Media
AXED: 550 jobs to go in frenzied Fairfax cost cutting carnage
Fairfax Media has announced that 550 of its staff will be axed in a desperate attempt to contain costs.
There’ll be a $50 million charge for the redundancy payouts. A displeased Age insider told VEXNEWS “Using shareholder money to pay for a better product rather than paying people out might be considered a superior management technique than the policies of ‘Captain’ David Kirk. I’ll be applying a redundancy with great pleasure if given the chance. There’s also been noises about Lawrence Money talking his bat, ball and Zimmer frame and going home. Not that he ever comes in anyway.”
One-third of the cuts will be in editorial. Fairfax insiders say most of this will come from the non-Rural Press parts of the company, because they are already run “very lean and mean”. That leaves the focus of cutbacks on Fairfax’s best-known brands, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Review.
An Age source said it was “reasonable to expect outsourcing galore”. He explained “It is the only way we could possibly produce the same newspaper with less money.” This means sub-editing and other functions could be done in markets with cheaper labour like India or Bangladesh.
The cuts are expected to be made as early as Christmas this year. The Age can expect as many as fifty redundancies in its newsroom according to industry experts. Some believe this will probably be the catalyst for the departure of beseiged editor in Chief Andrew Jaspan.
More ominously, there is talk within News Limited that they too might be looking at cutting back staff due to a slowing down in the general economy and in ad revenue.
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WHEN THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A HATCHET JOB
by Sasha Uzunov
Copyright 2008
Since breaking the story about Vietnam Veterans’ anger at Premier John Brumby for employing as a Veterans Heritage Officer Garrie Hutchinson, the man with the draft dodger past and Viet Cong Sympathies, I have hit a raw nerve in some of those who have allowed the truth to get in the way.
The Sunday Age’s page 1 story, Truth still a casualty long after Vietnam, by writer Tom Hyland, August 17, 2008, is a poor attempt at demolishing the veracity of my story and is nothing but breathtakingly hypocritical and smacks of conspiracy theories.
Why you would need to run it on page 1 is unbelievable…It is more of an opinion piece and diatribe.
It is unbelievable for the publicity and controversy it has given me to strengthen my case. People will soon make up their own minds.
The facts are all there for anyone to see. There is Garrie Hutchinson’s own book: “Not going to Vietnam,” which reveals his NLF (Viet Cong) propaganda film activities. This is not in dispute. Yet the Tom Hyland article would lead you to believe otherwise and glosses over it quite cleverly.
The Sunday Age’s editorial, “When the historian becomes a victim of history,” contains the following quote which contradicts Tom Hyland’s story:
“Hutchinson did not fight in Vietnam. Like many Australians of his generation, he disapproved of the war and resisted the draft. In Not Going to Vietnam, he wrote: “I remember Tet as a defeat (for the Vietcong), one of the most depressing events of 1968. I didn’t think the NLF (National Liberation Front) could win, and this was an important factor in my leaving Australia.” Hutchinson went to England, where he spent weeks showing “NLF propaganda films”.
These were the quotes or admissions by Hutchinson, some cited or paraphrased in Paul Ham’s book, Vietnam, The Australian war, that had triggered the Veterans anger:
These were the passages that triggered the outrage by some of the Vietnam Veterans who contacted me… They pointed first to the Paul Ham book and then to the other quotes as confirmation. Others are also now included to illustrate the point.
Hutchinson’s book, Not Going to Vietnam, book, Spectre Book, Sydney, 2000.
Visiting the North Vietnamese Embassy in London in 1969 to pay respects for the death of North Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Minh
page 39
“Had I been recruited? [by North Vietnamese embassy in London]. It hardly seemed to matter to me. I was a volunteer in England, far from Australia and Vietnam…”
page 42-43 –
“…a bit of money had become available (perhaps it was from the North Vietnamese) for a couple of weeks touring NLF propaganda films around England…I didn’t ask where the money or the films came from, and if that was a kind of treason by negligence, so be it. I was glad to help my cause, even if it was among the uninterested English…”
page 212 -
Arriving in Vietnam in 1997
The formalities took about three quarters of an hour. Everyone then had to walk 200 metres to the Vietnamese border post, a white cement structure down the track, red flag flying.
That gave me a little lift, the red flag and yellow star. I had never flown it in the old days but I had flown its comrade flag, that of the National Liberation Front [Viet Cong]- red and blue with a yellow star.
page 249
Visit to Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, in 1997
“When Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 I was in London, and now, finally I was in a queue shuffling quietly towards the mausoleum. I know it was unfashionable to admire public figures, especially lifelong communists, but there is something about Ho Chi Minh that I still find appealing and sympathetic. He has blood on his hands, but not much for the leader of a country which has been at war for fifty (or a thousands years).”
If that is not damning evidence then I do not know what is. The page 1 story by Tom Hyland was written in haste as a demolition job, pure and simple. But a poor one at that. The fingerprints and clues have been left behind for all to see.
I am made out to be on some crusade. My only “mission” is to give the average veteran a voice. What people do with my articles, where they post them or send them that is their democratic right to do so. Or do we have to run everything through the Sunday Age first for political clearance?
The issue being missed here is why Vietnam Veterans are not being asked who they want to represent them as Veterans Heritage Officers?
If they feel uncomfortable about Hutchinson’s Viet Cong sympathies, then we have to listen to that.
The more critics take aim at for my style of journalism, fantastic, I can take as many hits as you like. Keep it coming. It will not stop me from being direct, larger than life, and bombastic if it gets to the real issues and cuts through all the red tape and barriers to information.
Pardon me for not being a latte sipper.
Hyland says “Uzunov, a former soldier who served in East Timor, describes himself as a military affairs expert. He complains he is not taken seriously by mainstream journalists who are jealous of his claimed expertise.”
Tom, how about I remind you of the many times your Fairfax colleagues call me asking for news tips. Here’s one published quote:
(Australian troops’ close shave in Iraq firefight,” Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 2006 by Gerard Noonan, Craig Skehan, and Desmond O’Grady in Rome)
“A report from a former Australian soldier and now freelance journalist, Sasha Uzunov, first raised the alert about the incident.
Tom, you’re forgetting I have a Fairfax vendor number as freelance photo journalist… Fairfax have paid me for some of my photos and stories in the past. But let us not get in the way of your story.
What is contradictory in the Sunday Age story is how can a journalist who is not taken seriously supposedly hold sway over Veterans groups and the media and politicians in the same breadth.
Oops, unless there are cold hard facts to back up that journalist’s story!
The Sunday Age story is simply wrong and vindictive.
Indian English is peppy.
This is the company that will get the work, you heard it here first.
http://www.expresskcs.com/
if newspapers don’t cut staff they’ll lose all their staff
MESSAGE TO ALL STAFF FROM DAVID KIRK AND BRIAN McCARTHY
To All Staff
We are announcing today a major restructure of corporate and group services and significant initiatives to improve the overall productivity and performance of many of our businesses.
Media markets continue to change rapidly but, notwithstanding our positive performance in adapting to these changes in our industry, to continue to succeed we need to continue to change.
These initiatives are a logical next step in the way we manage our business in response to the structural changes going on around us. This is a far-reaching program, designed to comprehensively restructure and reposition the business for years to come. We wanted to make a major change today across the company in order to accelerate our building of a strong and dynamic integrated media business.
We are reducing employee levels and devolving to operating businesses much of the corporate and group services. We are also streamlining reporting lines and initiating new ways of working to improve the efficiency of our publishing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. The number of employee redundancies involved across Australia and New Zealand is approximately 550, across many areas of the business. Approximately 30% of the redundancies affect editorial staff in Australia and New Zealand (and for New Zealand this includes staff already affected by the previously announced editorial project in subediting). Another 180 employees will be reassigned in the restructuring set out below.
Corporate and Group Services
The corporate changes we are making in Australia will simplify our structure, increase business unit accountability and control of support services and focus corporate on high-value or longer-term activities and governance.
A period of centralisation of business support services has resulted in a significant upgrading of the quality and effectiveness of our IT, Finance and Legal functions. This has put us in a good position to now partially return these functions to the operating businesses in order to improve responsiveness and better align resources with needs.
Resources and capabilities in HR, IT, Finance and Legal necessary to guide Group-wide programs and provide support for public company governance will be retained at the Group level. These include a small Convergence Development team and essential HR services, both of which will report to David Kirk.
A range of financial and legal services will also continue to report to the Corporate Office.
The Executive Leadership Team will be re-formed and take a more pro-active role in determining the agenda and providing leadership and decision-making for important group-wide activities.
As part of wide-ranging controls for discretionary costs, both the base salaries of the Executive Leadership Team Members, and the fees paid to the Board of Directors, will be frozen for the 2009 financial year.
The senior executives in Corporate and Group Services, Sankar Narayan, Linda Price and Gail Hambly, will be meeting with managers and staff in their respective areas to explain the details of the changes, next steps and any new reporting lines, and initiate a process for discussion with each person involved in this restructure to discuss reassignment or redundancy.
Australian Publishing and Printing
After a year in which new operating management has been put in place and significant synergies achieved, the time is right to take the next step in forming a truly integrated publishing business.
Metropolitan Publishing in Sydney. We are introducing changes and efficiencies in most areas of the business, including editorial, publishing services, marketing and newspaper sales, the contact centres, and the editorial library.
In addition, there will be a restructure for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, bringing both papers under a seven-day roster to remove duplication. Editorial production processes are to be streamlined, with the production of some sections and special reports outsourced. However, the content creation and selection will remain under the control of their editors. The changes are to be implemented over the next three months by the senior editorial team, led by the Chief Executive and Publisher.
Under the new editorial structure, an Editor-in-Chief will be appointed. For the implementation, Group Executive Editor Phil McLean will be seconded to this role. SMH Editor Alan Oakley and Sun-Herald Editor Simon Dulhunty will remain in their current positions. It is anticipated that a permanent appointment to the Editor-in-Chief position will be made by July 2009.
Metropolitan Publishing in Melbourne. There will be reviews of operating, production and support processes in all areas, including editorial, to ensure optimal employment of staff and technology, and including outsourcing of elements that will not impact our quality position. As a result of this program, a number of positions will likely be declared redundant.
There will also be a wide range of initiatives to significantly reduce costs in all departments across the business including deferral of wage reviews for senior management, a review of our marketing spend, reduction of discretionary spending and a review of our distribution framework.
The process of change will be led by the Chief Executive and Publisher and will be implemented within a three month period through a review of each part of the business by each department head with appropriate consultation.
In Community and Regional Newspapers, NSW, a range of business improvement initiatives will be launched. Included are initiatives in classifieds, sales, newspaper production, branch and business unit management and back-office services.
In Web Printing, efficiencies in production schedules will be reviewed at Chullora.
In Regional Victoria and South Australia, pre press and production departments will be better aligned to increase efficiency and productivity.
In the coming days, senior executives and managers will begin discussing these changes with those affected and, as appropriate, consulting with the unions involved, with implementation over the coming weeks.
New Zealand Publishing
The New Zealand publishing business also has a number of initiatives in train which are capitalising on the investment that has been made in systems, technology and improvements in operating processes.
A previously announced project to centralise some sub editing functions while still retaining key subbing skills at the mastheads is near completion and will result in head count reduction of around 30 FTEs.
In addition the business has reacted to the softening economy and has had in place a non replacement policy for all but the most essential staff that has resulted in an FTE reduction of around 30 between March and the end of July.
A number of projects are now being progressed within the operating divisions which will further enhance operating efficiency and reflect the benefits delivered by the Genera system implementation and closer attention to productivity enhancement. In total all of the initiatives above will result in a head count reduction in New Zealand of around 160 FTEs.
In the coming days, senior executives and managers will begin discussing these changes with those affected and, as appropriate, consulting with the unions involved, with implementation over the coming weeks.
Conclusion
There will be criticism from some, inside and outside the company, that these changes, particularly in editorial, will compromise quality and critical mass in the metro mastheads and their mission. We reject that. This initiative has been carefully constructed by the publishers with full regard for the integrity of their mastheads. Our newspapers will remain true to their heritage and their values of quality and excellence.
This is a far-reaching program, designed to comprehensively restructure and reposition the business for years to come.
The period ahead will be difficult as we work through the hard task of the redundancies. But we will deal openly and fairly with all concerned, and see this through.
David Kirk
CEO
Brian McCarthy
Deputy CEO
This is the end. The end my Friend.
The Age has come of Age and will soon depart. The quality of is journalism and editorials has suffered a major stroke and can not recover.Rupert has won the war of Journalist triumph