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Ten roles at the British Museum’s digital media and publishing department, which includes the British Museum Press, are under consultation and at threat of redundancy.
The department, which also includes website and broadcast teams, is being restructured to help deliver the museum’s “strategic goals for digital”.
There are currently 27 people employed across the department, of which 12 are with British Museum Press, and there are two vacant positions in the department. The 10 roles currently being consulted on range across the digital media and publishing department.
Olivia Rickman, acting head of press at The British Museum, told The Bookseller that 19 new roles will also be created in the department as a result of the process.
She said: "Further to initial consultation with affected staff and trade unions, the British Museum and the British Museum Company Limited is proposing to make some changes to the digital media and publishing department, as an outcome of our digital strategy, and is consulting further with affected staff and trade unions about the proposals. Ten roles are being proposed for redundancy as part of that consultation. The museum is proposing to create 19 new roles to help deliver our strategic goals for digital.”
According to accounts for the year ended March 2014, The British Museum Company, an exempt charity of which British Museum Press is a part, “had a successful year, with significant growth in income and in profitability, allowing a contribution within the year of £2.5m to the British Museum”.
In the year before The British Museum Company contributed nothing to the museum.
In 2013/14 the British Museum Press published 32 books, with the company accounts highlighting successes including Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum by Paul Roberts, which sold 40,000 copies.