Fairfax Metro Media chief executive Jack Matthews and group editorial director Garry Linnell fronted angry staff at a stop-work meeting yesterday.
Following the announcement of widespread changes yesterday, the mood within the media company remains tense. Fairfax said it will make 1,900 staff redundant over the next three years as part of a cost-cutting plan.
Sources have told AdNews that at an all-staff meeting yesterday in Sydney, staff – particularly journalists – openly challenged management's plans and demanded clarification on the details. One staff member demanded to know who from the management team would be getting the axe.
Sources said that staff also wanted to know why Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood was not present to address them. They were told by Matthews and Linnell that Hywood was dealing with external stakeholders.
Those present at the meeting told AdNews Matthews and Linnell said to staff they did not know exactly which employees were on the chopping block and that Linnell would decide on the editorial redundancies. Matthews also said the 1,900 number released by Fairfax was not final and the ultimate number would be done on a sliding scale which may land lower or higher.
There is expected to be 300 redundancies within the Metro division, with half in editorial and the other half in sales. The gathering ended just as another meeting with the journalists' union began.
Matthews wrote in a staff email earlier in the day: “More flexible staffing models are required across all parts of the Metro business, not just editorial. In particular, we are reviewing our customer facing operations, production processes and marketing operations in order to finalise the remaining required redundancies.
“These changes announced today are part of a far-reaching program, designed to comprehensively restructure and reposition the business for years to come. I understand the period ahead will be difficult, particularly while there remains uncertainty as to exactly how it will be implemented and who will be affected. But we will deal openly and fairly with all concerned, and we will move as quickly as we can to remove those uncertainties.”
Fairfax journalists have also been posting details on Twitter regarding the mood within the company. The Sydney Morning Herald's deputy foreign editor Marcus Strom tweeted: “a simmering crowd of journo and sales staff gets few answers from metro media mgmt. but will CEO Haywood [sic] face the floor?”
SMH investigative journalist Kate McClymont tweeted: “The news that Fairfax is cutting 1900 jobs, about 400 from editorial, is completely gut-wrenching. Numbness pervading the SMH newsroom.”
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