LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Times is cutting about 50 editorial staff, or 10 percent of the total, by merging its print and online news desks and streamlining its production set-up, the newspaper said on Tuesday.
The paper has launched a voluntary redundancy programme and said it would enter a 30-day consultation with the National Union of Journalists "to keep redundancies to a minimum." The job cuts will include reporting and production staff, copy editors, and support staff, a spokeswoman said.
As part of the FT's production revamp, it can now publish web and print pages from the same editorial platform. The company also plans to reduce the number of differences between its various editions.
The FT, which returned to profitability in 2005 after years of red ink, is owned by Pearson Plc, the world's biggest educational publisher. Earlier this year, Pearson Chief Financial Officer Rona Fairhead took over as head of the company's newspaper division.
