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Fairfax cancels Guardian copy-usage agreement

Fairfax Media has ended its use of copy from The Guardian two days after the poaching of two of its most prominent political reporters for the British title’s Australian launch.

Mumbrella understands from sources inside Fairfax that the move is not retaliatory but rather because The Guardian is now viewed as a competitor.

Fairfax, whose titles include The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, has declined to comment, saying it does not discuss commercial arrangements.

Earlier this year, The Guardian confirmed it would launch an Australian operation led by the paper’s deputy editor Katharine Viner and commercially backed by entrepreneur Graeme Wood. This week it emerged that The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief political correspondent Lenore Taylor and The Age’s national affairs correspondent Katharine Murphy were leaving to take up positions with The Guardian, covering Australian politics.

The loss of the copy-usage agreement will mean that stories from The Guardian will no longer appear in print or on the websites of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Fairfax has traditionally used Guardian News & Media copy in its international coverage as a complement to its overseas bureaus.

Nic Christensen

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