Updated: Fairfax staff in both Sydney and Melbourne have voted to go on strike for 24 hours in response to the news the company will potentially lay off 70 newsroom positions. Hashtags #fairfax and #savetheage are now among the top trending topics on Twitter.
Journalists from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age tweeted about the strike action with Miki Perkins, senior reporter on social affairs at The Age writing: "It's official. The Age on 24-hour strike. #savetheage."
Kate McClymont, investigative journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, tweeted: "Fairfax Media on strike for 24 hours over slashing numbers of photographic and other staff. Sorry folks, that means no tweeting from #icac.”
Up to 70 editorial jobs could go at Fairfax Media after staff were put on alert by Allen Williams.
Redundancies are being discussed across editorial production, life media and photographic teams in a move the union MEAA has described as "an assault on quality journalism".
The publisher will confirm its intentions next week. Should it go ahead with the cuts, it would represent a cull of around 10 per cent of editorial staff.
Allen Williams, managing director – Australian Publishing Media, sent staff the following email:
"Today we have started discussions with staff about introducing new arrangements in Editorial Production, Life Media and Photographic in Australian Publishing Media.
The proposed changes outlined below are focused on the continuing transformation of our business. We must deliver our high-quality content in the most efficient way possible.
We will be consulting with affected staff and holding briefings to address any questions you may have about each of the proposed new arrangements.
EDITORIAL PRODUCTION
Fairfax currently operates a company-wide approach to editorial production, which involves delivering copy-editing and page layout services in a variety of ways to meet the needs of our mastheads.
Three years ago The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and more recently The Canberra Times started working with Pagemasters for copy-editing across news, business and sport print sections. The contract with Pagemasters expires soon and we are in the process of reviewing these external arrangements.
Any new arrangements will absorb more copy-editing and page layout work. As a result, we propose to reduce our in-house editorial production team by about 35 FTEs in Sydney and Melbourne no later than December 2014. Included in this number are 10 roles, currently part of the editorial production team, which will move to report directly to newsroom editors. These new positions will be open for application to all News, Business and Life editorial staff.
Our retained team of about 33 FTEs remain reporting to the Managing Editor Production (Australia), Tanya Adams. This team will handle key digital and print production for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times and magazines.
LIFE MEDIA
New arrangements would see Life Media restructure some of its divisions to make greater use of contributors to deliver editorial content. The proposed changes preserve our commitment to quality and would help accelerate the continued growth and expansion of these areas which are an important part of our business.
A more flexible structure that better suits modern journalism practices is being proposed and briefings will be conducted today and tomorrow in both Sydney and Melbourne with those affected. We anticipate a reduction of approximately 15 FTEs.
The new structure would create several new roles and these positions will be open for application to all News, Business and Life Media editorial staff.
PHOTOGRAPHIC
New photographic arrangements would see News, Life and Business in Sydney and Melbourne make greater use of external service provider Getty Images for photographic assignments.
The proposed changes would see a reduction of approximately 30 FTEs, retaining approximately 10 staff photographers and approximately 10 photo desk staff who would work as part of a merged visuals commissioning desk. There would be significantly less use of casuals and contributors engaged directly by Fairfax.
Our photographic needs across all platforms continue to be commissioned by editorial however most assignments will be facilitated by Getty photographers for our publications. Fairfax retains the copyright in the photos and they will be for Fairfax’s exclusive use.
The changes we are proposing are similar to the more progressive and efficient models being used by other media organisations around the world.
Fairfax has a long relationship with Getty, which is an award-winning global provider of photographic and other media services across all publishing platforms. We already make extensive use of Getty photographers for our sport and digital requirements.
Under the new arrangements, Matt Martel will take on the role of Executive Editor - Photography and Presentation, with oversight of photography, design, graphics and illustration.
Editorial management will be providing Editorial Production, Life Media and Photographic with more detail about the proposed changes and any resultant redundancy program. Briefings and feedback sessions will be held with these teams as part of our consultation process.
We have already been in contact with the MEAA about these proposed changes.
We anticipate being in a position to advise on next steps by 14 May 2014."
Fairfax declined to comment further other than suggesting that no decisions had yet been taken.
However, following consultation with the publisher, the MEAA union slammed the proposals as "an assault on the quality journalism that has been the hallmark of the group for more than a century".
MEAA federal secretary Christopher Warren said: "This will further erode the ability of the staff who remain to do their jobs without a marked increase in work intensification. It strips a massive loss in skills, experience and knowledge from the group.
"Fairfax seems incapable of deciding on new production arrangements and sticking with them. The only decision the company seems capable of making is to keep cutting staff.
"When do we reach the point of no return? Why isn't more effort being made to protect and promote editorial quality and utilise smarter ways of working? At what point does Fairfax stop being a news organisation and merely become a commissioning agency that outsources everything it does?"
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