Cutting coverage in the bush

Fairfax's decision to cut jobs at The Border Mail has caused outrage in the community

But now to more serious matters and some bad news for the bush.


Fairfax Media plans to axe staff from regional newspapers and websites

— Herald Sun, 11th March, 2015

Back in August Fairfax foreshadowed cuts at 150 of its regional newspapers to save $40 million a year ...

But no one had any idea they’d bite so deep. Albury-Wodonga’s daily newspaper, The Border Mail, is the hardest hit and staff have reacted with anger.


ALEXANDRA RISTWAY: ... Fairfax managers arrived at the paper’s Wodonga office this morning to deliver the news the staff have been dreading. 23 jobs of The Border Mail’s 45 newsroom roles will be slashed. Prime7’s been told at times the gathering became heated, as staff expressed a fear the quality of the paper will decline.

— Seven Prime News, 19th March, 2015

All 11 subs at The Border Mail will get the chop, as will the night editor, the features editor, the sports editor and the chief of staff, along with graphic designers and six photojournalists.

A further 39 editorial jobs will go at 12 other Fairfax regionals in Victoria, including The Bendigo Advertiser, Ballarat Courier and Warrnambool Standard.

Reporters who are left will have to file six stories a day, do their own subbing, write the headlines and take photographs.

And it’s not just the paper’s journalists who are perplexed:


It’s all about the money, I know that, but we’ve been very lucky to have a very good local paper, one of the best regional papers in Australia, and the community will suffer for it.

— Tiff Rayner, 18th March, 2015

Albury Wodonga is a fast growing regional city.

It has two universities, and its paper The Border Mail has been around for 112 years.

It’s also highly regarded for its reporting and photo journalism .. like this:

The Mail has run successful campaigns ... to make the Hume Hwy four lanes and to get a regional cancer centre.

It has also won awards, for a series on the devastating impact of the drug ice in the region.

And for a series on youth suicide in 2012.

But with the newsroom set to be slashed in half, such triumphs will be hard to repeat.


It simply won’t be possible for the paper to do what it has done in the past with the newsroom cut in half ... You need the passion and you need the resources. Without the resources it simply won’t happen.

— Howard Jones, Journalist, The Border Mail, 18th March, 2015

Meanwhile, according to an award winning reporter who’s still on the paper, Fairfax’s new digital system, NewsNow, in which reporters enter their stories into pre-assigned slots, will also discourage such projects


How can you really sink your teeth into a story when the story position has already been predetermined? It’s a cut and paste approach to content. There’s absolutely no wriggle room to dig. They just want stories that will fill holes and bugger the real journalism.

— Reporter, The Border Mail, 17th March, 2015

Also unhappy with Fairfax’s razor gang are local community leaders, like:

The mayor of Wodonga, Rodney Wangman.

Indi MP Cathy McGowan.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley.

And the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce.

All of whom have attacked the cuts.

And 2700 people have signed an online petition drawn up by Border Mail reporter Brad Worrall urging Fairfax’s bosses to change their minds:


... if Fairfax goes ahead with these cuts, the ability to report vital local news stories to regional communities will be under threat. Who will tell these stories now?

— Change.org, 16th March, 2015

But Fairfax says it has to cut costs.

Monday to Saturday circulation at the Border Mail has fallen by roughly a quarter since 2009, from more than 25,000 to well under 20,000 today.

And Fairfax’s regional papers are also in decline financially, with first half profits down by 30% this year to $42 million.

But the papers are still making money and Riverina MP Michael McCormack, who’s a former editor of Wagga’s Daily Advertiser, reckons the regional papers are being forced to take one for the team.


MICHAEL McCORMACK: ... I think what we're seeing is a, is a result of the, the, the Fairfax big masthead, Sydney Morning Herald struggling and, and country communities are, are copping the brunt of that ...

MICHAEL McCORMACK: and by cutting swathes of journalists and, and, and taking great slices into the newsrooms, you know, I, I do question whether that’s going to, to help them in the long run.

— ABC Goulburn Murray, Mornings with Joseph Thomsen, 12th March, 2015

So do we.

Cutting quality risks cutting sales of the paper even more.

Or as American billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett put it not so long ago:


... skimpy news coverage will almost certainly lead to skimpy readership.

— Business Insider, 2nd March, 2013

Buffett was explaining to his adoring shareholders why it was a good idea to sink $344 million into 28 struggling local papers in the US and explaining why other newspaper owners—in his view—are getting it wrong.


Even a valuable product ... can self-destruct from a faulty business strategy.

... Publishers ... have offered their paper free on the Internet while charging meaningful sums for the physical specimen. How could this lead to anything other than a sharp and steady drop in sales of the printed product?

— Business Insider, 2nd March, 2013

The secret of success, according to Buffett, is to make readers pay for online content.

Fairfax does not do that with its regional papers and has no plans to do so.

But the company says it’s not just cutting costs it’s also moving with the times, as it has to.


We must make changes. Standing still is not an option for us or any other media company. New equipment, training and publishing technology will also help our journalists to be more mobile within their communities. We need no convincing of the important role our journalism plays.

— Fairfax Media Spokesperson, 20th March, 2015

Well, we’ll see.

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