The paper, once the focus of one of the longest-ever strikes by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for three years from1978, was taken over by Northcliffe Newspapers in 1993. But a number of conditions were imposed by government, including that it should maintain an independent editorial board to oversee key decisions.

Last year, the owners sought to scrap that requirement, and the Department of Business Innovation and Skills invited comments.

The NUJ opposed the proposal vigorously, and the union’s Nottingham branch expressed  concerns about editing functions at the Nottingham Evening Post being combined with those for other Northcliffe titles in the East Midlands region, and also voiced deep unease about the threat to jobs. The union also warned that the newspaper and other Northcliffe-owned local titles could lose their  individual identity in favour of Northcliffe corporate branding

Lord Mandelson has declared: “The interest of ensuring people have access to a sufficiently wide range of views and opinions on both local and national matters and preventing too much influence becoming concentrated in too few hands remain legitimate concerns for the Government. The original purpose behind requiring an independent editorial board for the NEP related to the desirability of ensuring the editor of that title remained free to take editorial decisions independent of the title’s new owner, Northcliffe. Those concerns remain relevant.”

29 January 2010

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