Major names among 85 redundancies across Nine’s publishing division
At least 85 employees from Sydney Morning Herald, the AFR, The Age, Brisbane Times, and WAtoday will be leaving the company in the coming months, as Nine publishing approves a slew of voluntary redundancies.
A Nine spokesperson confirmed the move in a statement given to Mumbrella on Wednesday.
“As foreshadowed in June, we have been working with our people in reshaping the publishing business to ensure a sustainable future in response to the challenging advertising market and collapse of the Meta deal,” the spokesperson said.
“We have now concluded this process, with around 85 people from our newsrooms, print operations and audience and commercial growth divisions regrettably leaving the business over coming months.
“We will be providing support for all employees transitioning from the business.
“Every one of these people depart with our gratitude and appreciation for their contributions to Nine’s world-class mastheads.”
Mumbrella understands that not all redundancies made were voluntary.
SMH’s culture editor Osman Faruq, Indigenous Affairs editor Jack Latimore, US correspondent Farrah Tomazin, Private Sydney columnist Andrew Hornery, the AFR’s senior correspondent Aaron Patrick, senior writer Helen Pitt, Herald cartoonist John Shakespeare, sports writer Andrew Webster, senior writer Helen Pitt, and books editor Jason Steger, are among the high-profile journalists leaving the company.
Hornery announced his own redundancy online, saying “before you read it elsewhere hear it from the source,” and adding: “After 29 years with the Sydney Morning Herald I have put my hand up for voluntary redundancy and leave on August 30”, and that “the financial opportunity proved irresistible and I believe the time is right for me to venture into the great unknown.”
In June, Nine CEO Mike Sneesby told staff between 70 and 90 jobs would be lost across the publishing division “to offset the loss of revenue from the Meta deal and challenges in the advertising market.”
Sneesby said: “It is not something we want to do but it is something we need to do to continue to build on a successful platform of high-quality journalism and digital journalism and digital subscription growth.”
In a separate note to staff, managing director of Nine Publishing, Tory Maguire, said at the time: “This is the first time we have had to take headcount out of editorial since 2017, which is an extraordinary anomaly when you look at other news publishers around the country and the rest of the world.”
The following month, after numerous failed negotiations, unionised staff from Nine’s publishing division staged a five-day strike, which resulted in improved pay conditions, but weren’t enough to stop the redundancies.
This figure of 85 redundancies is in addition to the dozens of redundancies made in early July, when Nine’s Pedestrian announced the “tough decision” to transition out of its current brand licences, resulting in the closure of youth-focused publications Refinery29, Kotaku, Vice, Lifehacker Australia, and Gizmodo Australia.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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