NewsNow Reviews

Thanks for sharing your opinion of NewsNow. I’m sorry at how disappointed you sound about your experience at NewsNow. It’s really hard for everyone in an organisation when staff leave. NewsNow was by no means unusual in experiencing a loss of developers - though only 5 not 10 - there having been a serious nationwide shortage of developers (and salespeople and lawyers among other roles). We tried really hard to keep everybody - but, in the end, after being cooped up by the pandemic for so long (including some who joined us at the start of lockdown) it seemed like some needed a change and moved on. Naturally, when a number of people in a department have left, it changes the dynamic for those remaining who feel they have lost friends and colleagues, which will hit morale and it is not uncommon for there to be a domino effect, which is what we experienced. We certainly don’t begrudge anyone - including some who’d been with us for 5-11 years - for moving on in these circumstances, albeit with some regret and great appreciation for what they contributed during their years with us. That said, no member of our dev team raised any concerns with me along the lines raised here, and if they had I would have welcomed the opportunity to address their concerns. Any sizeable operation with a 25-year heritage like NewsNow is going to have some legacy tech and code. Most of our development efforts are centred on our modern tech stack and code, and of course we do have projects to improve, and in some cases reimplement, legacy systems in more modern tech too. Our development team is now back up to strength and morale is good. We want to keep it this way and recently introduced flexible working for developers to provide a better work/life balance. Let me thank you once again for your contribution to NewsNow, and wish you all the best in your future career. Kind regards, Struan Bartlett Founder & CEO