COMMUNITY RALLY TO SAVE THE HERALD

Herald Exports Hunter Jobs

Help join the fight to save our community newspaper.

When: This Saturday 2nd  June 2012
Where: Civic Park, Newcastle
Time: 1 PM

Hamfisted interference by distant and ill-informed corporate executives in the running of a perfectly good and very profitable business is not only unwelcome but potentially destructive to the product and brand.

The Newcastle Herald is a 150 year old institution with deep roots in this city.

If it was losing money, or in danger of losing money, then momentous changes might be justifiable.

But that's not the case here.

Fairfax is proposing to export Novocastrian jobs when there is no compelling business case to do so.

Newcastle Herald management and journalists have been working hand in glove for the past several months to develop a strategy for transition on-line. This was orderly, rational and would have maintained the integrity of the print product while growing the new on-line service.

This move by Fairfax Limited is a slap in the face to the team of people who handled the move to tabloid without a hiccup and who have always been ready to adapt to shifting goalposts in the marketplace.

Asking a group of people at a profitable and successful business to spend countless hours on a new online strategy, only to pull the rug out at the last minute and tell them their jobs are forfeit is an insult, as well as being bad and unwise management.

Moving the production of Newcastle's main source of daily news to New Zealand looks like a panic move in response to the company's depressed share price.

If so, it's a foolish knee-jerk move that will have grave repercussions for Newcastle and for what has been a marvellous business for more than 150 years.