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June 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda A journalists’ union has been given until Thursday to present an alternative to Fairfax Media’s plan to offshore dozens of regional newspaper production jobs.
The media giant announced on May 29 that 66 production jobs from its regional and community titles were being moved to Fairfax Editorial Services in New Zealand.
Journalists from The Newcastle Herald, The Illawarra Mercury and The Sydney Morning Herald spent three-and-a-half hours discussing the proposals with Fairfax Regional chief executive Allan Browne on Monday.
The meeting decided to extend a consultation period deadline until close of business on Thursday and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) will now present its alternative “insourcing” model to try to prevent the Australian job losses at a further meeting on Wednesday.
Fairfax said the extension was agreed to by management to allow employees at Newcastle and Illawarra to be updated about discussions.
“Fairfax Media has an obligation to consult and is continuing consultation with the MEAA about the Illawarra and Newcastle editorial production proposal,” a company spokesman said in a statement.
“We understand the MEAA will be putting a proposal to us, which we will consider on its merits when we get it.”
The union’s plan is understood to involve the creation of a central pool of sub-editors to produce the regional titles in question and is similar to a system already used by News Ltd in Sydney.
“Today’s meeting went for three-and-a-half hours and the company has clearly been rattled by the upsurge of community support for the staff in Newcastle and Wollongong, through petitions and rallies held over the weekend,” MEAA federal secretary Chris Warren said in a statement.
Rosemarie Milsom, a senior journalist with The Newcastle Herald, said the plan to outsource the jobs had shocked staff.
She said 41 jobs at The Newcastle Herald – half the paper’s entire staff – would be axed.
Staff from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and The Canberra Times walked off the job for 36 hours last week to protest against the plan.
“No one likes difficult decisions but we all have to make them – and it is pretty widely understood that the media industry is in a period of immense transition,” Mr Browne said.
“We have to do things differently in our businesses so that we remain a strong media voice and employer in regional Australia over the long term as we continue to evolve from a predominantly print business to a predominantly digital business.”
Fairfax said under the proposal The Newcastle Herald and Illawarra Mercury would still have the biggest newsrooms in their communities, no reporting or photographic positions would be affected and local editors, reporters, photographers and illustrators would remain “at the heart of the newspapers”.
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