More Fairfax redundancies ‘may see Boss magazine merge with BRW’
Fairfax business title Boss Magazine may merge with sister title BRW, according to today’s Australian. The move – denied by Fairfax in the article – reportedly means redundancy for Narelle Hooper, who joined six years ago. Hooper was formerly a senior writer with The Australian Financial Review, and was finance correspondent with ABC Radio. Deputy editor Catherine Fox, who has been with the title since its launch in 2000, and at Fairfax for over 20 years, is also rumoured to be taking redundancy.
The Australian reports speculation over who will take the reins as editor includes current BRW editor Kate Mills, AFR associate editor Anne Hyland and Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon, founding editor of AFR Smart Investor. A recent announcement stated Pedersen-McKinnon would be replaced as Smart Investor editor by James Frost in early 2013. According to the announcement, Pedersen-McKinnon was to stay with the title in a “roving role.”
Further rumoured departures include Robert Guy from AFR Perth and Jo Cameron who had been involved with production of the new AFR iPad app. At time of writing no one from Fairfax was available to respond to the rumours. Mumbrella was told all senior staff were at a management meeting. The Australian claims Fairfax staff decided to accept more voluntary redundancies after the initial redundancy scheme had closed.
While it appears the Fin Review is caving in from the fringes, the most likely cause is the spine has failed. The whole group of AFR titles lives off the core AFR audience and they are clearly unimpressed with the move away from business news toward the sort of “policy agenda” run by The Australian. Not to mention the elimination of the daily IT and other sectoral news. And if it’s now losing money, as was reported at the shareholder briefing, then the cost pressures will be even more damaging. It’s a real shame.
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this is truly numbing news — just what is going in here ?
indiscrimnant cullings , no vision, no leadership, obsessed with sharemarket short “termism” — fairfax product has been decimated and taking to the dogs !
you need resilience to ride out the bumps to show the market that you are serious business media producer ! rather genuflecting to Bond & Collins Street analysts.
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I love the Fin and the SMH and BRW and I happily pay for subscriptions to all of them. I wish they weren’t going through this, but bad things do happen to good people.
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When the AFR thinks Hewett, Stevens and Hayes are the go to talent then you know trouble will follow. Back to 1980s AFR and 1980s approach. This is what’s killing Fairfax. People in charge who know nothing, learn nothing and ask no questions.
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very sorry to see Narelle and possibly Catherine go – they have kept the bar very high for business reporting in Australia.
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