It's a symptom of the Australian newsmedia industry that while its top management were talking partnership and transparency at the News Media Index launch today, journalists present just wanted to hear about redundancies.
News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller - who is also chairman of the rebranded NewsMediaWorks - chief executive of Fairfax Media Greg Hywood and chief executive of APN's Australian Regional Media Neil Monaghan were in the room to address a problem:
Agencies and investors don't rate newsmedia... and they think even less of print.
This under-valuing of the medium which provides a living for a majority of journalists in the country makes for the problem that will put a few more of them out of work this week. And in the name of journalistic independence, they persist in rubbishing the businesses of their rivals to the detriment of the industry as a whole.
A trigger this week has been the ongoing presentations Hywood has been making to investors, most recently at the Macquarie investor conference. Singing from the same songsheet that he has for months, even years, he warned that there will come a time when the number of Fairfax's metro print editions will have to be cut along with the days on which they publish.
Nothing to see here: The company has already discussed the prospect of smaller and potentially fewer editions, and completed a $42 million programme to cut key production costs last year with the closure of its Chullora and Tullamarine print centres... expenditure it expected to get back within the year. Some of that that cash is likely to go back into print.
It's because of this that the cost of closing the metro publishing businesses - should that become necessary - has come down, and Hywood mentioned a "manageable" $150 million at the Macquarie investor conference, down from $450 million four years ago, if it came to that.
Interestingly, he talked of the cost of closing down both print and digital publishing businesses, which god forbid.
Perhaps, like APN with its regional business, they should consider selling it: There's still a market for newspaper businesses - as activity in the US shows at present - and if Fairfax's Domain online property site - Hywood called it "classified" this afternoon, which it is - is worth more than the total valuation of the business, it shouldn't be hard to find a price.
Meanwhile, Fairfax is doing what everyone since before Mr Micawber has tried to do: Cut their coat according to their cloth.
Across at News Corp, there's a happy contrast in that primary shareholder Rupert Murdoch still believes in print - even though his Australian tabloids continue to descend to comic-book standards to maintain sales - while there's a dollar to be made there. And while much has been made of the tens of millions currently being spent to replace worn out mailroom equipment at major centres, there's an unwillingness to commit to investment in Melbourne, where the flagship HWT title is printed on presses installed in 1993.
Established in 2006, The Newspaper Works shines as a rare cooperation between Australia's four major publishers, but if Hywood and News executive chairman Michael Miller can work together, it's a shame their staff feel a need to denigrate each other's businesses, and by extension the industry as a whole.
At the Macquarie event, Hywood said the seven-day-a-week publishing model would eventually give way to weekend-only or more targetted printing for most publishers. That's a given, and having historically taken the route of minimising metro geo-editioning in favour of the development of localised suburban freesheets, cuts are inevitable.
When it comes, some bright spark in marketing will spin a promo which makes closure look like a step forward, but the day will only be hastened by journos who misguidedly think they are doing a service by tearing the guts out of newspapers... the other publisher's and their own.
Peter Coleman
Pictured: Under fire - Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood (Fairfax photo)
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