News Corp axes more editorial roles as it continues to cut costs
News Corp has axed a number of editorial roles across mastheads The Australian, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph, the AFR reports.
A story this morning said the redundancies, of which there could be up to 30, are a mix of voluntary and forced. The decision affects a number of production staff, who will leave News Corp and join Australian Associated Press subsidiary Pagemasters as sub-editors.
The redundancies are part of a restructuring and transformation project currently underway at News Corp. Mumbrella understands there is no particular headcount target, but the measures are part of each division’s cost management strategies.
“As part of our overall business strategy, we have an ongoing focus on how we can identify opportunities to make our operations more efficient,” a News Corp Australia spokesperson told Mumbrella.
“Equally, this applies to our editorial operations and how we identify opportunities to create the most efficient digitally responsive newsrooms.”
The news comes three days after Social Diary announced journalist Renata Gortan had accepted a voluntary redundancy.
Gortan has worked with MX, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, Best Weekend and Taste across a number of roles.
The latest round of job cuts come four months after a number of photographers and production staff were made redundant. In July this year, News Corp and Fairfax Media, which is set to be owned by Nine, entered an agreement to share printing presses in a bid to save costs. News Corp told Mumbrella at the time none of its employees were affected by the changes.
Despite cost cuts, digital subscriptions are up for the News Corp mastheads, as reported in August. News Corp’s The Australian has the biggest digital subscription base, with 135,783 subscribers as of June 2018, the figures indicate. Sydney-based masthead The Daily Telegraph currently has a subscription base of 114,203 and The Herald Sun, which is Melbourne’s main title, has 108,801 subscribers.
They got the Iraq war wrong.
They got the GFC and economics wrong.
They got Tony Abbott wrong (to be fair he used to work there so they probably wanted to do their mate a favour)
They are getting climate change wrong.
I wonder why times are tough?
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To paraphrase Denis Leary how do we live in a world where News have fired this many journalists but the man who wrote the piece of editorial bullying about Denise Shrivel still has a job?
#lurch
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I hate their editorial. But, I think its probably the only thing keeping them afloat, because if they try and claim the centre, their core readership will puke and stop subscribing, and people like me won’t subscribe because I won’t believe they really shifted.
The OZ has made its bed of nails and now has to lie on it, but we’d be stupid to assume left leaning press in Australia is any safer because they’re shedding staff. Fairfax is stuffed. Morry Schwartz is too busy in a niche. Guardian is doing fine, but the model is different, there is no paper copy. Whats left? Has News flogged Quest yet?
If they really want to save money, sacking half the editorial Goebbels would do more: It’s repetitive and they back each other up to the hilt so its kinda redundant anyway right now. You only really want one big liar, not a tribe of them. Maybe Ergas can pull the trigger for rupert, he must be used to economic rationalism.
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