Fairfax to close six western Sydney suburban titles in local newspaper cull
Fairfax Media plans to shut six Sydney community newspapers, as the company looks to launch a new ‘magazine publication’ for the city’s North West suburbs in the new year.
In an email obtained by Mumbrella, John Angilley, director of Australian Community Media told staff the company proposes to close the Hills News, Rouse Hill Courier, Penrith City Gazette, St Marys/Mt Druitt Star, Blacktown Sun and Parramatta Holroyd Sun with the loss of 11 jobs.
“No longer commercially sustainable for us to operate:”John Angilley, director of Australian Community Media.
At the same time, Angilley said a new magazine for the North West market would launch in early 2018.
Closing the six titles would reduce the number of Fairfax’s Sydney suburban mastheads from 16 to 10.
11 full time equivalent positions in Fairfax Community Media’s north-west operations will also be lost – seven from editorial and four sales and group sales roles.
Angilley stated should the proposal go ahead, a voluntary redundancy program will be made available for affected staff.
“The six newspapers affect by this proposal have done a good job serving their local communities,” Angilley said.
“But a detailed assessment of the long-term viability of these mastheads shows they are no longer commercially sustainable for us to operate.”
Angilley went on to explain the company would begin consulting with the affect staff to ensure everyone understands the proposal and has the opportunity to share feedback.
In the last three years Fairfax’s Australian Community Media division has experienced an overhaul of its suburban titles, with redundancy rounds across The Hunter, Illawarra and South Coast, Victoria and most recently Canberra.
Angilley’s latest announcement comes more than a year and a half after Canberra’s changes, which were said to be part of a transformation of ACM.
The proposed changes come three weeks after the departure of senior editorial executive Sean Aylmer from Fairfax Media’s metro division.
Separate to Australian Community Media Fairfax Media’s metro division has also experienced a re-structure, axing 125 editorial jobs earlier this year as part of a $30m restructure to the business before unveiling its new commercial strategy.
Angilley’s notice:
Today staff at our Bella Vista office were briefed on changes proposed for the north-west region of our Sydney operating group.
The proposal includes:
- Closing the following newspapers: the Hills News; Rouse Hill Courier; Penrith City Gazette; St Marys/Mt Druitt Star; Blacktown Sun; and Parramatta/Holroyd Sun.
- Launching a new magazine publication for the north-west market in early 2018.
The proposed changes will involve a reduction of about 11 full-time equivalent employees in our north-worst operations, comprising about 7 editorial roles and 4 sales and group sales roles. If the proposal goes ahead, a voluntary redundancy program will be opened.
The six newspapers affected by this proposal have done a good job serving their local communities. The teams working on these papers have served their customers and audiences with professionalism and pride. But a detailed assessment of the long-term viability of these mastheads shows they are no longer commercially sustainable for us to operate.
Over the next fortnight we will be consulting with affected staff to ensure everyone fully understands the proposal and has an opportunity to share the feedback.
Thank you,
JA
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Australian Community Media
Fairfax Media
John Angilley
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redundancies
A very sad day for local journalism. I spent some of my early years pounding the beat on the Parramatta and Holroyd Mercury (later rebranded as The Sun after the demise of the Fairfax afternoon metro paper) and it’s Hills District sister. It was an important link for communities often ignored by the bigger media.
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It’s going to be a bad few months ahead I think. Fairfax looks very much like it has hit the wall and has no place to go. Murdoch has also run into trouble but at least he believes in them, unlike the Fairfax gang, which has no plan for anything but their next sports car. .
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This comes as no surprise and there will be more to come. I worked in sales for a few years with Fairfax and went through the changes in a regional area. But I decided to resign as I was so sick and tired of the way they do things. The upper management tells you they care, but they do not. JA even came up with a new C.A.R.E. culture that made most of us laugh because it is a joke.
The bean counters raking in the big bucks think regional areas should be operated the same as the large city area and do not listen to the ones that are dealing with it on a daily basis. Customers in small rural towns where I worked cannot be treated like big city customers. But Fairfax keeps deciding that it’s easier to close down mastheads rather than listening to their workers directly dealing in the area daily.
In the end I was “All Fairfaxed Out” and got out! I know that many of my fellow ex colleagues also feel the same and are looking for jobs elsewhere as Fairfax increases the work load but offers less.
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Oh no, who will all the angry retirees now pen letters to? Won’t somebody think of the pensioners!
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This is really sad news. I’m neither a pensioner nor a complete bogan, even though I am a long time resident of Blacktown. I do, however, value the diversity and competition offered by having two lively, interesting local newspapers. This news means that Sydney’s enormous and growing western and north western suburbs will now be served only by a few valiant independents and News Ltd local papers, which have a very particular point of view evident in most of their articles, however innocuous the subject matter. Not only that, but actual professional staff from the Blacktown Sun actually turn up to non-commercial community events, and report on what residents have said or done. That will be sadly missed in my community.
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This is an absolute shame once again our community misses out on a local paper who provides great articles across the board, once again Western Sydney looses out to the Northern Suburbs so you can have a Northern Sydney Magazine. I understand why people are walking away from major papers I like our Blacktown Sun Save Our Paper
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I work at the print site that prints these papers. So this great decision is another nail in our coffin
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