Australia’s Fairfax Media axes 1,900 jobs

Fairfax Media Ltd, one of Australia's largest media companies and publisher of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald said that the company would slash around 1,900 jobs over the next three years, initiating a major revamp in the country's media business.

The structural changes are focused on positioning the metro media business to move it to a digital-only model to meet the future requirement, cost reduction at all levels, and strengthening the company's balance sheet, Fairfax said in a statement.

The proposed actions include shutting down two printing presses, and changing the newspaper format to 'compact' or tabloid format similar to Australian Business Review. The first copy in the new format is expected to come out in March 2013.
 
Also, digital subscriptions will be implemented early next year for Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, two of the country's oldest newspapers that were first published about one and a half century ago.

The presses to be closed in the next two years include the landmark Tullamarine printing press near Melbourne airport that prints 'Asian Age' and the Chullora plant near Sydney that prints Sydney Morning Herald.

It is believed that the company would sell the sites and move the printing jobs to its regional presses.

Regarding cost savings, Fairfax said, ''Current progress is ahead of schedule, and we will now move to further accelerate implementation of the cost savings previously identified together with a number of additional cost-saving initiatives. In aggregate, this will result in a reduction in staff of 1,900 over the next three years.''