Sometimes I’m really, really glad I’m not at Fairfax anymore. The new COO has given management 10 days to come up with ways to cut $50 million from their budgets. This includes editorial redundancies.
Let me just put this into perspective for a moment: Fairfax has had a staff freeze since before I joined it in 1999. That is, for seven years, unless a completely new product like e)mag was developed (with its supposedly concomitant new revenue), no new staff have been employed apart from through the traineeship program. Every time someone resigned, they were not replaced. For seven years. All jobs have been filled internally (except, I think, editor of the Good Weekend and of course editor of The Age but they can’t risk the flagships). And the trainee intake is approximately 8 trainees per year per title.
The place is already absolutely stretched. All the fluff has already been trimmed and there is no more. And they keep bleeding older, experienced journalists and losing that knowledge and efficiency and depth.
Do they make a profit? But of course. That’s not what capitalism is about. It’s about *growth*. It’s about *shareholders*. It’s about proving fleetness and responsiveness to the “marketplace”.
Sigh. Bye bye, quality journalism. It was nice knowing you for a short while.
(Thanks to p_cat for the heads-up)