Journalists, many of them reportedly senior, at Nine Entertainment have taken redundancy packages as the media group sheds overheads in a weak advertising market and the loss of revenue from social media platform Meta.
The run for the door follows Nine's plans to cut up to 200 roles and after industrial action in newsrooms for better pay which resulted in a new deal.
The company has confirmed that 85 staff will be leaving. Many, but not all, of those are voluntary redundancies.
"As foreshadowed in June, we have been working with our people in reshaping the publishing business to ensure a sustainable future in response to the challenging advertising market and collapse of the Meta deal," a Nine spokesperson said.
"We have now concluded this process, with around 85 people from our newsrooms, print operations and audience and commercial growth divisions regrettably leaving the business over coming months.
"We will be providing support for all employees transitioning from the business. Every one of these people depart with our gratitude and appreciation for their contributions to Nine’s world-class mastheads."
Nine, due to report its annual results later this month, has lost its position next to the big players in the market.
The media group has been dropped from the S&P/ASX 100 Index, which is designed to measure the 100 largest companies by market capitalisation.
Nine reported falls in revenue and profit in a "weak" advertising market for the half year to December.
Revenue fell 2% to $1.37 billion in the six months. Net profit after tax was down 21% to $149.5 million.
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