Fairfax workers to strike over outsourcing to New Zealand

Workers at papers including the Sydney Morning Herald will strike over plans to outsource editing to New Zealand. Photo / File

Journalists at Fairfax Media in NSW have voted to go on strike for 36 hours over the outsourcing of 66 sub-editing jobs to New Zealand.

The strike is effective from tonight.

Journalists from the Newcastle Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald met with the union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), and voted to strike.

Fairfax Media announced late Tuesday that it would move sub-editing work from its regional newspapers, the Newcastle Herald and the Illawarra Mercury, to Fairfax Editorial Services in New Zealand.

Journalists at the Wollongong-based Mercury are yet to decide whether to join the action.

It comes as the media company undertakes a review to reshape its business while its share price languishes under the weight of a weak advertising market and major structural changes in the media sector.

Hundreds of journalists from Fairfax Media and News Limited worried about their jobs met with union officials at stopwork meetings today.

There have been reports this week about News Ltd announcing between 400 and 1,000 job cuts within days.

- AAP