Mediahuis Ireland announces voluntary redundancies

Publisher has not said how many redundancies it is seeking.

Mediahuis Ireland located on Talbot Street in Dublin. 

Mediahuis Ireland, which publishes both the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, has announced it will seek voluntary redundancies among its national and regional titles.

The redundancies are to come from the editorial staff of which there are approximately 350 across the company’s titles. Mediahuis has not said how many redundancies it is seeking.

In a statement, Mediahuis Ireland said they are seeking the redundancies as part of their “ongoing digital transformation programme” and “in light of challenging macro-economic influences and changing consumer behaviour”.

“We have been undertaking a full strategic review of our editorial products, newsroom and production processes.” 

Editor-in-chief at Mediahuis Ireland Cormac Bourke informed staff of the voluntary redundancies at a meeting on Tuesday. This change is being made ahead of the group’s planned shift in focus towards digital-first publishing.

The company said that the voluntary redundancy programme is now for staff as it seeks to reduce “staffing levels across our editorial function,” the company said.

“We need to ensure a single unified journalistic organisation from which we can create and support different outputs, different formats and different platforms,” the company said.

“We appreciate the impact this transition will have on those who may be directly affected, and we will do our utmost to communicate transparently while efficiently guiding our colleagues through this transition."

The company said it will need to be “more efficient” going forward and “stopping some of the work that we have done in the past”.

Among the other titles Mediahuis Ireland publishes include the Belfast Telegraph, Sunday World, The Herald as well as regional titles such as the Kerryman and the Corkman.

The group has around 70,000 digital subscribers across its portfolio of websites.

According to Mediahuis 2022 financial results, profits at the Belgium-based company dropped from €117.3m in 2021 to €65.3m. The company said high inflation and the cost of paper was a major contributor to the drop.

Turnover at the company stood at €1.2bn in 2022, up from €1.13bn.