I was sorry to read today that the Manchester Evening News is making further cuts to its editorial team, with two of the city’s best known business journalists set to leave the paper.
Prolific North has reported that MEN business editor Kevin Feddy and his deputy Simon Donohue have been made redundant and could leave the paper as early as this month.
I’ve worked with both men. They were tough, but fair, and will be a huge loss to a newspaper which has sustained more than its fair share of trouble in recent years.
It makes you wonder how many more casualties Trinity’s new publishing model can take before it stops publishing city papers like the MEN altogether. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago; but journalists know there are only so many hits regional newspapers can take as circulations continue to dive along with editorial resources.
I hope they’re wrong. Manchester needs a decent paper and its journalists continue to set the agenda in the city in the teeth of Trinity’s down-scaling. I’m sure the MEN’s departing journalists will be successful in whatever ventures follow their newspaper careers.