Where did Fairfax go wrong?

Fairfax’s decline has been swift and sharp.

The company had around 1,000 editorial staff in 2011. After the latest round of redundancies announced on Wednesday, which will cut 125 jobs, roughly only 375 editorial staff will remain.

“It’s looking like one quarter of our newsroom will walk out of here in a few weeks’ time,” Miki Perkins, The Age social affairs reporter said.

“All of the sudden all these stories and specialities and expertise that The Age has provided for more than 150 years is again diminished.”

Deborah Snow, a senior writer at The Sydney Morning Herald, said staff “are feeling crushed”.

“They’re apprehensive both for their jobs but they’re also apprehensive about the future of the newsroom as a whole.”

John Silvester, The Age’s crime reporter, said the latest redundancies “might be cutting into the core”.

“Yes The Age is sustainable both in print and online, and we just have to stick to what we do. And that’s a supposed commitment from management to quality journalism.”

The challenges faced by Fairfax aren’t unique. Classifieds, once known as the “rivers of gold” for newspapers, have been cannibalised by online competitors.

But critics say it is not just the changing media landscape which is to blame, and accuse the company of bad management and missed opportunities.

Like investing in The Age Tullamarine printing press, a massive piece of infrastructure, that it then had to sell.

And missing key opportunities like buying into internet giants RealEstate.com.au, Seek.com.au and CarSales.com.au have proved disastrous.

Source: Where did Fairfax go wrong? – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)