Not less than 160 staff of African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) PLC, publishers of the Tribune titles, have been sacked, barely one month after the appointment of Mr. Edward Dickson as the new Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the company.
It was gathered that management of the company felt it was necessary to reduce the excessive staff strength estimated at 700 which they felt was too much.
A source narrated“they went to other newspapers and found out that their staff strength are far less than our own. They claimed that they went to a Lagos- based newspaper and found out that they employed not more than 300 staff and they do not see the reason why they should have 700 staff.”
He added that the new MD in a meeting with the retrenched staff noted that it was necessary to down size than to allow the company to die.
He also said that the company has not been able to declare dividends to shareholders, emphasizing that the company’s working capital has also reduced.
An affected workers said: ” I have been thrown back to the labour market. I am now jobless and don’t know what to do for now to maintain myself and my family.”
However another staff who survived the exercise said: “Thank God I am not affected. It was a big tsunami that passed through my office last week. Could you believe that it affected line editors like assistant editors and the rest?”