Journalists’ union accuses Fairfax management of having a 20th Century print mentality
The union representing journalists the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has fired back at Fairfax management’s claim that the quantity of output is unrelated to the quality of journalism produced.
Fairfax staff protesting outside The Age two weeks ago.
Members of the MEAA house committee at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have penned a response to a opinion piece, published last Friday, by Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood that responded to critics who argue further proposed cuts at the publisher will mean lower quality publications, saying: “since when has quantity got to do with quality?”.
In a fiery response, the MEAA letter begins with: “You’re right, Greg. We do need to have a conversation about quality. However, it’s important that we’re not only on the same page, but in the same century.”
It goes to detail the numerous filing demands on Fairfax reporters and takes aim at Hywood’s comparison of staffing requirements at the Australian Financial Review in 1976, accusing Hywood of insulting “thousands of journalists over the decades…you dismissed as providing ‘clickbait’ to fill the spaces between ads.”
Fairfax’s Greg Hywood: accused of being out of touch
Fairfax Management and the journalists union is in the midst of negotiations after management, earlier this month, announced it would look to cut the “equivalent of 120 full-time jobs” from news and business across newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the Australian Financial Review, the Canberra Times and other metro publications.
The announcement triggered a sudden strike with staff across various publications walking out for more than three days.
The MEAA letter goes on to argue that the quality of journalism is important to the broader financial success of the business.
“What worked at the AFR 40 years ago has no relevance to the fragmented audience we now face. If we don’t give our readers and viewers original, quality journalism right now they’ll leave and get their news somewhere else.
“It’s that simple. And with that audience goes our chance to make money in the other parts of the business that depend on traffic from our journalism, such as Domain and events.”
The journalists’ union also mentions the demands that a 24/7 news cycle places on them and challenges management “to keep up”.
“We’ve changed a lot in the past 40 years. Management needs to keep up. Old school thinking and nostalgia won’t cut it in the new media landscape.
“Talk to us, Greg. Together we know the new media landscape better than anyone and want Fairfax Media to be a thriving, diversified company that values quality journalism.”
Comment is being sought from Fairfax management.
Nic Christensen
The full MEAA letter:
Dear Mr Hywood,
You’re right, Greg. We do need to have a conversation about quality. However, it’s important that we’re not only on the same page, but in the same century. Readers no longer need the paper for the things they did in 1976.
They can get live stockmarket results at their fingertips, or shop around online for the best interest rate. Sitting around and waiting for a source to call back is no longer an option. That’s been consigned to history, like the Telex machine, the clipping files, the typing pool, the 9 to 5 work day and waiting by the phone. In 2016, our reporters are busier than ever. Instead of one print product a day, we file throughout the day for our websites, apps, mobile, social media channels, Apple Watch and print, including many supplements that weren’t around in 1976.
We’ve followed our readers into the modern world, which has changed in so many ways since then it’s really hard to quantify. The days when we considered ourselves print journalists are long gone. You say there were 25 reporters on the AFR in 1976.
Yes, it was a much quieter world. The Australian economy was $100 billion not $1.3 trillion. It was protected by tariff walls and the global economy was barely relevant; the dollar was set by the government; there was no private bond market to speak of; and the stockmarket was a fraction the size with plain vanilla shares and debentures the order of the day. And let’s not even discuss the insult to thousands of journalists over the decades that you dismissed as providing “clickbait” to fill the spaces between ads.
What worked at the AFR 40 years ago has no relevance to the fragmented audience we now face. If we don’t give our readers and viewers original, quality journalism right now they’ll leave and get their news somewhere else. It’s that simple. And with that audience goes our chance to make money in the other parts of the business that depend on traffic from our journalism, such as Domain and events. Our newsrooms face this dilemma every day. We’re working hard to keep readers engaged with our stories.
Our work day is nothing like it was four years ago, never mind 40. We’re working across a 24hour news cycle. Journalists are rostered around the clock. When we’re not producing our own journalism, we’re forever watching what our competitors are doing, engaging with readers and sources on social media, representing Fairfax on television, radio and panels.
Work doesn’t stop when the paper is put to bed. With social media and email, there is a crushing pressure to be on 24/7. In the battle for readers, our biggest competitors are no longer rival newspapers, the wireless or the nightly news. They are still here, of course, but in addition we face their websites, onlineonly news sites, our overseas counterparts, blogs, apps, Apple News, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and a plethora of other social media, 24hour news TV channels. Our multitasking audience is using two screens at once.
There’s more content than ever before competing for their attention. We’ve changed a lot in the past 40 years.
Management needs to keep up. Old school thinking and nostalgia won’t cut it in the new media landscape. Talk to us, Greg. Together, we know the new media landscape better than anyone and want Fairfax Media to be a thriving, diversified company that values quality journalism.
Regards,
Marcus Strom, Leigh Tonkin and Anne Davies Sydney house committee
Gina McColl, Simon Johanson and Miki Perkins Melbourne house committee
In today’s episode of Fairfax Journos vs The World, the MEAA unionsplains the history of journalism while failing to realise that their ‘quality journalism’ doesn’t pay the bills any longer.
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“What worked 40 years ago doesn’t work today”
So ironic coming from a union.
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Upvote for Trevor. Mind you, it I had to choose between the MEAA and Fairfax management as an example of forward thinking, I’m not sure I’d be able to decide.
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Rather than let the print edition die a slow, inevitable death, why don’t they just stop producing it altogether and concentrate solely on the digital version, including Domain?
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I loved 1976. Back then the SMH has news – not bias.
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Hywood should let his hair down. His favourite recollection of 1976 is of spending the whole of his first day employed at Fairfax in a nearby pub. His sole digital anecdote involves visiting “Silicon Valley” once. And now he is up against a union led by Marcus Strom, who he allows to be news editor of the SMH and who is an avowed Marxist while a Stalinist pedigree (no kidding, this is fact).
This Fairfax debacle is becoming hard to watch.
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As a digital subscriber I must say it feels like the content on smh has steadily gone down hill in the last few months. Having moved to Hong Kong, I kept my smh digital sub hoping to check in for relevant commentary, analysis and discourse on the nation. Instead I’m seemingly served up pr surveys, headlines with no underlying content of meaning, or simply crap I have no interest in reading.
Maybe my tastes have changed, maybe the product has eroded. I suspect the later.
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All those thinking the union is stuck in the past are not up-to-date in their thinking.
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Stephen, because it’s all about advertising revenue. A digital-only media operation usually doesn’t survive for long because the ad revenues are a fraction of what they are for print. Go down that road and you better have “robots” (ie algorithims) replace all humans in the newsroom.
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@fading sub.
you understand the concept of costs, and how they effect profit margins, right?
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@CCAW
“And now he is up against a union led by Marcus Strom, who he allows to be news editor of the SMH and who is an avowed Marxist while a Stalinist pedigree”
I gather you dont then assume that there will be a Marxist edge to the news. Marxists are usually middle-class and fall back on conditioned upbringing once they hit middle-age. I’m an ex-Marxist (I guess) and most ex Marxists are very comfy in middle-class lifestyle. Not so revolutionary in the end when it matters (owning property, needing a career, nice friends etc). A good Cosplay when you are rebellious against your Roseville parents and their tennis club (err I meant Rooty Hill of course, workers and such…)
If he has a Stalinist background, my guess would be that he was a member of the Socialist Party of Australia (SPA/Guardian Newspaper (no not THAT Guardian), the only Stalinist followers of the lot in the 80s/90s (DSP/Resistance, ISO, Sparticists, remnants of the CPA). TMI I am sure, but you started it! 🙂
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@Hank
Of course I do but what I don’t understand is how executives can give themselves bonus pay rises even as they cite “cost efficiencies” as to A) why they were letting staff go and B) why staff couldn’t even get a pay rise that matched cost on inflation despite the fact that the pay rise they sought was still not as much as the executives’ pay rise.
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@fading sub
Yes I do understand it’s all about ad revenue – my point is that they aren’t generating enough of it. The first 30 pages of today’s SMH – before you get to the “rivers of gold” classifieds that run a total of less than 3 pages – contain 2 x full page ads, 2 x 1/4 page ads, and a 1/2 page ad. So 5 display ads in total. Those 5 ads and a pittance in classifieds couldn’t possibly cover the costs of producing today’s paper
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