Reach to slash London office space, move sales team to long-term part-homeworking

Daily Mirror publisher Reach is to introduce working from home on a permanent basis, in a move that will apply to all staff including its ad sales team Reach Solutions.

The ad sales team, which is the reigning Commercial Team of the Year in the Campaign Media Awards, will remain based at Reach’s Canary Wharf office.

However, there is expected to be less space there in future, with Reach having decided to give up one of its two floors at Canary Wharf and its other London offices in Lower Thames Street.

All staff will be assigned to one of the following three categories:

• home-based (home most of the time with occasional office visits)
• home linked to a office (regular days in the office although less than half of their time)
• office-based (based in the office more than half of the time)

Reach did not clarify the relative sizes of those categories, beyond stating that about a quarter of its total staff would be office-based.

A spokesperson said: “These categories have been allocated according to the needs around each role. We'll be speaking to staff over the coming weeks and we're optimistic that we’ll be able to find ways of making this work for anyone with particular needs.”

Home-based staff will still be encouraged to book meeting spaces or come in for training, as needed, and there will be a booking system to manage demand.

Reach said its decision came after polling staff, who like the rest of the country have been working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, on their preference for future working arrangements.

Some observers may see the decision as a chance to cut costs, which the company looked to do recently when it decided to cut 550 jobs, about 10% of its workforce, last summer.

The spokesperson added: “We carried out a survey of all colleagues that showed a majority found home working suited their needs. Moving forward, colleagues will either be home-based or working mainly from home with regular office attendance, and around a quarter permanently office-based, working from one of 15 hubs around the country.”

The "hubs", Reach’s term for large offices, will be located in Belfast, Bristol, Birmingham, Dublin, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London (Canary Wharf HQ), Greater Manchester (Oldham), Nottingham, Plymouth and another location in the South East.

Staff assigned to the offices will continue working from home until lockdown guidance changes. Reach said it will be investing in upgrading all offices to allow for more flexible working.

In addition to the Daily Mirror, Reach owns the Daily Express and Daily Star and a host of local and regional newspapers.