News Corp consolidates Victorian local paper offices
News Corp Australia is continuing its consolidation of suburban newspaper offices closing a number of headquarters around Melbourne in recent months. Cost saving measures have seen the relocation and consolidation of the offices of the Melton Leader, Sunbury Leader, Mornington Peninsula Leader, Stonnington Leader and Port Phillip Leader.
The move follows similar action in NSW which has seen more than half a dozen suburban newspaper offices across Sydney moved outside the geographical area covered by the title.
Encore understands the consolidation is underway in Melbourne with the Melton and Sunbury offices being moved to Preston, the Port Phillip Leader and Stonnington newspaper office in St Kilda Road being moved into the HWT office in Southbank and the Mornington Leader office being moved to the network’s Cheltenham office which already houses a number of other local newspapers.
News Limited, which this week rebranded as News Corp Australia, declined to comment on the moves however the publisher told Encore in February that the multiple relocations had not damaged local coverage. “Our community newspaper groups have implemented structural changes as part of the broader transformation of News Limited to meet the changing needs of our consumers and customers. These changes have not affected local reportage,” a then-News Limited spokesman said in February when asked about the NSW relocations.
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the union representing journalists, said it was aware of the changes in Victoria but declined to comment due to ongoing negotiations over a common national employment agreement which affects suburban newspaper staff.
Nic Christensen
This story first appeared in the weekly edition of Encore available for iPad and Android tablets. Visit encore.com.au for a preview of the app or click below to download.
I think you need to clarify the difference between consolidating newspapers and consolidating offices… let’s not make up news now…
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