Kirk kicks off on wrong foot

David Kirk

SYDNEY - World Cup-winning All Blacks captain David Kirk's leadership of John Fairfax Holdings has been panned by under-threat journalists less than two weeks after he assumed the role of chief executive.

Kirk was barely settled in his new Sydney office before revealing plans to axe 68 journalists' jobs at Australia's second largest newspaper publisher.

His cost-cutting exercise sparked immediate industrial action and although production of flagship mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald have not been affected, staff have been highly critical of Kirk.

Fairfax journalists in Sydney yesterday said they had no confidence in Kirk's ability to devise a competitive business plan for its newspapers and online business. A stopwork meeting of journalists from the Herald and Sun-Herald passed a resolution deploring "the lack of strategic vision" by management to deal with declining classified revenues.

"Whatever confidence we had ... has been immediately snuffed out by the realisation that yet another inexperienced visiting executive had only one crude idea in mind - cut costs," the resolution said.

Editorial staff of the two papers took industrial action last Thursday in protest.

The journalists' statement said truth was vital for a quality newspaper to maintain credibility but "we do not believe his [Mr Kirk's] words".

"Just five days ago he told The Australian Financial Review he did not arrive at Fairfax with a cost reduction target and that 'we need to continue to invest'," the statement said.

A spokesman for John Fairfax Holdings said it would not be responding publicly. Journalists plan to address the company's annual meeting on November 18.

The latest round of redundancies is likely to target senior journalists and editors, and the bulk of the job losses are expected to come from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Fairfax said some non-editorial staff would also lose their jobs as the firm pursues "operating efficiencies".

Staff were reportedly told cuts were necessary because of "lacklustre revenue performance" at the metropolitan papers. But journalists suggested similar savings could be made by axing executive bonuses, such as Kirk's A$1.2 million sign-on fee.

Kirk is under pressure to cut costs further at the publisher, which is suffering from declining circulation and losing classified advertising to the internet. However, Fairfax still managed to boost profits by 24 per cent in the last financial year to A$231 million ($250 million), aided by cost-cutting.

- NZPA