10. Memorandum submitted by Meridian Maidstone
NUJ/BECTU
Following a detailed analysis of the transcript
from the Select Committee attended by Clive Jones and Mick Desmond,
coupled with what the company has subsequently announced, we would
like to make a few points we believe are pertinent.
As you can see from the points highlighted,
what was said to the Committee is simply not borne out by events.
— Regarding lack of consultation—Maidstone
staff found out what was planned only when the operations director
of Granada, Ian McCulloch, slipped up at a private dinner and
revealed the studio would be closed by next summer.
— The Maidstone studio at New Hythe
was never purpose built, as constantly claimed by management.
It is the combination of two already existing industrial units.
The proposed site at Fareham is not purpose-built either. It is
the top storey of a three-floor block. Initially the new super
news centre was supposed to have three studios with the newsroom
as backing for all of them—and already this has been found
to be unworkable and three separate studios will have to be built
on this floor. (Also no planning permission has been sought for
the satellite dishes which will be needed on the roof.)
— Jeremy Dear (NUJ) describes the consultation
as a "sham". It certainly is for the staff in Factuals
and Sport who are also to be moved out of Southampton. John Cresswell
and John Hollywood from Granada told these staff at a meeting
in Southampton on Friday 12 December, that there is no commercial
justification for them to remain in Southampton.
— Michael Fabricant asked about Meridian's
proposals—"what is it going to mean in terms of programming
in the region? Is there going to be less regional news as a consequence?
Is there going to be any less regional production as a consequence?
Yes there will be less—it is inevitable that if you have
a journalist doing the editing of the pictures, he or she will
be doing the job of two people. Time spent physically putting
together the finished story ready for broadcast is time not spent
on the next story. Already lack of investment has chipped away
at our regionality. It's a trick to cover up the fact that a story
was filmed in say Poole in Dorset to have it sent to Maidstone
and re-voiced by a Kent journalist, removing all location references
in the script and broadcasting it as if it was filmed in the South
east—we have fought against this practice and had limited
success. But not only do we argue there will be more of this—we
believe in future there won't be the time or the staff to even
re-voice it and remove the Dorset references! When these newly-trained
journalists on this new, untried technology fail to make their
deadlines for whatever reasons—lack of experience and crashed
computers being the BBC and Sky examples—then whoever is
producing the Maidstone show in Southampton will grab a feature
from ANYWHERE simply to fill up the screen at 6pm. This is not
the quality viewers in the south-east expect or are accustomed
to.
— Clive Jones says the Southampton
newsroom he built 14 years ago, he revisited 10 days ago and to
his horror it has not changed. (1) It has. (2) If he perceives
that it has not, what does that say about the level of investment
in technology in that newsroom since 1989?
— Mr Jones again "We are not proposing
to diminish the number of journalists on the ground at all. All
we are talking about is moving a presenter and maybe a technical
director". We have been told Mr Jones is across all proposals
and approves of them. And what is proposed is NOT what he told
your committee. In the HR1 forms put to the Department of Trade
and Industry and in the details given to staff it says clearly
that in Maidstone two reporter posts will go and two out of three
sub editors will move to Southampton. All the presentation team
will go to Southampton. Interestingly all reporters are now immediately
supposed to be sufficiently qualified to cover any county cricket
match from our patch—Kent, Sussex and Essex. The News Editor
and Deputy News Editor posts are being merged—the deputy
found this out on the day her first baby was due.
— Mr Jones also said "In future
we HOPE to have more facilities, new offices in Hastings/Ashford".
A hope is not a guarantee—nor even an aspiration. We point
to the company's previous record on Dover. We will also argue
there is no logistical need for any base in Ashford.
— Mick Desmond says "Certainly
the coverage in the press did not come from any comments from
ourselves". Not exactly. Meridian's corporate public relations
officer was quoted in the Bournemouth evening newspaper confirming
the job losses and Maidstone move in advance of any official notification.
While Granada was plainly stung by the Guardian story about the
sell-off of the Manchester studios—an opportunity existed
to tell the unions formally about this on a Friday and it was
not taken. Instead, after the weekend, managers decided to tell
the group of staff representatives instead, and who knows how
it was leaked after that!
— Derek Wyatt asked: "The principle
of Ofcom should be that when it takes evidence it should take
it in the public domain so we can hear it, not behind closed doors,
as it has been in the past 50 years of broadcasting." Clive
Jones "If Ofcom were to take that approach I am sure we would
be happy to go along with it, but it would be a decision for the
regulator, not for us." On Friday, December 12th, in Southampton,
John Cresswell and John Hollywood of Granada said they have held
their first meeting with Ofcom—not behind closed doors already
surely? In subsequent Ofcom letters to staff here, it is spelled
out meetings have already taken place which staff and unions knew
nothing about.
— Mick Desmond said "We have regional
advisory groups, where again, they will play an active role in
the process". To our knowledge, no efforts have been made
to contact any Meridian advisory group of the proposals for moving
Maidstone.
— Clive Jones said "We are going
to carry out a review of all our facilities which any sensible
company would do." Then "The main studio in Southampton
has been used once in the last year." Wrong. 54 days actually.
— Clive Jones clearly answered No when
he was asked if the Westminster team of reporters were going to
be affected. Yet they are currently under review and feel certain
every single post is being questioned as is the whole structure
of their output.
— Chairman Gerald Kaufman asked "On
whose initiative was an application made to the ITC to move the
ten o'clock news to 10.30?" Clive Jones—"It was
at ours." And we all know what a howling mistake that was,
don't we.
5 January 2004
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