News Corp staff accuse management of lacking vision in no confidence vote
Angry News Corp staffers in Queensland have passed a vote of no confidence in their management after yesterday’s announcement of wide ranging cuts.
Although there have been a number of no confidence motions in recent years against Fairfax Media, it is the first time in a generation that News Corp has been subject to one.
According to a motion passed unanimously at a meeting of editorial staff in Brisbane, they believe that News Corp management in Sydney does not have a vision to rebuild a viable company.
It stated: “Senior News Corp management needs to be held accountable for its poor business decisions, lack of vision and inability to consult with their employees.”
The motion criticises the company’s strategy for a paywall for the Courier Mail, and challenges the company to provide a vision for a return to profitability that goes beyond cost cutting.
The motion was circulated by journalists’ union the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance. It said:
This resolution was carried unanimously by News Corp editorial staff in Brisbane at a meeting today:
“This meeting of editorial employees in Brisbane moves a Vote of No Confidence in senior national News Corp management.
Yesterday (April 11) staff were told there would be a restructure of the business, including photography and production, that would result in significant numbers of staff being made redundant.
Staff at Bowen Hills question senior national management’s ability to build an economically viable company.
Management’s continuing answer to economic pressures is to reduce staff numbers and jeopardise the quality of the product.
On a daily basis we see our masthead’s paywall breached by news.com.au and other News Corp mastheads.
We are yet to see any business innovation that turns the online model into a paying model and believe senior management needs to identify to staff the business plan to increase revenue beyond staff cost cutting.
Our decision today is made on behalf of our communities. We are prepared to work differently, learn news skills and to be innovative but not at the cost of quality or our own health.
Our readers rely on the work of our photographers to tell the story in pictures that define the story. They rely on the work of our production staff, artists, subs, designers to ensure the story is delivered accurately and across a variety of mediums.
We are appalled that across Queensland we have worked to build our online presence and connect to our markets but we are still unable to maintain a paywall or deliver papers in some regional areas before 11am.
Senior News Corp management needs to be held accountable for its poor business decisions, lack of vision and inability to consult with their employees.
We call on management to engage in constructive consultation with staff that includes a full understanding of the business model and allows for real feedback on areas where the model is failing.
We call on management to commence this consultation before any decision to further downsize editorial staff numbers is enacted.We call on management for a response by Wednesday, April 19 2017.”
Carried unanimously.
News Corp, which has not been the subject of significant industrial action since the 1980s, declined to comment.
April 13 update: Mumbella understands that further meetings of staff will be taking place in Melbourne and Geelong later today.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Please add hubris, arrogance and overconfidence to the list.
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Good on them for breaking out of the cult for a moment. Didn’t think it was possible.
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As a seven-day subscriber to The Courier-Mail, I am alarmed by the latest round of redundancies and am seriously reconsidering my subscription. I live 90 minutes by road from the centre of Brisbane but my daily print edition has no scores/reports from any overnight football of any sort; even for matches which finish before 9pm. What sort of service is that?
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Well done to Queensland employees of News Corp for having the ticker to send a message to the suits on Mahogany Row. Not sure how much it will achieve, but at least it is on record.
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Did news ltd, and specifically the Australian carry any significant coverage of this? I can’t get inside the paywall to find out.
Given how often they report on News Ltd share issues which are upside stories, i assumed that their code of ethics demands they report on downside stories too, and this would presumably materially alter the share worth of News, especially if industrial action is pending.
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Predictably, not a word…..and how is The Australian exempt from the blood-letting considering it’s woeful circulation (print and digital) and consistent multi-million dollar loss-making.
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APN staff were hoping they would at least see News Ltd’s production values. Looks like it’s gone the other way. MEAA is useless and toothless, did nothing when numbers were being slashed by APN and will achieve nothing with the exercise. Be interesting to see when/if the razor finds the throats of the over paid, middle management do nothings News seems to keep hiring
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Actually it’s not the first vote of no confidence in News Corp management. Many of the same Queensland staff passed one a few years back during another round of redundancies under Kim Williams.
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