GB News’ editorial shakeup continues. Guido understands Dan Falvey, the Express’s Deputy Digital Political Editor, is heading to Paddington in January as GB News‘ new Head of Digital News, replacing Becca Hutson who left in October. He’ll be a familiar face to many of his new colleagues at the channel, given former Sunday Express editor Mick Booker is now GB News’ Editorial Director, and Reach’s ex-Editorial Director Geoff Marsh joined as the channel’s Chief Digital Officer last month. Three’s a crowd…
New viewing figures published in Press Gazette today show the Reach PLC hacks’ strike, held for 24 hours on 31st August, made almost no difference to visitor traffic across the 14 affected sites. According to data provided by Similarweb, traffic stayed at around 17.3 million on the day of the strike, compared to 16.6 million the previous week, and 17 million the week before that. Although admittedly most of the Mirror hacks stayed put; their union, the British Association of Journalists, accepted the pay deal…
Reach offered staff a pay rise of either 3% or £750 minimum, which the National Union of Journalists said wasn’t enough after last year’s 1% increase. The sites analysed in Similarweb’s data were: mirror.co.uk, express.co.uk, dailystar.co.uk, liverpoolecho.co.uk, dailyrecord.co.uk, manchestereveningnews.co.uk, birminghammail.co.uk , walesonline.co.uk, chroniclelive.co.uk, mylondon.news, nottinghampost.com, examinerlive.co.uk, lancs.live and bristolpost.co.uk. In total, 1,150 hacks left their desks… only to see traffic at the Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Live and the Daily Record actually rise compared to previous weeks.
A second three-day strike had been scheduled for 14th-16th September, although that was suspended last night as the NUJ ballots its members on a new pay deal. The ballot ends on 23rd September. Given the last strike didn’t exactly deal a hammer blow, maybe members would be wise to take what they’re offered…
Late last night, the Reach PLC union members paused today’s planned strike over pay. Express and Mirror hacks were set to walk out today, Wednesday 31 and 14–15 September after Reach offered staff a mere 3% or £750 pay rise. The National Union of Journalists announced last minute today’s strike has now been suspended…
The pause came as the union announced talks had been resumed with Reach “with a view to reaching a fair and acceptable settlement for all of our hardworking members.” The rest of the strike days remain in place…
The remaining three strike days and period of working to rule remains in place and will be active should the negotiations over the Bank Holiday weekend not yield any meaningful proposals from the company.
— Mirror NUJ Chapel (@MirrorNUJ) August 25, 2022
The continued threat of Express strikes is bad news for anyone who likes reading regurgitated Guido articles hours after they’re published here…
Reach PLC hacks have voted to strike this month following a “meagre” 3% pay rise offer. Express, Mirror and Star journalists, as well as those from countless local news outlets, will walk out on Friday 26 August, Wednesday 31 August, and 48 hours from September 14th to 15th. They will also work only contracted hours from 1 to 13 September…
Reach offered staff a pay rise of either 3% or £750 minimum, which the National Union of Journalists said wasn’t enough, especially after last year’s 1% increase. A total of 79% of members voted for the strike action on a 70% turnout.
Ironically the NUJ’s local chapel representatives rejected the 3% pay offer by a ratio of four to one shortly after The Mirror published a front-page splash about chief executives earning up to 86 times their average workers’ salaries while trying to suppress staff wages.
Reach’s chief executive, Jim Mullen, earns £4 million, which according to the Press Gazette works out to 104 times as much as his median employee. Will millionaire socialist Kevin Maguire, on a six-figure salary – be joining the picket line? Guido has a feeling this is one strike the Government will be delighted to see…
Since Allegra Stratton’s resignation on Tuesday night, Guido’s video of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s IEA speech has racked up well over 7 million views, with pick-up from almost all the big hitters including the Sun and the Mail. For an appropriate fee and accreditation, Guido has happily licensed the footage to any publication that’s asked to use it. Most outlets have gladly obliged and paid up. Not all.
Sky News, the Independent, the Daily Express, UniLad, Metro, and BristolPost all took our content without paying for it. At the time of going to pixel, all still have Guido’s footage embedded on their websites without permission. Reach (on behalf of the Express and the Mirror) and BristolLive asked for licensing details before publishing, which we provided, only for them to upload the video without paying anyway. This isn’t the first time Reach has done this…
Unfortunately for these outlets, they lazily embedded link to our original YouTube video in their text, meaning any changes made to the clip’s thumbnail are reflected in their stories:
Our ferocious lawyers will be – or have already been – in touch.
As we reported last week, Reach, the renamed Trinity Mirror group which now owns the Express, is holding a “brand review” of the Express conducted by a consulting company. They have done a second round of consultations with a selected group including most of the senior staff of the Express.
Exercise 7 asked bemused Express hacks to evaluate a series of figures and brands with the questions:
- What can we learn from these brands/leaders?
- What is each one fighting for and against?
- How can that apply to The Express?
One of the brands/leaders was Karl Marx. Perhaps they plan to replace the Crusader with Karl?
