‘Love and passion can’t help you live’: Reach journalists set to join picket lines

Industrial action expected on Wednesday is largest strike to hit UK newspaper industry in decades

When hundreds of staff at the Mirror, Express and dozens of local newspapers join picket lines on Wednesday, they will be taking part in the largest strike to hit the UK newspaper industry in decades. Having spent recent months reporting on how the cost of living crisis is affecting their readers, many journalists at the media company Reach say they are struggling to meet their own bills - and management is refusing to listen.

One regional reporter described how three years of university, training and unpaid placements had secured them a job at a Reach outlet on 18,000 a year. Having only recently joined the media industry, they are already overwhelmed by the financial instability.