Sports Tonight under Lachlan’s axe. The Ten Network’s interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch prepared the way for a “painful” round of redundancies in an email last night, as The Australian reports this morning. But it was the missive from HR to staff this morning followed by newsroom meetings that delivered the real pain — dozens of editorial staff will go along with technical/administration roles, and long-running nightly bulletin Sports Tonight seems certain to be cancelled.
Crikey understands the axe will swing on 23 editorial roles in Ten’s newsrooms, with eight of those coming from Sports Tonight. That program’s executive producer Craig Reynolds is believed to be on a list the network will seek redundancies from. Sports Tonight airs nightly on digital channel One and on Ten on weekends.
A further 38 jobs will go nationally, according to the HR email delivered to staff — a total (61) less than the 100 predicted last week. Murdoch told staff the process has been “designed to be as condensed as possible”:
“In order to arrest this continued increase in costs and to allow us to re-allocate our resources to better compete in the market, I asked our senior managers some ten weeks ago to explore how we can run the business better. We established 20 workstreams across all areas of the business and appointed senior executives to lead rigorous reviews of each area.
“My one condition has been that nowhere can this restructure impair our business, the experience we give our viewers, or the opportunities that we provide our advertising partners. Indeed not only should the business be no worse off, but it must be improved through this process.
“Tomorrow, we propose to start a process of consultation leading to redundancies that impact at all levels throughout the Group. For those of you who leave us as a consequence of this, Id like to offer my sincere thanks for your contribution to the Group. Your commitment to building Ten and Eye Corp has been appreciated and we wish you well.
“The next couple of weeks will be sad as colleagues leave the business, and there is a great deal still to be done to ensure Ten and Eye Corp are positioned to outperform our competitors. But we should all be confident that this restructure allows us to invest on-air, to compete more vigorously than we have, and will allow us ultimately to grow again as an organisation.”
Age subbie swansong soured. As promised, Crikey has an update on the The Age subeditor swansong on Friday night. Editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge, it seems, touted the company line right to the end, shocking veterans who attended the company farewell drinks for departing subs, artists and designers in the paper’s Media House boardroom. Sources say that at one juncture, Ramadge started banging on about the paper’s new iPad app and was heckled by one of the departing, who reminded him it was meant to be a farewell speech.
The same Ramadge then, according to a Crikey source, had “the cheek” to attend the rival, unofficial, drinks at the nearby Saint & Rouge bar in Little Collins Street. Our source, who refused to attend the boardroom precursor, said that there were far more people at the pub, showing the dearly departed still had the company’s interests at heart — by saving their former boss a few last bucks in beverages. — Andrew Crook
Front page of the day. Only in the territory … when four-metre croc meets wild boar …
The Department of Corrections. Canada’s National Post newspaper owned up on Saturday its patriotic failings …
Associated Press to open North Korean bureau
“The Associated Press is to open a bureau in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, following an agreement with state news agency KCNA.” — Journalism.co.uk
WikiLeaks threatens to sue Visa, MasterCard
“WikiLeaks and data centre provider DataCell plan to sue Visa and MasterCard for blocking payments to both organisations last December, according to Julian Assange.” — IT News
Loving editor writes off subeditors at The SMH
“Sydney Morning Herald journalists gathered at the Point Hotel just up the road from Fairfax Media’s head office in Pyrmont on Thursday evening to mark the end of an era. The occasion was farewell drinks for the news, sport and business subeditors who took redundancy packages.” — The Australian
BBC acts to stop Twitter leaks by stars and writers
“A group of senior BBC executives are campaigning to introduce a BBC-wide ban on actors, writers and other talent involved in its productions using social networking sites such as Twitter to disclose details of their work.” — The Guardian
“Age sub pub snub” – genius!!!
Regarding the front page of the NT News and Crikey’s apparent obsession with it. It performs a necessary service for the community although you may find this a little difficult to understand. Since the hunting of crocodiles was banned in the sixties the number in Top End waters have grown back to the numbers that were around before hunting commenced. In spite of a government advertising campaign to alert the population to the dangers that crocodiles can pose; there are people who really should be candidates for the annual Darwin Award for sheer stupidity. At least the constant emphasis by the NT News keeps the problem in the population’s awareness. Also bear in mind that Darwin has a very mobile population with many new arrivals settling each year to whom crocodiles and their habitat are unknown.