Nine Entertainment Cuts 30 Jobs: A 'Devastating' Blow to Journalism

Nine Entertainment has announced further job cuts at its newspaper businesses as part of a restructure towards digital media. As part of its latest restructure, 30 jobs will be impacted across Nine’s metro editorial division, which includes The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, and WA Today.

In a statement, media union the MEAA called Tuesday’s announcement devastating for the journalists and other workers impacted. “They come at a time when quality public interest journalism has never been more important,” the MEAA said. “Newsrooms cannot keep absorbing job cuts without consequences for workloads, diversity, quality journalism, and the ability of journalists to hold power to account.”

In a note to staff on Tuesday morning, Nine Publishing executive Tory Maguire asked staff to attend a town hall where they would discuss changes to structure and operations. “The best way to protect our quality journalism is to ensure our organisation adapts to a changing media landscape, that we’re growing commercially and investing in new areas which connect with new audiences. In particular we need to keep shifting towards the digital-first future,” she said in the email.

The MEAA called for transparency about the proposed changes and how they would impact the company’s obligations to uphold its charter of editorial independence and ensure quality journalism. “Nine must engage in genuine consultation with staff through their union and do everything possible to avoid forced redundancies, including redeployment and voluntary options,” the MEAA said.

The redundancies are on top of an announcement made in April when Channel 9 confirmed it would axe 20 jobs in the first sweep of redundancies to hit its news and current affairs. Staff were told the network had been investing in its Future News project with new technology, training and equipment, and all roles across its news and current affairs division would become more streamlined and multiskilled.

“This represents the largest investment in Nine news and current affairs in decades, with new technology, systems and workflows revolutionising the way we produce and deliver news,” Nine executive director of news and current affairs Fiona Dear said in April. “We’ve said from the beginning that this will touch all roles in some way, shape or form. This isn’t about doing the same work with fewer people to save money; it’s about acknowledging that the work itself is changing across our industry and we must adapt to survive and thrive.”