“As a former employee; who still had/has many friends working locally with the Mercury, I've watched all the local newspapers struggle with falling circulations and advertising revenues over the past few years.
It would be naive to assume that the Mercury would not be vulnerable to the recession, but what saddens me most, is in the fact that if any other local company was shedding SO many jobs, (and they have shed a huge amount of personnel over the past 2-3 years) it would make front page news.
It's hypothetical whether the poor people losing their jobs are 'employed' either by the Mercury directly or Harmsworth Print... these are still LOCAL individuals whose loss of employment will have a direct impact on the local economy and the jobs market.
It shows poor judgement to try and 'bury' the story in a press release fashion (that made less than a column against the spine on page 2 in last night's edition), when other media sources are already reporting the story in full. It shows a lack of respect to those employees, that the Mercury couldn't be as objective in reporting this local issue as it pertains to be in all other aspects of it's business practices.
I understand why the Mercury needs to cut costs, these are troubling times for all of us, but let's not pretend that in consolidating local centres for regional media, it is inevitable that the 'local flavour' of the paper will NOT get diluted.
What we have to hope is that this move won't significantly drive down the circulation figures even further so that the paper ceases to be economically viable and disappears from our streets altogether. By trying to save the business, you might just kill the newspaper.
To those people who are losing their jobs... I'm truly sorry. I hope some good comes out of this for all of you. I enjoyed my time at the Mercury - on the whole it was the people I worked with and the friends I made that made it such an important time for me.
And finally let's hope the Mercury retains it's objectivity as this story unfolds because it's the only way to retain your future credibility.”

“Predictably, my previous comment was removed even though there was nothing remotely libellous or abusive about it (accusing people of being emotional and ill-informed is fine, I suppose). So, I'll keep it short - who are you, Media Man? Come out into the open.”

“Answer is in the slogan! SHAME!”

“Lack of vision. Answer is in the slogan "At the heart of all things local" Shame the business can't see it.”

“I worked at the mercury for 12 years and left October 2007. This is something we thought would never happen and its a real shame. There are now 66 printing staff from all levels all looking for jobs and there doesn't appear to be any support or guidance form their soon to be ex-employer. its such a shame.”

“It the same story as any other business like pubs etc, they keep incresing prices to increase profits and consequently price themselves out of reach of prople, result lost slaes and shooting themselves in the foot.”

“Not one single mention of saving paper. I despair each time I see people who should really be doing more worthwhile jobs than handing out 'free' newspapers on the streets - it's plainly immoral in these times. Do we really still have to be informed and entertained by exactly the same physical medium that we were 100 or more years ago - isn't it time to look to the future ?”

“It is an end of an era

Ashame really”

“Dear Media Man, emotional i may be, ill informed i am not, HPS was formed as a merger between Associated Newspapers and Northcliffe retail who coincidently own.. yes you guessed it ... the Leicester Mercury, maybe you should spend more time reading the Media, and by the way, have a bit of sympathy for the workers at HPS who may be facing an uncertain future please!”

“Why would the Leicester Mercury have to move to Nottingham, when our newspaper has a bigger circulation than theirs?”