It’s been a big news week for those employed in Australian media, with News Limited following Fairfax’s big shake-up by announcing it too is set to go through a massive restructure in its delivery of news.
The nation’s biggest newspaper publisher is set to reduce its eastern seaboard operations from 19 divisions to five and has made a $2 billion takeover bid for Consolidated Media in an attempt to increase its pay TV stake. Consolidated Media owns 25 per cent of Foxtel and 50 per cent of Fox Sports Australia.
Today we are announcing major initiatives that will see us invest and innovate to maintain our position as Australia’s leading media company,” says News Limited chief executive Kim Williams. By putting customers and innovation at the heart of what we do and by investing in our future we will continue the transformation of News into a truly multi-platform powerhouse. It is an exciting time - one where constructive change is happening every day.”
While the company restructure will result in significant redundancies, Williams has not revealed exactly how many jobs will be cut - but says it will be less than the 1900 staff axed from Fairfax.
"This repositions us," Williams told The Australian. "It diversifies our revenues and our product base to ensure we are fit for purpose in the 21st century. We are now engaged in each of the consumer delivery channels: print, online, mobile, broadcast and social."
The company still values print media, with Williams revealing, "We believe in print and are committed to print. We are obviously not going to be Pollyannas about that. But we still sell around 11 million newspapers a week. Advertisers still find huge value in print."
The five new divisions will be known as News NSW, News Queensland and News Victoria, with The Australian and NewsLifeMedia remaining separate divisions.
