Staff at three of Fairfax’s largest Victorian regional papers are bracing for cuts that will slice their newsrooms in half, as the company seeks 62 editorial redundancies in Victoria, which will also affect another 10 publications.
And Tasmania – The Examiner and The Advocate – appears to be next in line for the scalpel …
The cuts are part of Fairfax’s rolling regional media reconfiguration, in which reporters are expected to perform the tasks of subeditors and photographers …
Read more here (soon as Crikey releases the paywall …)
YEARS AGO … on Tasmanian Times …
• Be quiet, Lindsay … Foolish, foolish man, that you should question the smooth rolling out of cliche and presentation over substance. The slick PR of another Walkley debate knocked off in the colonies. Beautifully presented with a lovely talking head from the Guardian; who was intelligent and engaged, and funny. But utterly, finally, useless. You could not help but feel that here was the engagement of media management and union, to provide the same truth: We’re going to be alright aren’t we? Bullshit. You are in more trouble than you will ever realise. And no nice sculpted, censored presentations will make the slightest bit of difference. Media is in the middle of revolution. As far-reaching and profound as the invention of the printing press. And there, fundamentally, viscerally, was the problem with last night’s seminar. It was all too touchy feely, all-too familiar media-speak, superficial, bland rolling out of cliche: how often did we hear of brand recognition, of business model? I’m sorry; I’m an MEAA former state VP; but i was embarrassed by this. This is not inquiry; this is media-management-union-barracked propaganda. …
