Asides

BONED: Mass sackings at Herald Sun as features centralised in Sin-City

We hear reports of a large number of redundancies at the Herald Sun, particularly focused on features and production staff. As many as fifty will go or be sent to Sydney as punishment just like the first European settlers. The features folk will report to former Sydney Morning Herald editor Alan “Dark Cloud (as in every silver lining has one)” Oakley who has been appointed the national editor, features.

We understand the announcement was made yesterday at an editors’ conference and was received with stunned silence. Insiders argue that having a national approach to features could make a lot of sense given how many of them are shared across News Ltd papers anyway. The changes could improve quality while reducing duplication and waste but they will almost certainly make the whole group much more Sydney focused.

Needless to say, the move has not been at all popular among Herald Sun staff.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE:

Amusingly, nearly a week later, our friends fiends at Crikey have sort of got onto this story, with their Margaret Simons writing:

I’ve spent far too long on the phone so far this week trying to chase down rumours about what is going on at News Limited, and in particular in the features area. The unsurprising result – that most of the rumours are born of fear rather than fact, but that something is going on – is in the Crikey email today. I must admit to some nerves, though. One of the rumours I got just last night was that 200 people would be sacked from News Limited tomorrow. I told Crikey editor Jonathan Green I thought this was not true, and that if it was true I would resign as his media correspondent. Now, that’s one way to get News Limited reporters wishing me career longevity. 

Meanwhile, the blog that seems to have gotten the latest round of rumours running is this one. This item was published last Friday, and I made some calls. Didn’t check out then, doesn’t now either.

But, as I say, there is something going on with Alan Oakley’s new position. See Crikey.

We responded:

Dear Ms Simons,

Our story is well sourced and we certainly stand by it. It has been confirmed by quite a large number of News Ltd patriots. If you try the switchboard, they’ll put you through, it’s not exactly a secret now.

I hate it when people say they’re going to quit if they’re wrong or ride naked on a horse down Bourke Street if they lose a bet or whatever so hopefully you can find a way of backtracking, should the condition precedent be triggered by a News Corp razor gang.

Not that we wish to be unsporting or unnecessarily bloodthirsty but does your quit pledge cover the prospect we reported of features being banished to convict town Sydney or just the gossip you heard about 200 souls being sacked in 24 hours.We certainly share your doubts about the latter.

While on the subject of error, I fondly recall your enthusiasm for Mark Latham in Quarterly Essay that seemed to claim he’d reinvented politics and could convert water into the cask chardonnay once served at ALP branch meets. Of course, everyone ended up being wrong about him.

Until his dark phase of shrieking “death to America,” it did indeed seem he could have been a contender. But by September 2004, when the essay was published, it was reasonably clear the bloke wasn’t up to the job. Possibly any job.

Also, your assertion that VEXNEWS is a blog is not correct, and, if you don’t mind me saying so, is a rather churlish and deliberately disparaging description. We publish news – fair and balanced – from a variety of patriotic sources, frequently breaking news stories that are followed up by our newspaper friends. Indeed, our news reports appear – with other news publishers – on Google news and have even been referred to on US television (thanks to the Family First candidate we exposed for exposing himself).

Anyway good luck, we hope there are no job losses at what is clearly the best newspaper in the nation – the Herald Sun – nor at email newsletter Crikey which is probably best described by reference to what my mama used to say, that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Go in grace,
 

Andrew Landeryou

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