Hounslow Chronicle and Ealing Gazette to be based in Watford
The Trinity Mirror group have announced further cut backs in their local newspaper division which will see a number of titles in the West London area close and others no longer delivered door to door.
Staff at the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle, Westminster Chronicle and Kensington and Chelsea Chronicle were told on Friday morning that their papers would close from 25 April.
According to the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Hounslow Chronicle and the Ealing Gazette will become free pick up titles which means they will be left in distribution points around the borough. The Uxbridge office where both papers are currently produced is also to be closed and the remaining staff are to be relocated to Watford.
Up to 15 people including 10 reporters may lose their jobs as part of the move according to a statement from Trinity Mirror.
Laura Davison, national organiser for the NUJ, said: “This announcement has come as a terrible shock to the hardworking staff of these titles.The speed of it means there is little time to look at meaningful alternatives to closure.Trinity Mirror should not simply be able to shut down these titles and lock them away after years of starving them of resources.It will leave some communities with no local paper, depriving them of a way to access information and hold local power to account. Readers and the Trinity Mirror journalists who serve them, deserve better.”
It is not known at this stage whether the arrangements for continued distribution of the Hounslow Chronicle and the Ealing Gazette will satisfy the statutory obligation of the Councils for publicity for official notices such as those relating to planning.
Both Ealing and Hounslow have refused to consider putting notices on web sites like ChiswickW4.com and EalingToday.co.uk even though there is no legal reason for them not to do so.
April 14, 2014
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