News Corp Australia has followed Fairfax by partnering Google for email and calendar platforms.

But the move from Microsoft Outlook over the next six months is not likely to signal a departure from Mirosoft Office, chief technology officer Tom Quinn says.

“We will also be setting the foundations for a wider range of powerful Google tools such as Google Drive and Hangouts,” he said, but replacing Office is “not in the plan at this stage”.

The $7000,000-a-year Google licensing will see employees receive 30Gb of online storage for email, with email, calendar and contacts accessible from any web-enabled device, without the need for a virtual private network.

“This is the first step on our journey to Going Google,” says Quinn.

Fairfax Media made a similar move in 2012.