Revealed: How News Limited plotted Parramatta move
News Limited’s proposed Cumberland Media Centre.
News Limited has applied for and received planning approval for a new $51.9 million redevelopment of its offices in Parramatta, that could potentially serve as a new headquarters for Australia’s largest newspaper publisher.
However, the company has told Mumbrella’s sister title Encore that it has since shelved plans for the so-called ‘Cumberland Media Centre’, a two stage development that would have provided the company with more than 53,000 square metres of office space.
“Some years ago we submitted what was a nascent plan for a Cumberland Media Centre, which was approved. However, we decided some time ago not to progress with the idea,” said a News Limited spokesman.
Did anyone tell the Aurora about this move ?
This could take years. Firstly there is the the asbestos roofing, that will need to be removed. The other is that there would need to be an archealogical dig like have been done on similar neighbouring sites previously. Not to mention the heritage listing of the facade.
If you don’t get shot, stabbed or robbed then Parramatta can be very cosmopolitan.
Toby, we miss you!
The Shakey won’t be happy either.
News should have moved to Parramatta years ago instead of rebuilding Holt Street. Fairfax should have moved there too.
23 km from the CBD? Not where I’d try to run a metro daily from (and don’t say Wapping, it’s far closer to London’s centre than Paramatta is to Sydney’s).
Bill Posters, Parramatta is very close to the geographical and population centre of Sydney. Far closer than the CBD (in reality the Eastern Business District). If you wanted to run a news paper for all of Sydney it is better to be in the centre than on the fringe. Next time you read a Sydney newspaper, have a look at how many stories require a reporter to be in the business district to write them.
Why “plotted”?
Why not “planned” or “considered”?
Or are those words not good enough link bait?
Lindsay, I don’t dispute that Parramatta is at the geographical/population centre.
However, Parliament House, the Supreme Court, the Federal Court, the headquarters of Macquarie Bank and other big corporates, etc etc etc, are not. They are in the CBD.
It may not be the centre of population but it is the centre of power.
Some may argue that News IS the centre of the Universe
There’s plenty of room to “restack” – whatever that means – the gulag that is Holt St HQ. So many staff have been shown the ever-revolving front door in the last three years that the place looks like the aftermath in one of those disaster movies where almost everybody had died after a rabid disease has been unleashed. Row upon row of empty desks gathering dust in the editorial departments so, for starters, there’s more than enough room to bring in the mag division from the not so exciting environs of industrial Alexandria. Happy days ahead! All the workers together under the all-seeing eye of Chairman Kim!
Bill Poster, the centre of power in a newspaper is where the production staff are and there is absolutely no reason for them to be sitting in expensive offices in sight of the Harbour Bridge. Given much of the sub editing for the SMH is now being done in Rhodes or New Zealand and the printing for the paper moved to Chullora (as did News Limited), it is reasonable to assume the reporter or two needed in the city could get there in a taxi.
You might like to also consider The Australian is printed and sold all over Australia with its main editorial office in Surry Hills. It has not stopped the paper reporting on Western Australia or Canberra. Some reporters even have mobile phones now.
Bill Posters, Parliament House is in Canberra…
Lindsay, The Australian has bureaux of reporters in Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne even Darwin and Hobart. So not covering the nation from Surry Hills
WD , the only thing that scares me about Parramatta is Westfield !
Exactly my point OldJourno. Reporters can be or go anywhere they need to go. But as with The Australian where all the production work (the majority of the staff) is done in an office far removed from where the reporting is coming from, there is no need for the production staff to be in the same place as the reporters. Thank you for pointing that out.