Fairfax Media has grown its trainee program with the addition of 20 journalists to join the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday.
Fairfax says the program is one of the largest trainee intakes in years for its Metro newspapers arm and underlines the company's "commitment of the mastheads to fostering a new generation of journalism excellence".
The intake of juniors comes after substantial cuts to senior ranks in recent years. Last year, Fairfax cut 125 editorial jobs across its metro titles as part of a $30 million restructure. In 2016, Fairfax cut 100 stuff from its newsrooms. Many of the redundancies targeted senior editorial roles.
Fairfax says it will be choosing trainees with different backgrounds and educational qualifications, but a tertiary qualification is mandatory.
The paid editorial trainee program will run for 12 months and offer journalists formal and informal training aimed at developing reporting, editing and production skills.
After completing the program, trainees will have the opportunity to move into permanent journalist roles.
Australian Metro Publishing managing drirector Chris Janz says the program is a "significant investment" in Fairfax's next generation newsrooms.
"Recruiting trainees is a demonstration of our long-term commitment to producing quality, independent journalism and our strong desire to grow and to tell the stories that matter in the communities we serve," he says.
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