Fairfax Media is planning another restructure of the Age and Sydney Morning Herald newsrooms, according to a secret document discovered by the staff union.
However, the publisher has played down its significance, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) told concerned staff on Friday.
The MEAA warned staff at the Sydney and Melbourne mastheads that it had seen a management document that outlined changes to staff numbers, spilling of jobs, an editorial restructure of management and “a finalised editorial strategy”.
The document contained no details on potential redundancies.
The MEAA media director, Katelin McInerney, said the union expected to be consulted if the company had any big changes planned.
“In the case of any potential restructure process at Fairfax we want to work closely with management ahead of plans being locked in,” she said.
“We want to bring the ideas, views and energy of the experts on the floor to any consultation process as we have done in the past, because we believe that is the way to rebuild the Fairfax that everyone wants to see.”
Staff said they were concerned the company was planning another big restructure and they did not want it to be a “bolt out of the blue”.
Fairfax restructured its management team only last month after the departure of editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir.
James Chessell was appointed Fairfax Media’s national editor, Lisa Davies editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and Alex Lavelle editor of the Age, with the role of editor-in-chief abolished.
Fairfax Media’s chief executive, Greg Hywood, also announced a “next generation publishing model” with former Huffington Post executive Chris Janz as managing director of Australian Metro Publishing.
Janz is understood to have carriage on any big structural changes to the way Fairfax manages the transition from print to digital.
In a staff memo titled “Fairfax Restructure Plan”, the union said: “House committee representatives met with [editorial director] Sean Aylmer on Tuesday. We requested an immediate consultation between MEAA representatives and new metro publishing boss Chris Janz and Mr Alymer which was refused.
“On Wednesday, MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy and MEAA media director Kateline McInerney wrote formally to the company seeking a genuine consultation process, reserving our rights to seek the assistance of the Fair Work Commission.”
The union said it had met company representatives on Thursday, who had sought to play down the significance of the document, but agreed to come back to the MEAA with a proposal for consultation “above and beyond the process required by law”.
Hywood signalled earlier this year the company would continue to print the newspapers daily “for some years yet” but that online journalism would take “greater primacy”.
“The new metro management team will include several new roles,” Hywood said. “This team will reshape functions in line with our strategy and develop transition plans as necessary. This means investing in the product development, journalism and content required to guarantee the future of our mastheads.”
Fairfax did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia
