Fairfax strike over 120 job cuts

Fairfax strike over 120 job cuts

Fairfax Media journalists have voted to strike until Monday, after the company told staff it was planning to slash 120 editorial jobs across its Sydney and Melbourne newsrooms.

The company is targeting to cut the equivalent of 120 fulltime employees across its news and business divisions, which suggests the program will affect The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne and The Australian Financial Review.

A number of Fairfax journalists have posted on Twitter that staff in Sydney and Melbourne have voted to strike until Monday in response to the announcement, which was corroborated by internal sources.

The strike will hit the Saturday editions of the The Age and SMH, which have the biggest circulations of the week.

A Fairfax spokesperson was yet to return calls at the time of publishing.

An email sent to staff on Thursday from editorial director Sean Aylmer said the company believed it could reach its target through redundancies, tightening contributor costs and expenses.

“While we are much more efficient in producing quality journalism, we still have a way to go,” Mr Aylmer said in the email.

“Change is a permanent part of our industry. It is a reflection of what we know about the ways our readers are consuming stories.”

“We much continue to evolve with them.”

Mr Aylmer was to hold staff briefings in Sydney today and Melbourne tomorrow to discuss the cuts, before a consultation period involving the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union.

The news comes after The Australian’s media diary column revealed in November Fairfax was readying to slash up to 150 editorial jobs.

It also comes after Fairfax announced an editorial restructure of its metropolitan mastheads, resulting in the departure of former The Age editor-in-chief Andrew Holden.

Fairfax has started to unwind a merger between the AFR and the Business Day section, which runs in the SMH and The Age, while chief executive Greg Hywood told investors last month the company had optionality to stop printing the metro mastheads during the week if necessary.

The Australian