Perth’s only daily metropolitan newspaper The West Australian will slash 40 jobs as it undertakes a major restructure under new leadership.
At least 33 journalist and seven clerical positions will be axed through voluntary or forced redundancies as the company continues to cut costs.
Seven West, which owns the Seven Network and West Australian newspaper group, said the organisational restructure would be finalised over the next few weeks.
“The media industry and the current economic environment have presented many challenges for WA Newspapers over the past few years, making it imperative that we review our operations and effectively manage our costs to ensure the long term stability, viability and growth of the business,” Seven West said in a statement.
Staff were told in an e-mail that the company will carry out forced redundancies if there is an insufficient number of volunteers.
“Wherever possible we will provide redeployment opportunities to affected employees. Unfortunately this cannot be achieved for everyone and some employees will end their employment with us,” an e-mail to staff said.
It follows the appointment last month of incoming Seven West chief executive Tim Worner who recently said his priority was ensuring the company remained on track to meet this year’s $100 million cost reduction target.
Australian media organisations are grappling with falling revenues in a digital age.
In February, Seven West Media posted a loss of $109.3 million for the first half of the financial year because of restructure costs and the lower value of its magazines.
The loss compares to a $163 million net profit in the previous corresponding period.
Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance WA president Martin Turner said journalists were working harder than ever to satisfy increasingly intense demand for online content.
“It seems that companies are cutting out the lifeblood of their operations – the people who create the news itself,” he told AAP.
Maintaining editorial quality was becoming extremely hard in an environment of constant redundancies, he said.
Last year 23 staff at The West Australian took voluntary redundancies.
Meanwhile, IG market analyst Stan Shamu said media companies were not addressing the key issue of a structural shift in the industry.
“You can’t keep cutting costs because at some stage you’ll compromise the quality of the product,” he said.
Shares in Seven West rose four cents, or 1.9 per cent, to $2.12.
