FORMER staff at the now defunct voice newspapers in Monaghan and Cavan say they were “shocked” at the way they were made redundant last week.

The Monaghan Post and Cavan Post newspapers will be offering jobs to some staff from the Voice newspapers which last week went out of business in the Cavan and Monaghan areas.

In a statement released yesterday (Wednesday) workers at the former Voice Group newspapers said that the manner of the closure was “brutal and shocking” and that the payment of wages and expenses had so far not happened as promised.

As the Monaghan Post gets ready to enjoy it’s first anniversary this week, the company owning the Post newspapers, River Media, has been offering interviews to the staff of the two papers.

“The first year of any business is always the most difficult but the fact that we have seen off the Monaghan Echo and the Monaghan Voice in our first year of trading in Monaghan shows how popular the Monaghan Post has become,” said Associate Editor Miss Teresa McGowan.

According to a statement issued The Voice papers shut down due to “unprecedented competition”.

One former member of the Voice sales staff in Cavan and Monaghan said advertisers preferred the Post.

She said: “In Monaghan and Cavan one thing we were constantly being told by advertisers was that they were happy with the Post. When the papers closed we were all told that we’d done a great job but we just could not compete.”

Daniel Browne Operations Director for River Media, the owner of the Post titles, commented: “20 people have lost their jobs and some of these are good people that I would happily have working for us.”