The Herald & Times Group was yesterday urged to consider its "credibility" by First Minister Alex Salmond after announcing plans to restructure. He also urged the company to get round the negotiating table with unions at the Glasgow-based group.

The Herald & Times Group was yesterday urged to consider its "credibility" by First Minister Alex Salmond after announcing plans to restructure.

He also urged the company to get round the negotiating table with unions at the Glasgow-based group.

The firm, which includes The Herald, Evening Times and Sunday Herald titles, has put all 230 editorial staff at risk of redundancy and invited them to re-apply for up to 40 fewer jobs in a major restructuring to modernise and compete in both print and online.

Mr Salmond said during First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament: "This is a difficult time for the Scottish media and the Scottish press. There's a range of possible redundancies across a number of outlets.

"But nonetheless it would be far better to approach these in a manner of negotiation."

Herald & Times Group editor-in-chief Donald Martin said: "These are extraordinary times that need extraordinary actions. The redundancy announcement allows us quickly to put in place a new and competitive structure with new roles appropriate for this era of combined print and digital output.

"We have no alternative but to modernise our operations where some existing structures and roles go back to the days of typewriters and we are in consultation on the changes with the National Union of Journalists."

Mr Salmond said there was another aspect which the owners of The Herald should reflect on.

"If this was happening in another employer in Scotland, if an approach was being taken to make an entire workforce redundant and then to ask people to re-apply for their jobs, what would we imagine that the editorial stance of The Herald newspaper - in its traditions - would be?

"The owners of the Herald group should think carefully about the credibility of the newspaper given the actions and style that they've adopted," he added.

The Glasgow Kelvin Labour MSP Pauline McNeill said The Herald and its sister papers have an "important status" in Scottish life. "A dramatic cut in jobs will be universally unwelcome," she added.