LONDON — The Telegraph Media Group will be cutting a number of jobs within its editorial and commercial departments in an attempt to minimize costs, according to British media reports.
Job losses will include senior staff working in the features, culture, picture and foreign affairs desks. A number of commercial roles will also be cut. The changes follow a strategic review by the consultancy, Deloitte.
The group did not return calls for comment at press time.
According to The Financial Times, The Telegraph also plans to introduce flexible working practices, including hot-desking and having members of staff work from home, in order to cut space in its large headquarters near London’s Victoria Station and control rent prices.
The downturn in print advertising has been cited as the reason for the proposed changes, which are part of a three-year plan that aims to protect the print business and expand digital operations.
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“Conditions have continued to markedly deteriorate across the sector,” the group’s chief executive officer Murdoch MacLennan wrote in a letter to staff, according to the Financial Times. “Such stark figures underline the urgent need for us to move ahead with the process of change as well as reducing costs to invest in growth areas.”
The Telegraph Media Group owns the best-selling and most profitable broadsheet in the U.K., and made a profit of 51 million pounds, or $74 million, over the last year, according to The Guardian.
The Telegraph isn’t the only British broadsheet that’s taking stock of its operations — or winding them down altogether due to the sharp downturn in print advertising and the slow growth in digital revenue as sites such as Google and Facebook grab the lion’s share of digital advertising budgets.
In March, The Guardian Media Group revealed plans to cut 250 jobs in order to trim operating losses which amounted to 58.6 million pounds, or $84 million.
Earlier this year The Independent unveiled plans to cease publication of all its print editions and go wholly digital.
The Trinity Mirror media group had also launched a new daily paper called The New Day in February, which shut operations three months after its launch.
In 2014, The Telegraph underwent a series of layoffs in order to transition into a digitally driven publication. About 55 people were made redundant.