THE presses will roll for the last time at the Liverpool Echo on Saturday morning as printing is transferred 40 miles outside the city, to Oldham.

More than 100 jobs have been axed in the cost-cutting move by owners Trinity Mirror, which on Thursday announced half-year profits of £49.1million.

The closure of the Old Hall Street plant brings to an end 154 years of printing in Liverpool.

Both the Liverpool Echo and its stable-mate, the Daily Post will now be printed on presses at Trinity Mirror’s huge plant at Hollinwood Drive in Chadderton, Oldham, in Greater Manchester.

Trinity, publishers of the Daily Mirror, say that the move out of Liverpool will mean “a better, brighter Echo for readers and better long-term prospects for the staff and the business.”

But union leaders accuse the Echo of “hypocrisy” and say it is betraying Liverpool by taking jobs out of the city and harming the Merseyside community which the paper serves.

The National Union of Journalists claim the move will fatally undermine the paper’s editorial credibility as a champion for Merseyside – a charge which editors are acutely sensitive to.

The union fears that, although there will be improvements in the quality of the paper used and the reproduction of colour photographs, the quality of news in the Echo and Post will suffer from earlier deadlines – 7am in the morning for the Echo.

NUJ Regional Organiser Chris Morley said: “Effectively, the paper will be produced the day before – it will be 24 hours old. Changing the paper to get in a late-breaking news story will be almost impossible.”

However, two editions of the Echo will still be produced – but it’s likely that only the front and back and one inside page will be changed.

The NUJ also fear that the demise of the Daily Post will be hastened because it will be in direct competition with the Echo from 10am every morning, when the first editions are expected on the streets of Liverpool.

Already, separate reporting staff from both papers have been merged into one. It is expected that the separate papers will follow suit.

UNITE the union, which represents the sacked printers, faced an uphill battle to try and save the jobs and keep printing on Merseyside. Trinity argued that it would cost £24million to replace the ageing and out-dated presses at Old Hall Street – compared to just £6million to invest in the extra capacity at Oldham.

UNITE Regional Secretary Paul Finegan said: “We were always up against it from the start, because we couldn’t argue with the figures. Trinity paid lip service to consulting us.

“Over the years, the Echo has been one of the most profitable parts of the regional business for Trinity – but they creamed off massive profits without investing anything back into Liverpool.

“They left the cupboard bare and then, when hard times hit, it’s the workers who pay the price.

“I’m confident we could have rallied the people of Liverpool behind a ‘Boycott the Echo’ campaign, just like Liverpool fans did to The Sun over Hillsborough.

“But although we lobbied MPs and local councils and got great public support, we did not want to kill off the Echo – we still have 200 members working there. So has the NUJ. A boycott was never really an option.”

Will Mr Finegan be buying the new Echo then?

“I haven’t bought it since the day they announced the move to Oldham,” he admitted. “I had friends and colleagues there who have now just been thrown out of work.”

This article first appeared at Liverpool Confidential

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