Slashing subs: 'utter bollocks', or the future of an industry?

Northcliffe Media's plans to create two giant production hubs covering the East Midlands and the North East - slashing up to 50 sub-editing staff in the process - have been met with outrage from rank-and-file journalists. The comments below are furious. 'Utter tosh, the whole thing,' says one. 'Any subs left to tackle that last post?' asks another.

And when Northcliffe explain they made the move 'to meet the rapidly changing needs of the industry,' Grey Cardigan likewise deploys his trademark bluntness to good effect. 'Utter bollocks,' he reckons.

The natural instinct of all good journalists, of course, will be to rally round their brethren. You can't slash 50 subs without it having a major impact not only on house style and basic grammar, but on headlines and local knowledge and fact checking and everything else in between. And you certainly shouldn't be doing so to maintain juicy profits in a downturn.

But... how many reporters and editors might have a sneaking suspicion that Northcliffe, too, have a point? The industry is changing, and in a world where reporters are expected to file online instantly, and multi-task at anything else, the huge sub desks of yore do seem increasingly anachronisitc.

It may not be right, but it may also be the way we're moving as an industry. Perhaps that Northcliffe Media spokesman should have been blunt too. Hey, don't blame the player, blame the game...