Fairfax Media announces ‘proposal’ for 80 redundancies in regional Victoria
Fairfax Media has today confirmed a “proposal” for 80 redundancies of full-time equivalent positions across Victoria in a move that would see reporters file, edit and subedit their own work across the publisher’s regional Victoria newsrooms.
The redundancies includes 62 editorial roles, including management, sub-editing and photography with administration and some sales positions also affected.
“Journalists will report local news across multi-media, as well as be trained to write headlines, captions and fact-boxes. Quality-checking processes and procedures will be in place and our editors will remain responsible for managing risk and maintaining editorial standards,” said John Angilley, director of Fairfax’s community newspaper business, Australian Community Media.
Staff in Victorian papers, including The Border Mail, The Courier, Bendigo Advertiser and The Standard, were briefed on the changes today and consultation with employees is now underway, with the union representing the journalists today expressing grave concerns about the changes.
Would love my daughter or son to work in journalism one day.
That’s if there are any jobs left.
Come on guys this is a craft that takes skill and requires quality. Not everyone can write and some of the ‘citizen journalism’ out there is rubbish.
Are we meant to be excited by these changes?
Gimme’ a break.
I wonder what Rural Press would have looked like if it hadn’t merged with Fairfax? Goodbye Macquarie Radio…
Fairfax of the Future, a gothic novel by Greg Hywood with a foreword from Roger Corbett.
It’s not just VIctoria where job cuts are occurring. The Illawarra Mercury is currently going through a review period as is the whole Illawarra South East region. Fairfax’s spin is that they are creating newsrooms for the future and that this is all about digital. We all know that this is about job cuts and further outsourcing to get production done cheaper elsewhere
It’s a disgrace, especially when the top four including CEO Greg Hywood gave themselves a $2.4m pay rise last year.
https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/fairfax-news-corp-execs-draw-rancour-staff-amid-ongoing-pay-negotiations-244670
@ Realist. I dunno. There’s money to be made.
Dad reckons you can make a fortune by simply dividing the country into two camps. Then all you need to do is spend your time talking about a left wing conspiracy.
Her reckons right wing nutjobs will ALWAYS pay top dollar to have someone confirm their prejiduces.
And the best way to do that it to disect the media around and howl about the “leftiness” of everything. You see journalism is like a quota system. All media produced must be sorted and weighted according to it’s left wing bias. Which are FAR more important than facts.
Uncle Gerard has been doing it for years.
But I think it’s wearing him out.
I’m just curious what is being put on the table for the voluntary redundancies. Is Fairfax making reasonable offers, or is it continuing its approach of minimising expenditure?
From what I understand, the chopping block is also about to hit at Fairfax Community News in NSW, with journos expected to write, edit, subedit their stories – AND take photographs. As a former Fairfax journalist, I am so sad at what’s happened to what used to be a mighty company – and a fabulous breeding ground for outstanding journalists.
Can’t see The Standard in Warrnambool ever winning a Walkley Award again with such staffing losses.
Once you kill the readers interest in a newspaper by lowering quallity it is extremely hard to get them back. We are witnessing Fairfax making itself redundant.