People who I have known for years at Fairfax have gone, they were replaced by new people, and these people have gone. It looks like this will continue. As anyone who works with Fairfax that there is a lot of staff turnover there.
According to reports, Fairfax plans more cost cuts as its first-half profit fell by 44%. So I expect another round of staff cuts there.
One interesting comment by the Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood
The owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers was no longer a newspaper company, he said, and too much money was being wasted on printing costs which would be reduced.
Looking at the recent ABC circulation figures, I am not surprised as the SMH’s Monday to Friday, sale was down by nearly 12% year-on-year despite the increase in cheap giveaway copies.
Still, I doubt in the short term that many of my clients will be seriously affected as the existing staff cuts have already been extensive. Still less staff can only make the situation worse.
Still, I hope that Fairfax decides to work more with newsagents to try to supply newspapers more closely aligned with sales. Computerization can be a big help if it is used. This could reduce costs while keeping sales.
