Fairfax plans to axe 70 jobs, mainly in Wellington, to outsource subbing to Pagemasters

Tuesday 16th February 2016

Fairfax Media is planning to eliminate 70 New Zealand jobs, mainly in Wellington, and outsource editorial production on Australian metro mastheads to Pagemasters in a move that would cut costs and end a strategy of processing Australian content in a New Zealand 'hub'.

“Today we briefed the approximately 70 full-time equivalent staff in New Zealand that would be affected by a proposal to move editorial production work they perform for Australian metro mastheads to a third-party provider, Pagemasters, which would operate from both New Zealand and Australia," a company spokesman said. "The proposed new arrangements would provide Fairfax additional flexibility and savings. Consultation with staff is ongoing.”

Sydney-based Fairfax is scheduled to release its first-half results this week. It slashed costs by A$311 million in 2015 as part of its Fairfax of the Future programme, which aims to transform the company into a multi-media business to make up for the ongoing slide in newspaper advertising revenue.

Fairfax shares rose 1.5 percent to 83.25 Australian cents on the ASX today. The shares bottomed out in late 2012 at 35 cents, a year in which the company took a A$2.8 billion impairment on its goodwill and mastheads as it reassessed the value of its traditional media assets and sought to reform itself as a nimble, digital-based company.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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