September 28, 2006

Staff cuts will affect quality of papers

The union that represents newspaper workers says that today’s announcement by Fairfax Media that it intends cutting around 70 New Zealand jobs is of deep concern.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little said that staff numbers could be cut only so far before affecting the quality and content of newspapers.

“This is particularly true in editorial departments, where many of our members work,” he said.

Mr Little said that staff would be seeking assurances that the cuts weren’t being made to pay for the company’s recent $700 million purchase of the Trade Me online classified advertising site.

Australian-based Fairfax owns a stable of New Zealand publications, including the Dominion Post, the Press, the Waikato Times, the Sunday Star-Times, and Sunday News.

The union will seek meetings with the company to discuss the proposed cuts. Most union agreements include redundancy clauses.

ENDS

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