Former football players and managers yesterday hit-out at billionaire newspaper owner Richard Desmond for planning to slash the number of Daily Express sports reporting staff from nine to six.
Desmond wants to save £14 million a year and is hoping to cut journalist staff across all four Express newspaper titles by a third.
The papers have already stopped sending reporters to cover Formula One races and major tennis tournaments abroad and with further redundancies in the pipeline, there is unlikely to be specialist writers covering sports such as cricket, golf or boxing.
LAURA DAVISON traces how Murdoch’s mass sackings, political deals and legal loopholes shattered collective bargaining 40 years ago – and how persistent NUJ organising, landmark court victories and new employment rights legislation are finally challenging that legacy
As advertising drains away, newsrooms shrink and local papers disappear, MIKE WAYNE argues that the market model for news is broken – and that public-interest alternatives, rooted in democratic accountability, are more necessary than ever
A handful of journalists at The Times faced a stark personal and political choice in 1986 – cross the picket lines for cash and career, or stand with organised labour at great personal risk. BARRIE CLEMENT recalls why refusing to scab at Wapping was not just an act of union loyalty, but a stand for the future of journalism
Norwegian’s French Open struggle lays bare brutal truth in elite game — playing in pain isn’t the exception, it’s the expectation, writes HOWARD FENDRICH



