THE decision by Isle of Man Newspapers to print its three newspapers off the Island in the future should not have been announced as a ‘fait accomplis’ without any prior discussion with government, Tynwald was told this morning.

MLC?Eddie Lowey, who has been highly critical of the decision by Johnson Press to make seven printing staff redundant, together with numerous part-time jobs, claimed the company should have had more dialogue with government before making its announcement.

“To lose seven full time jobs and numerous part-time jobs is of great concern,” he said. “I believe that Johnson Press should have shown a little more co-operation with the Isle of Man and there should have been more dialogue before the event was announced. This was a fait accomplis.”

Mr Lowey asked Chief Minister Allan Bell whether he was happy with the way the announcement had been made.

Mr Bell admitted that the timing of the announcement, so soon after the newspaper’s Excellence Awards night, was “something of a contradiction to the spirit of the event”. He added, “I agree that it was very disappointing for this decision to be announced on the back of the Excellence Awards.”

However, he also accepted that the decision to print off the Island was a commercial one, and that newspapers being printed off the Island was nothing new.

Mr Bell said he had since met with senior management at Isle of Man Newspapers and been assured that all editorial, photography and advertising staff would be retained, but he understood that there may be some changes to working practices for journalists and photographers to meet new printing deadlines.

Speaker of the House, Steve Rodan, said that the decision to print off the Island and the company’s claim to be “a truly Manx newspaper” had been undermined by the decision.