NEWSPAPER publisher Trinity Mirror is warning it may have to cut jobs following a slump in advertising revenues.

North-East workers at the Newcastle Chronicle, Newcastle Journal, the Sunday Sun and the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette were this week told that its parent company was cutting costs across the board.

Trinity said difficult trading conditions, due to a slowdown in the economy, were to blame.

Jobs on Trinity's regional papers could be cut by between five and seven per cent, it was estimated by trade magazine The UK Press Gazette.

But a Trinity spokesman said no figures or timescale had been decided yet, and that figure was speculation.

The cuts came in response to what Trinity described as a difficult advertising market.

Staff at North-East newspapers, which operate under the company names of the Newcastle Chronicle & Journal Limited, and the Gazette Media Company Limited, were called into meetings this week.

A memo to staff said: "We are now starting to review a number of measures to reduce or postpone cost.

"We have already taken steps to reduce labour cost through vacancy management, but it now appears likely that further steps will be necessary, including the possible reduction in the number of our employees.

"If such a course of action does become necessary, the company will continue to follow its policy of calling for volunteers in the first instance."

A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: "All media owners are experiencing tough trading conditions due to the slowdown in advertising markets.

"We are reviewing a number of possible actions to support our businesses, which may include redundancies, in what is a challenging period for the entire media industry."

Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, said Trinity had created a climate of fear and uncertainty throughout the company.

He said: "Trinity Mirror needs to rethink its strategy and invest in its titles to win new readers, not consider cuts which can only damage the editorial quality of the titles and cause more readers to abandon its titles."