Journalists unsettled by talk of a takeover and huge job cuts

Martin Shipton

Journalists working for the biggest private sector media company operating in Wales have been unsettled by the leak of a partly formulated takeover plan that could lead to the loss of more than 850 journalists’ jobs across the UK.

In Wales, Reach plc owns WalesOnline, the Western Mail, the Daily Post, the South Wales Echo, the South Wales Post and Wales on Sunday, plus weekly titles circulating in the south Wales valleys and north Wales.

The group also publishes the UK national titles the Mirror, the Express and the Daily Star, as well as the Daily Record in Scotland.

Cost cutting

Documents seen by The Telegraph suggest that veteran newspaper executive David Montgomery is putting together a takeover bid for Reach that, if successful, would lead to a programme of “radical” cost-cutting at the publisher.

The £400m plan, dubbed “Project Glass”, includes a proposal to slash more than 850 journalists – more than a third of Reach’s editorial workforce of 2,300 – and 100 employees in printing and production.

Mr Montgomery also signals plans to lean more heavily on artificial intelligence via so-called “automated content gathering”.

Other plans outlined in Project Glass include “sweating” the group’s declining print newspaper titles, restructuring and ring-fencing its costly pension deficit, and embarking on an acquisition spree of other news brands.

National World

In 2022, when Mr Montgomery led the newspaper group National World, he launched an earlier unsuccessful takeover bid for Reach. Earlier this year he was ousted from National World after being defeated in a power struggle with Malcolm Denmark, the Irish newspaper tycoon and racehorse owner.

Mr Montgomery’s leaked presentation claims the backers of his Telegraph bid are ready to help bankroll a takeover of Reach with £250m of equity, alongside £150m of debt.

Reach has slashed hundreds of jobs in recent years because it has failed to come close to making up for dwindling print revenues with additional revenue from digital. Despite big declines in newspaper circulation, Reach’s half yearly figures for the first six months of 2025 show that as much as 76% of total revenues still come from print.

The group has faced criticism for its “clickbait” stories and what The Telegraph described as “the deluge of adverts flooding its websites”.

Share price

The company’s share price has declined by more than a third this year, leaving its market value at around £220m – a fraction of its £5bn peak in 2005. Equally independent financial analysts have marked their estimate for Reach’s 2025 print revenue from £408.1m in March to £382.6m now.

In the leaked draft documents, Mr Montgomery criticises Reach’s “underperforming business”, saying the circulation of its print newspapers was dropping at a faster rate than those of rivals such as the Daily Mail.

He also takes aim at Reach bosses, saying the company’s “pattern of decline has not been met with a tactical or creative response” and that acquisitions and pension top-ups worth more than £1bn over the last decade have “all been squandered by lack of any organic plan”.

Reach would not comment and Mr Montgomery said there was “nothing to this takeover speculation” and that he remained under contract to National World, and complies with those obligations.

Nevertheless the National Union of Journalists is currently in discussion with Reach about the group’s plans to cut sports journalists, including in Wales.

A Reach employee in Wales who did not wish to be identified said: “This is all very unsettling once again. The company has not responded to the Montgomery story with any round robin email to staff and no one seems to know anything about it.”

An industry source said: “There is a clear intention in the leaked Montgomery plans to use AI to create stories that would otherwise be written by journalists. It’s based on the fallacy that AI can create original stories in the same way journalists can. You can’t programme AI to get original information from contacts in the way journalists can.

“If these plans came to fruition, it would be a major blow to Welsh journalism and Welsh democracy at a time when people need reliable sources of news about their country and their communities.”