it is inextricably linked to Manchester.
Be in no doubt Trinity Mirror have scored a massive own goal here. This is a real kick in the teeth to the people of Liverpool and Merseyside.
What hypocrisy to condemn Ringo Starr for his comments about not wanting to live in Liverpool after the opening of Capital Of Culture, when you cut and run up the East Lancs. Road at a time when we should be using this year as a springboard for attracting more investment after the culture club packs up and moves on. What message does it send out to the rest of the nation when even our local newspapers are being printed and ferried in from “Greater Manchester�?
To try to deny that this is any thing other than a betrayal to your readership and to the City as a whole is an insult to our intelligence.
Just to clear up a point here Dave Harris - Trinity Mirror does print the main paper in the Greater Manchester area, the Manchester Evening News. It doesn't run the MEN - that's owned by the Guardian - but it does print it on their behalf, and lots of other papers too.
Sad as it is that this is happening, the facts are this: The Post and Echo still employ more journalists in to cover Merseyside than the BBC,ITV and regional radio put together, and then some.
The BBC, which is making great play out of this as if to suggest it will be the only organisation for news in Liverpool because of this, fails to mention that it only produces its news bulletins in Liverpool between 6am and 7pm. The rest of the time, it comes from Manchester, as does most of its website content.
So while it is sad this is happening, if I was to boycott the Post and Echo where would I get my local news from, because no matter what others claim, no-one does it in as much depth as the Post and the Echo at the moment
After the shameful burial of the story (which, despite your protestations, is exactly what it was compared to the coverage of other job cuts in the city) comes what I find to be a condescending response to peoples concerns.
There weren't many people whatsoever who misunderstood the situation from my experience. The situation being that the printing of our local papers and our football clubs' publications are moving to Greater Manchester in the interest of nothing but Trinity Mirror's bank account.
If those in power at the Post & Echo can't understand the anger over this then I'm afraid they are out of touch.
I am truly disappointed that the Trinity Mirror group have chosen to show that they do not believe that there is any business sense in investing in Liverpool and it's future.
It feels a little difficult to believe that the Echo or Daily Post will have any credibility when they look to campaign for Liverpool as a viable business investment location ... and please do us the favour of never again printing a story decrying other organisations abandoning our City ... it will not wash.
Liverpool is truly one of the great World Cities but without committed local media it will find it difficult to compete on the stage it deserves.
Thanks again to everyone who is contributing to this discussion.
Trooth, you clearly have a very good grasp of the local media scene. The broadcasting organisations who have been so biased and critical in their coverage of this story would struggle to fill their bulletins if they didn't plagiarise the work of the journalists we employ in our Liverpool newsroom on a daily basis.
Paul, you've completely missed the point. It was being reported that we are moving to Manchester - that big city at the other end of the M62 with those football teams in it that we love to hate. Greater Manchester, like Merseyside, is a largely meaningless set of boundaries created under a local government shake-up in the early seventies. All it means now is that the same police and fire service covers Oldham that covers Manchester. I've done more than google it, I've been there. I used to cover football matches there, and I can promise you, the good citizens of Oldham will not enjoy being described as Mancunians. They are as proud of their town as we are of our city. That's not spin, that is the simple, unvarnished truth. Ok?
Graham, sorry if you find my responses condescending. It isn't meant to be. This is a very painful and difficult time for all of us in our business, and when it is made worse by ill-informed comments from people who clearly don't understand the realities of running a business or have an agenda for their own reasons to whip up hatred against us, I'm going to stand up and argue my case as forcibly as I can. This guff about us not supporting Liverpool is unbelievable, as anyone who really knows our titles and their proud history as champions of our city would tell you.
Mark B, issues about investment are not as black and white as you would have us believe. Liverpool is an excellent place to invest, and we will continue to champion it, and to invest in it ourselves whenever the opportunity is there. In this case, it was a choice between extending an existing plant that our company owns, for £7.5m, or tearing out and replacing our Old Hall Street presses from scratch, which would cost us something north of £26m. With the economy in its current state, taking the second route was impossible.
We want to stay in business to provide strong newspapers to inform and entertain the people of Liverpool. That means taking commercial decisions that allow us to carry on trading profitably. We aren't a charity or a publicly funded organisation like the BBC. We have to make a profit to survive. That's not us turning our backs on anyone or betraying anyone. It is about being brave enough to make tough decisions in the best interests of our workforce as a whole, and of Liverpool as a whole. That is the reality of the situation. We would love it to be different, but we have to deal with the real world. The emotion being expressed in some of these comments is nothing to what we are all feeling in our business right now. But NOT taking the decision we have done would have been the real betrayal of the future of our newspapers.
Wow! I don't even live in your city any more but I'm amazed how hostile (and may I say ill informed and disloyal) some people are towards a paper that's always defended the city.
Clearly some people on this discussion board have their own agenda in making such ludicrous (and unnecessarily personal)comments.
Anna
Sep 08, 2008