Protestors gathered last night to demonstrate against the closure of Bath and Bristol listings magazine Venue and swingeing job cuts at its sister publication Bristol Evening Post.
Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and supporters were outside the Galleries shopping centre in central Bristol where a low-key exhibition is taking place marking the Post’s 80th anniversary.
Last Friday it emerged that Venue magazine will be downgraded to a digital-only publication and up to 20 Bristol Evening Post staff made redundant in the latest of a series of job cuts at the struggling paper.
The Saturday edition of the paper will also be axed. The closure of Venue magazine ends a year-long experiment of combining it with the monthly giveaway Folio magazine.
Post publisher London-based Northcliffe also owns the weekly Bath Chronicle and a string of websites.
Paul Breeden, chair of the Bristol branch of the NUJ, told the Bristol24-7 website it was clear “important papers like the Post are not safe in Northcliffe’s hands”.
“We can protest and let people know about this. It’s heartening to know that so many people in Bristol are aware of the issues and the hollowing out of the paper’s newsroom,” he said.
“It’s the worst birthday present imaginable and no more than we expect from Northcliffe and they are on very dodgy ground by staging this celebration.
Bristol News and Media publisher Alan Renwick said in a statement last Friday: “We have undertaken an exhaustive review of our portfolio and the changing needs of readers and advertisers in our market.
“These planned changes give us a more focused and flexible set of publications which are much more closely aligned to our customers and give us a better platform for future growth.”
Northcliffe has also axed its regional monthly business magazine South West Business after it failed to match established rival publication South West Business Insider.
