The UK was under a strict lockdown throughout February, which likely affected advertising and circulation sales as well as physical events for those publishers who previously relied on them.
Archant appointed a new chief executive, Lorna Willis, in March. It has not made any pay cuts for staff throughout the pandemic and around 25 jobs lost have been put down to “natural attrition” rather than redundancies.
Fellow regional publishers JPI Media and Midland News Association made the second biggest furlough claims in the UK news media industry in February, of between £100,001 and £250,000 each.
Newsquest also increased its number of furloughed staff in February, going from claiming between £25,001 and £50,000 per month in December and January to between £50,001 and £100,000 in February.
The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post owner was bought on 31 December for £10.2m by former Local World boss David Montgomery who has begun implementing a new localised strategy for the group.
The next biggest recipients of furlough cash in December were The Guardian, Archant and Midland News Association which all received between £50,000 and £100,000.
The Guardian instigated plans in July to cut 12% of its workforce as it expected a £25m revenue hit because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Advertising, Guardian Jobs, physical events and print were the hardest hit areas of the business and at that time about 100 staff were on furlough.
At the time it said the endowment fund which underwrites its losses had shrunk from £1.013bn to £954m.