‘Not their finest hour’: Union reacts as Fairfax execs brief newsrooms on Drive.com.au plans
Fairfax Media bosses are meeting with journalists in a bid to dispell growing concern over plans to outsource Fairfax’s Drive.com.au, which have resulted in seven redundancies.
The announcement of the outsourcing deal with 112 Pty Ltd, owner of themotorreport.com.au, was made on Tuesday and a deputation from the journalist’s union met with management on Wednesday seeking guarantees on editorial independence.
Today group editor Seam Aylmer and Fairfax Life Media and Events group managing director Andrew McEvoy addressed staff at Melbourne’s The Age newsroom after MEAA representatives met with management after journalists held stop work meetings in Sydney and Melbourne.
In a statement to members, the MEAA said that management had agreed the consultation over the move had been limited.
“Eventually the company accepted that the process to date regarding consultation had not been their finest hour, and have made a commitment to explore ways to ensure that editorial independence is being recognised in any future contractual arrangements,” said the MEAA statement.
Aylmer and McEvoy addressed journalists from The Age on Thursday afternoon and will meet with journalists at The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday. The pair are in Melbourne for the Walkley Awards.
“While this development is a step in the right direction, MEAA members expressed a unanimous view at meetings yesterday that the company must comply with their full obligations under the terms of the Agreement,” said the union in a statement.
“MEAA members intend to hold the company to full account on compliance, pursue remedy for any breaches and ensure that the company adheres to their own principles of editorial independence – which remain fundamental to the future prosperity and success of the company.”
Announcing the 50/50 joint venture, Fairfax said it would become a powerful force in online new car sales.
Fairfax will licence the Drive brand and Drive.com.au URL to 112, which currently owns and operates themotorreport.com.au, an independent online car-buyer resource.
Simon Canning
Editorial independence is actually what has debilitated the business since 2000.
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^ Nonsense, Another Agency. Fairfax has the most-read (and trusted) news publication in the country – the SMH. Meanwhile, a lack of editorial independence certainly hasn’t stemmed the circulation declines at News Corp’s tabloids or the minimally-read The Australian.
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The idea that people writing advertorial in the cars advertising space are somehow associated with the editorial integrity of the product is facile. A fine example of how Fairfax, its staff, management and union have not understood at all what’s important in the era of empowered media consumers.
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Shouldn’t McEvoy be on tour with Oprah instead of attending the Walkley Awards? “Not their finest hour” sums it up nicely.
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Guarantees of editorial independence … where have we heard that one before? Not worth the paper they’re written on when it comes to newspaper proprietors.
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Bit of a joke this. The motor car (and wine) industries are the most corrupt in terms of the freebies given to journalists.
How do you think an $80k Camry made in Africa keeps winning Car of the Year ?
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It is hard to think of anything Fairfax management has done over the past decade which has benefited the newspapers the company produces.
It has been a slow process of turning the company into a shop style business which had nothing to do with indipendant journalism.
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I’m after some motoring journalists for my online 4X4 magazine – the good-uns won’t be bored for long!
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