The journalists' union will meet with Fairfax Media management later this week for further talks about the publisher's radical downsizing plans announced yesterday.
Representatives from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) met with Fairfax Media Metro chief executive Jack Matthews and publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sydney Morning Herald Peter Fray yesterday. The MEAA stated the men “had little to offer” in response to the representatives' questions relating to the announcement and its implications.
“Readers and employees alike are entitled to know precisely how Fairfax Media intends to ensure that these two great mastheads will continue to produce quality journalism when fewer journalists are left to actually go out and hunt out news stories,” said MEAA acting federal secretary Paul Murphy.
“For more than a decade this company has dithered about a switch from broadsheet. It has been an ongoing saga as management stalled at making tough decisions in an increasingly difficult environment. Now, after years of doing nothing and in the twilight of the print media era, management has finally made a decision.”
The MEAA is still in talks with the publisher's regional media arm following the decision to offshore 41 editorial production jobs to New Zealand. Seeking to cut costs, Fairfax had rejected the MEAA's suggestion of an in-house money-saving solution: a multi-platform ‘sub hub', the staff of which work across multiple mastheads and platforms.
The controversial 'Future of Fairfax' plan released yesterday outlined the publisher's aim to save $235 million annually by 2015 by taking measures such as the axing of 1900 jobs over three years.
As part of the plan, Fairfax's metro mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age will be downsized from broadsheets to tabloid size while paywalls will be erected across Fairfax's digital assets.
Fairfax has also sold off 15% of its 66% stake in New Zealand-based auction website TradeMe for $160 million, enabling Fairfax to reduce company debt to about $800 million.
Fairfax's print plants at Chullora and Tullamarine will be closed by mid-2014, saving $44 million a year. The move has also fuelled speculation Fairfax has resumed talks with rival publisher News Limited over a joint printing venture after negotiations fell apart in March over terms.
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