About Us

Rupert Murdoch says the demand for quality news has not diminished and that people are hungrier for information than ever before.

But rather than backing his judgement by investing in the future of journalism, his companies around the world are cutting costs where it matters most – the journalists who provide the news and analysis that is in so much demand.

News Limited is cutting jobs around the country: 16 jobs at The Mercury in Hobart, 17 at the Gold Coast Bulletin, eight at The Advertiser in Adelaide and Brisbane’s Sunday Mail, seven at The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, three at the Gold Coast Sun and two each at the Herald Sun in Melbourne, the Northern Territory News andThe Cairns Post. In addition, up to 15 jobs have gone on Cumberland community newspapers in NSW. Meanwhile the national broadsheet paper The Australian has cut 21 jobs from newsrooms around Australia including half of its team of photographers.

Meanwhile, News Corporation continues to make massive profits. And despite the global financial crisis, News has just decided to pay its newly-appointed president Chase Carey as $54.87 million in salary and benefits. Clearly, the pain from the cutbacks is not being shared by everyone in the company.

Despite Murdoch’s protestations to the contrary, this campaign of cost-cutting and attrition means that those left in the newsrooms are trying to do much more with much less. At a time when the company should be investing in its digital future in preparation for asking its readers to pay for content online, the job cuts mean that there are fewer journalists in each city to chase local stories and provide local perspectives on the big national and international issues.

Worse may be to come. News Limited has developed a new ‘National Features Initiative’, its plan to “streamline” sections such as travel, entertainment and personal finance. Rather than produce local features for readers in each city, News Limited’s papers will feature copy commissioned and edited in a centralised features factory. So far six features sections have been swallowed by the National Features Initiative. The move is certain to trigger more job losses, more journalist culling and less local news and features in News Limited newspapers.

The aim of this campaign is to give the Australian public a chance to air their concerns about the future of their local and national newspapers. We also hope to give a platform to those news Limited journalists who share the Alliance’s concerns about the future of News Limited journalism in an era of cost-cutting. We believe fewer journalists on the ground will mean there are fewer people left to keep their communities informed. We believe that fewer journalists will inevitably lead to a reduction in quality journalism and a steady erosion of the newspapers themselves.

In short: no journos = no News.  

You can help:


Contact campaign coordinator Claire O’Rourke at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or phone 02 9333 0935 or 0412 984 925 if you’d like information or want to help.