It’s been just over two weeks since Fairfax editorial director Sean Aylmer warned staff the publishing company would be cutting 120 editorial jobs, with The Canberra Times the first cab off the rank in 2016 to face significant editorial staff losses.
Staff were yesterday told the newspaper would be cutting 12 full-time editorial positions across the ACT, as well as moving the newspaper from its current broadsheet format to a more compact offering. It will now be the same size as the Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“We are committed to providing local coverage for Canberra readers by embracing change to ensure The Canberra Times remains the most trusted source of news and information in the community. By modernising our newsrooms and better focusing our resources we are strengthening The Canberra Times, which this year celebrates its 90th year delivering quality local journalism to the community,” says Canberra Times Australian Community Media director John Angilley.
“Our full focus and attention in the weeks ahead is on consulting with our staff to ensure everybody fully understands the proposal and has the opportunity to share their feedback with us.”
In response, Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union director - media Katelin McInerney states: “The union condemns the scale of these cuts, which represent one in six members of the editorial workforce at The Canberra Times, one of the last remaining Australian broadsheets.
“[The] Canberra Times editorial staff have been at the forefront of quality, investigative journalism both in their region and nationally and these cuts will hurt their ability to deliver the same quality coverage for their readership. We call on Fairfax to look beyond short-term savings gains and invest in quality journalism and the journalists who produce it.”
In addition to the job cuts, Canberra Times Australian Community Media will be moving its publishing operations in Goulburn, Bowral, Queanbeyan, Yass, Crookwell and Braidwood to a digital-first publishing system. The plan will also see the Queanbeyan edition of The Chronicle relaunched as a free weekly newspaper, while the Cooma-Monaro Express and Jindabyne’s Summit Sun will no longer be published.
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