Penza, 5 August 2015. PenzaNews. Anna Shirchkova, a former TV Express employee since 1997 that worked as a reporter, TV anchor and lead editor in the TV editorial branch, commented her layoff and the current quality of news content of the channel for PenzaNews agency.

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“I am currently not employed at ‘Express.’ We canceled the agreement on mutual terms. Before that, we had some talks on a way to improve the news service. The channel executive officer Stepan Parfenov insisted on greatly reducing expenses, starting with salaries, at the same level of work done,” she said.

The journalist added that the heads of structural departments received layoff notices starting on August 7, 2015, after they refused to accept the optimization plans of the higher-ups.

“Apart from me, they were sent to the editor-in-chief Roman Maslov, journalist Dmitry Inyushkin, senior camera operator Alexander Zherebtsov and deputy director Anastasiya Bayazitova, though the latter case was later recalled,” Anna Shirchkova stressed.

However, according to her, the laid off staff has all the foundation to recall their notices through court within eight months span.

“I was not offered any other potential job, and I was not informed of the new schedule. But I will not seek to restore there, because, alas, I see no potential in ‘Express’ if the top management remains the same,” the speaker said.

She explained that the quality of content took a plunge during the term of the previous general director Alexander Orgin, while Stepan Parfenov keeps the trend.

“They place emphasis on reducing expenses, but they do so in a particularly unusual way. For example, they no longer make news reports on weekend. This means ‘Express’ will be a step behind others in coverage and speed. Of course they will begin to lose viewers. Almost all shows in ‘Morning with Express’ are shown in repeats since April 18. The news recently showed a report on reconstructing the circus that used the three weeks old information from a newspaper where I work. ‘Express’ basically lags behind newspapers. The sports report announced the radiosport competition that took place in Penza exactly a month ago,” Anna Shirchkova explained.

She also added that the lag will be further exacerbated by decreasing numbers of camera operator, along with the high-quality professional Alexander Zherebtsov who will leave on August 7.

“The founders of ‘Express’ channel, husband and wife Levov, taught me that development and priority news are key, that one should do the job well, and now it seems that imitating work was made key, just showing something live,” Anna Shirchkova concluded.