Just two staff reporters will be covering the whole of Gloucestershire for Reach under the latest proposed cutbacks announced by the publisher.

The publisher of the Citizen and Echo and the Western Daily Press has announced that it is seeking 192 editorial redundancies, with regional titles set to bear the brunt of the cuts.

Last month, Gloucestershire Live made one of its five staff reporters redundant and there are now plans to shed another two staff reporters. 

This would leave just two staff reporters, along with a local democracy reporter funded by the BBC and a community reporter funded by Facebook.

One Gloucestershire-based journalist, who did not wish to be named, said: It's just unbelievable. I've totally lost faith in the company, as we all have. Everybody's trying to jump ship now.

"It's absolutely bonkers. This is a company who have spent a shedload of money in the States and are cutting back in the UK.

"It's madness. It feels like a slow death for local journalism in the UK. They have already cut it back to the bone and they're now going beyond the bone.

"What Reach has done to local journalism in the UK is killing it."

"It's all come from the suits. The editor was absolutely gobsmacked when it was imposed on him.

"They're going to get rid of two people by early to mid-May. They just want to reduce the money they pay out and they're quite happy for people to go for voluntary redundancy."

On Friday, National Union of Journalists reps from across Reach passed a motion of no confidence in chief executive Jim Mullen and the publisher's senior management team at a group chapel meeting.