Fair go Fairfax - Don't discount journalism

Working journalists at Fairfax Media are engaged in a fight for their future and the future of their newspapers. The announcement this week by Fairfax management that they intend to rip $25 million out of the cost of running their major metropolitan mastheads, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by sacking up to 100 subeditors and other production staff, is a plan that risks irrevocable damage to these loved and respected newspapers.

Newspapers and their websites depend on the skills and talent of their journalists: reporters, subeditors, designers, artists and photographers. Weakening this skill base will inevitably put pressure on the quality of those newspapers.

And in this market, where people have competing demands on their attention and are free to choose how and where they access their news, quality is everything.

Fairfax’s managers say they have a plan for the future. They want to launch exciting new products to take advantage of new media tools and platforms. But at the same time they want to get rid of the very people on whom they have always depended for quality control: their subeditors.

They want to outsource all their subediting work to Pagemasters, a specialist production house that does not share their traditions and is committed to low-cost newspaper production work.

This shows a lack of understanding of newspaper production and culture. Subeditors have always been the guardians of quality and standards – and at newspapers such as The Herald and The Age they are a repository of many decades of experience and skill.

The journalists at Fairfax have asked for the chance to sit down with management and discuss these plans. They have asked for an opportunity to come up with alternative ways to save money while saving jobs and protecting quality.

But good faith should not be a one-way street. One minute, management says it is prepared to listen to their staff – but the next minute they announce they remain committed to the job-cutting plan.

This should be a major concern to anyone who cares about the future of quality journalism in this country. It should be a major concern for anyone who cares about the future of their favourite newspapers.

You can get involved. Visit the Fair Go Fairfax website run by the MEAA for more info.