• Published date: 12 April 2024
• Author: LAURA SLATTERY
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Irish Independent publisher Mediahuis Ireland has reduced its employee headcount by 50 people in its publishing division, with the total including a number of compulsory redundancies, it has confirmed

Peter Vandermeersch, chief executive of the Irish subsidiary of the European media group which has its headquarters in Antwerp, said compulsory redundancies had been kept “to a minimum”, but did not specify the total. Some new roles were also being created, he said.

Mediahuis Ireland, which employed close to 550 people at the start of 2024, announced in January that it would seek to shrink the size of the workforce across its publishing division in the Republic and Northern Ireland by about 10 per cent, with the aim of splitting the cuts 50/50 between editorial roles and non-editorial roles.

Hiring for new roles

This has now been realised through a mix of voluntary redundancies, natural attrition, a shift to part-time working and compulsory redundancies, with some “internal mobility” also taking place.

Mr Vandermeersch said that, while Mediahuis Ireland was reducing the number of people it employs in traditional – mainly print – publishing, the company was hiring for new...