Business
NUJ urges Reach to invest in its journalists at 2026 AGM
The union attended Reach plc’s Annual General Meeting yesterday (6 May) and urged shareholders to support investment in quality journalism and oppose further
About this update from Reach Plc
[{"type":"text","content":" The union attended Reach plc’s Annual General Meeting yesterday (6 May) and urged shareholders to support investment in quality journalism and oppose further cuts, warning that the company’s digital strategy depends on a properly resourced workforce. In a letter handed to shareholders, the NUJ Reach group chapel highlighted the challenges facing journalism and digital publishing, where “big US tech companies [...] have sucked out the advertising spend, leaving digital income in pennies against the pounds” generated by print. The NUJ Reach group chapel’s letter stated: “Last year saw more than 300 skilled and hard-working journalists made redundant from Reach plc to hack out cost in the face of continuing declining revenues. This meant bigger workloads for those remaining - and less scope to create the content which is most likely to win new subscribers. “It would be foolish and foolhardy to believe that AI can be the saviour. It should only ever be a useful tool to enable journalists to do their best work. “The NUJ hopes that you, as shareholders, will recognise that further cuts to diminishing numbers of Reach editorial workers will be counterproductive.” During the meeting, the NUJ raised concerns over painful recent redundancies to newsrooms and print sites, asking the board: “how much of the 5-6% costs earmarked for this year is likely to come from the redundancies of journalists?” Piers North, Reach chief executive officer, responded by saying the board is “managing our cost-base appropriately” and “we will always continue to look at our cost base, and our people are our biggest cost.” Earlier in the meeting, North had thanked staff across Reach for \"serving communities with real dedication and skill.\" The union highlighted the closure of two of Reach’s three print sites this year, asking how long the board thinks the company will still be producing newspapers at scale and what criteria will be used to judge the sustainability of current titles. North acknowledged that there is still an audience for print and said the company would “continue to service that audience as best we can.” Darren...