(Reuters) – Most of the staff at Reach Plc will continue to work from home even after coronavirus restrictions are lifted, the owner of the Daily Mirror newspaper said on Friday, helping it further cut costs.
Canary Wharf-headquartered Reach, most of whose employees have been working from home for over a year, has decided to move to a combination of office-based, home-based and office and home-based teams.
The company, which cut about 550 jobs last year after the pandemic hit circulation and advertising at its newspapers, said the move applies across all its over 110 titles and more than 70 regional websites.
The Daily Express owner will move to a hub-based model with 15 large offices in Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham, Dublin, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Greater Manchester, Nottingham and Plymouth and an office in the South East.
“We carried out a survey of all colleagues that showed a majority found home working suited their needs,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“Moving forward we will be investing more in our strategy and our journalism and less in buildings.”
Reach’s plans to cut office space is in line with several other companies like HSBC planning to nearly halve its office space globally and British Airways considering selling its headquarters.
(Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
