Times are tight right now, and money's too tight to mention. So are the words 'Redundancy' and 'Sacking', apparently. So, we'll just use the word 'Pooling'.
Yes, it seems NewsTalk and Today FM are to "pool" their resources. And before the cynic at the back starts making noises, no, there are not to be any redundancies - that's already been made perfectly clear. What they are however doing is letting freelancers go; and two freelancers from the NewsTalk newsroom were told their services were no longer required yesterday (along with another three freelance researchers from various shows).
(It's a good tip: make sure you don't actually hire 'staff' and then you don't have to fire them or make them redundant - you merely tell them not to come in tomorrow. It's also convenient in saving you the bother of paying benefits and pension payments. But that's another story for another day)
What the two stations are planning to do is to start sending out one reporter to events. One reporter that will file a story with both of them. What they are also doing - and this is beautiful - is having one newsreader on weekends, reading bulletins that will be heard on both stations simultaneously. You were spoilt with all that choice anyway.
The true crowning turd in this particular cesspit of a story though is how people at NewsTalk heard that there were to be sackings - sorry, pooling. Apparently the news was leaked to RTE before anyone at NewsTalk had been told. Therefore, yesterday lunchtime, people working at NewsTalk were receiving calls from friends in the RTE newsroom enquiring what was going on. Thus the faithful workers of NewsTalk heard the bad news from a rival media outlet. Lovely.
Still, what can you expect when the management was so noticeably absent while the shit was careering towards the fan...
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Oh, and the lesson for prospective journalists? Well, there are actually two to be learnt from this particular sorry mess:
1. Chances are you won't be offered a permanent position in the first place.
2. You'll hear you're no longer needed from another news organistion.
As I said, lovely.
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