Workers at new paper take 20% wage cut

MORE than 50 staff at the Evening News have agreed to a voluntary 20 per cent cut in wages.

Evening News editor, Mr Dick O'Riordan said staff had "willingly, agreed" to the pay cut for a three month period. The reduction in wages, which came two months after the paper's launch, has also been applied to the rates paid to non staff contributors.

"The cuts were asked for, but we weren't going to impose them," Mr O'Riordan added.

He said the cuts were needed because part of the paper's strategy was to keep outgoing and incoming funds at the same level. According to Mr O'Riordan, the Evening News was launched "in a doldrum period" just before the start of the summer when advertising revenue and newspaper circulation drops at most newspapers.

The paper's start up costs, which had been projected at £1.25 million were also "more than expected", as launching a new newspaper with high technology was a very tricky and complicated business.

Mr O'Riordan said that initially the Evening News had sold between 38,000 and 40,000 copies a day, but this has slipped back to about 25,000. The paper had received a "very positive response from advertisers" and both advertising revenue and circulation should pick up in the autumn, he added

About half of the staff are former employees of the Irish Press group while the main shareholder in the new venture, is the Midland Tribune Group, which prints the rural edition of the Evening News at its plant in Birr, Co Offaly.