No Fairfax

I just got a text this morning from the MEAA that Fairfax members are out on strike after the news that 550 jobs have been 'cut' (is this a euphemsim or an abbreviation of 'toe-cut'?) across their newspapers. The union has also put up a site with updates on the strike and news of a rally out the front of The Age building at 2.30pm. Fairfax answered by posting a story indicating just how much they need subs who can write a snappy headline: Fairfax newspapers to publish as usual. And there's news that journalist Mike Carlton has been sacked for not filing his column in the middle of the strike.

It's a move that the Defamer is calling sacktastic while over at the Editor's Weblog ('the only network exclusively dedicated to senior newsroom editors from across the globe') they're speculating about how the production of the weekend papers will be outsourced. Perhaps a thinner Saturday paper will mean we'll all get a little more of our weekend back. One striker is already enjoying the chance to stay in her pyjamas and do some gardening.

All this web buzz is enough to make you nostalgiac for 2005 when Fairfax staff began their own blog complete with criticism of the dumbing down their papers. Staff walked then because their pay claim wasn't taken seriously. The loss of 30% of editorial jobs raises the same issues again but makes them all the more critical.