News Corp Australia has started a round of redundancies in a restructure aimed at positioning the local arm of the global media group in a world where way news is consumed is changing fast.
The number of redundancies is not known but among those going is Lisa Muxworthy, editor-in-chief of news.com.au.
“A number of roles will change and some impacted people will regrettably leave our business,” executive chairman Michael Miller told staff.
The restructure breaks up the old state-run fiefdoms, moving to grouping of products.
News Corp’s global revenue fell 1% to $US2.42 billion in the March quarter, driven by sliding advertising. Advertising revenue across the group fell almost 9% to $US358 million in the March quarter.
Advertising represents about 14.8% of total revenue. Ten years ago, that was almost half of News Corp’s revenue.
In the News Media division, revenue at News Corp Australia fell 10%, driven by lower advertising revenues, and dragged down by an $8 million, or 4%, negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations.
Print advertising was lower at News Corp Australia and digital advertising was down mainly driven by a decline in traffic at some mastheads due to "platform related" changes.
News Corp more than a year ago announced plans to cut 5% of its headcount, about 1,250 people, generating annualised cost savings of at least $130 million.
“I would like to personally thank those colleagues for their contribution and professionalism,” Miller wrote in an email.
“We will try to minimise these impacts as much as possible and will treat our affected colleagues with the utmost of respect.
“As we are now living at a time when the way news and information is created and consumed is changing faster than it has ever changed, we too must continue to evolve.”
The winners in the restructure appear to be Pippa Leary, Mark Reinke and Nicholas Gray
News.com.au and free to access sites will reportedly be headed by Leary with Mick Carroll running editorial.
Mark Reinke will head tabloid newspapers and Gray The Australian along with Vogue Australia, GQ Australia and Wish.
Daily Telegraph’s editor-in-chief Ben English will run News’ newswire, built to replace national news agency AAP, and the national reporting teams.
Michael Miller is due to make an address to the National Press Club next week.
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