A Scottish newspaper and magazine publisher has said it will be making the “difficult decision” to cut 300 jobs to plug a £10 million gap in finances.
Staff at DC Thomson were on Thursday told of the cuts, which will centre mostly on the magazine portfolio.
Around half of the jobs are expected to go at titles within Aceville, a publisher in Colchester, Essex, which was purchased by the company in 2018.
DC Thomson also owns the Press and Journal and Evening Express newspapers in Aberdeen and the Courier and Evening Telegraph in Dundee, as well as the Glasgow-based Sunday Post.
It is not yet clear how many jobs in the company’s newspapers will be cut or from which titles, but a spokesman for the group said there would be changes to the “structure of newsrooms”, adding that “roles and responsibilities at all levels within the team are being reviewed”.
We will be closing some Dundee-based magazines including Living, Platinum, Evergreen, Shout, Animals and You, and Animal Planet— DC Thomson
The long-running Beano comic is also owned by the firm, which said in a statement that “flagship brands remain integral to our future”.
The spokesman said: “We are having to make the difficult decision that 300 colleagues will be made redundant across the UK, with around half coming from the closure of titles acquired from Aceville in Colchester.
“We are resetting DC Thomson’s media business to focus on high growth, and sustainable growth.
“We will be closing some Dundee-based magazines including Living, Platinum, Evergreen, Shout, Animals and You, and Animal Planet. All print titles acquired from Colchester’s Aceville will also close.
“All our flagship brands remain integral to our future.
“As part of the transformation, we are reviewing changes to the structure of our newsrooms to respond to economic pressures and better serve our local communities.
“Roles and responsibilities at all levels within the team are being reviewed.
“It would be inappropriate to comment on individual people at this time.
“The Scottish communities, particularly in the north and north east, are core to DC Thomson and we have a number of thriving businesses in the region.”
