Belatedly, Axegrinder has received a fascinating account of a mass editorial leaving party at The Independent following the latest round of redundancies at the paper.
On his blog, Charles Arthur, a former Independent man who now edits The Guardian’s technology supplement, was an eyewitness to the send-off party for eight staff with 60 cumulative years’ experience working on the paper.
Arthur recounts: “The pay-offs were massive ‒ as in six-figure massive. The leaving pages went on and on.â€
He said that long faces weren’t helped by the opening remarks in editor Simon Kelner’s speech which apparently fell rather flat.
Kelner reportedly said: “I was walking around the newsroom this week thinking, blimey, people are still here after 6 o’clock, and writing away! They must have loads of exclusives! Then I looked, and discovered they’re all writing leaving pages!â€
One of the longest serving staff to go, Jason Bennetto, used the opportunity to recount a list of “things I won’t miss about working for The Independent†which included: “Having my exclusive story knocked off the front page by a picture of a butterfly.â€
Arthur said: “Not long after I joined in 1995, the Indy had a summer redundancy sweep which was short and vicious. People complained then that the staffing was being cut to the bone. Well, in those days there were two health correspondents, a social services correspondent, a science writer, technology writer, another science writer, religious affairs writer, transport writer, labour writer, environment writer… and they were all different people.
“Now there’s a health writer, science writer, environment writer. Nobody’s doing religion, technology, transport, labour. It’s not just cut to the bone ‒ it’s down to the heart and lungs, kept going in some sort of vat with the brain possibly attached.â€
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