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Shrinkage at the SMH:
The size of The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper will be reduced from its current broadsheet size next year as part of a significant restructure by publisher Fairfax Media.
The changes will include another round of redundancies at the SMH and The Sun-Herald, the third in less than 3 years.
Under the change, the current A3 height of the SMH and its sister publication, The Age, will remain the same - as will the price - but the width of the pages will be cut.
Never mind the quality …
I think consumers would get much better use out of both the SMH and The Age if the paper came on a cardboard roll with perforated edges for ripping bits off.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 04 25 at 11:11 PM • permalinkThe fish n’ chip and bird cage industry have been rocked by this heartless downsizing.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 04 25 at 11:13 PM • permalinkHe said the company had not finalised what the new size would be although The New York Times was cited as an example of the type of narrower broadsheet that Fairfax is paying “particular attention” to.
What? Ideas imposed from the USA? Shouldn’t they be ‘butting out’ of Australian work practices?
"Fairfax said it will cut up to 35 production staff from the Herald and Sun-Herald as part of a reintregration of production staff across the two papers.
“This will greatly streamline production and achieve greater quality and efficiency,’’ Mr Kirk said.
WTF? The usual bleeding hearts opposing Howard’s evil IR laws, are wait for it, using these laws for their own gain. They could always have the courage of their convictions and.............
Just so long as there is no compromise on softness and absorbency.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 04 25 at 11:34 PM • permalinkThe changes will include another round of redundancies
Oh, my mistake - I thought they meant that either the Age or the SMH was going to be closed. Entirely. Aren’t they redundant?
Posted by Major John on 2007 04 25 at 11:46 PM • permalinkCurse you, Hank, you caught me in mid-type…
But maybe they could put out a softer two-ply edition! hah~!
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 25 at 11:48 PM • permalinkIf they want to boost circulation, perhaps the SMH should consider a merger with a more successful and credible newspaper? The Green Left Weekly comes to mind.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 04 25 at 11:48 PM • permalinkThey reduce the size but the price stays the same. I have lodged a complaint with the ACCC on price gouging. Fancy announcing publicly you will deliver a smaller product and expect me to pay the exact same price as the previous, larger, more useful product. Almost as bad as reducing toilet roll sheets and claiming improved performance!
#13.
Richard, I’m sure we aren’t the only two people to think along those lines.
Another use I gleened when I was about 12 years old (true story) was when my dad purchased a couple of editions of the SMH. Confused at the interruption to his routine of buying The Telegraph I asked him why he was buying a different newspaper now. His reply “thought they would make good drop sheets for painting the laundry and bathroom”Posted by Hank Reardon on 2007 04 26 at 12:13 AM • permalinkIs this what Australians call “cutting the cheese”?
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 04 26 at 12:34 AM • permalinkDavid Kirk’s speech reads like a random jargon generator. His conclusion:
And at the end of the day, we will move forward together.
That’s positively Churchillian.
Weasel Words Ripped My Flesh! - more boardroom bull.
David Kirk: Look, there’s no doubt this is a rebuilding year. We’re nursing some nagging injuries, but at the end of the day, when all is said and done, we’re just taking it one edition at a time. The intangibles will be the key to our rebuilding, and never let it be said that circulation statistics aren’t misleading. This is a game for the ages and remember we don’t play these games on paper. All I’m asking for is 110% committment from everyone and the results will speak for themselves.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 04 26 at 01:23 AM • permalinkHere’s an SMH-letters writer in love with managerial platitudes:
Roll on, election day
The Herald carries a remarkable paragraph. Is the quote from Menzies, Whitlam, Curtin or Keating? Here it is: “Australia at its best would see every single individual, irrespective of their gender or race or ability or country of origin, achieving their full potential and using their greatest strengths in the service of something bigger than they are, that they believe in.”
Inspiring and reassuring? These words were spoken by Therese Rein, the wife of the aspiring prime minister ("If Rudd wins, his wife will run the empire - her own”, April 24). Bring on the election, because we need to see more of this woman.
S.M.E. Wright Woollahra
This guy would have hours of entertainment if he just googled mission statement generator.
#41- Typical of the sort of dolt who reads the SMH- he/she/it wants to see and hear more from a woman who isn’t running for election. If the unthinkable happens and Kevni weasels his way into the Lodge, his missus would be best advised to shut the fuck up, no-one voted for you and therefore no-one is interested in what you think.
I’d say separation/divorce would be on the cards anyway, as she’s not bailing out of her taxpayer funded cash cow.
what she should have said was “Australia at its best would see every single individual, irrespective of their gender or race or ability or country of origin, achieving their full potential and using their greatest strengths in the service of something bigger than they are, that they believe in- like signing up for my dodgy employment agency- I’ve got a hankering for a solid gold bidet, and hubby could do with a personality implant.”
And now for some good news --
Controversial US rapper Snoop Dogg is being denied entry to Australia after failing a character test, the federal government says.
The cancellation of the rapper, record producer and actor’s visa means he will not be able to appear at the MTV Australian Video Music Awards this weekend, as planned.Posted by walterplinge on 2007 04 26 at 02:10 AM • permalinkReal class, this family --
The mother of David Hicks’s children will face court this afternoon following a pub brawl.
Jodie Sparrow, 34, was allegedly involved in an altercation during a night out at a tavern in the outer Adelaide suburb of Salisbury in 2005.
...She met Hicks when she was 17 - in 1992 at a rodeo north of Adelaide.
...They separated in 1996 and Ms Sparrow says she has had no contact with the father of their children since 1999
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 04 26 at 02:18 AM • permalinkOn the topic of newspapers, this photo is on The Australian’s website’s front page. It’s natural to focus on the face when looking at a person, but divert your attention the the ear and neck region. *shudder*
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 04 26 at 03:27 AM • permalink#8 entropy
#7 my thoughts exactly. My boss alway manages to at least give the appearance of a polished turd, why not he SMH?
(it will save paper, thus helping gaia!)
I hope your boss uses only one square when polishing!
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 04 26 at 03:30 AM • permalink#52 That should be “to the ear and neck region”. It seems that, after all, preview is not my friend.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 04 26 at 03:38 AM • permalinkTotally OT (although it is in a newspaper - is that a save?): Japan ‘gave GIs comfort women’
I was going to say that this revelation should stop the Democrats in congress being so self-righteous towards Japan, but then realised that they’ll just view it as another reason to hate the U.S.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 04 26 at 03:43 AM • permalinkI knew the Geelong Advertiser would blow smh out of the water.
Posted by dean martin on 2007 04 26 at 03:59 AM • permalinkO/T but the leftoids have penned another wankfest in theatre land. Written by a chap who writes for the Gaurdian so you know it will be heavy on the “truthiness”.
Usual crap, if the facts dont fit, make them up.
Might be as big a hit as the “Dancing Davo show” was here in Oz with its audience of 25.Also an older one shown on Channel 4 in the UK.
Seems to be a few of these about, I suspect Progressive Artist Co-operative Organisation is behind this lot.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 26 at 05:32 AM • permalinkRetrench me, retrench me, retrench me. Yes, deep inside the good ship Fairfax I am waiting for the new captain Brian McCarthy, formerly of the SS Rural Press, to step aboard and hand out our redundancy slips. It will be a blessing.
Alas, there are so many others with their beaks open like a nest full of baby starlings it leaves you wondering about the loyalty of the Fairfax crew.
#61 Contrail, I am deeply shocked to hear of this. I had a mental image of fairfaxian esprit de corps, of ideological effervescence overflowing the glass, of stolid
yeomenyeopersons of the press, no doubt members of various "Australian Working Families" (a group invoked frequently by the family-less ALP spokeswoman - it is another image hard to grasp, perhaps a bit like a rugby scrum: mum and dad front row forwards, eldest daughter as hooker, siblings as second row and lock, grandma and pa as breakaways) - and now you tell me Fairfax employees are just like all the rest?
I’m shocked to the core.
Next you’ll be saying that the ALP only want governement because the lurks, the prestige, and the pay are all better.#62 - I’d like to see a line-out to that bunch…
Posted by Major John on 2007 04 26 at 08:48 AM • permalinkI’m not surprised that liberal newspapers are finding a constantly shrinking circulation. The same thing is happening with liberal news shows.
Yet conservative newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal find it’s readership steadily increasing. Same with conservative news shows such as FOX News.
People want the facts. Not a liberal organization’s opinion of what the facts are.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 04 26 at 09:15 AM • permalinkMuzzie—East German Women’s Olympic Swimming Team. Old pic.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 26 at 09:43 AM • permalinkthey will have a problem if their conservative commentators- Miranda Devine, Paul Sheehan, Gerard Henderson, et al either jump or are pushed. The pretense of having balanced commentary will be stripped away and they’ll drift rapidly further left.
But I hope that doesn’t happen because those people make the paper worth a gander from time to time.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 04 26 at 05:00 PM • permalinkI guess they’re following the example of Charmin toilet paper. Appropriate.
#75, Contrail,
You are right. My annoyance at Fairfax and its agenda is not ameliorated by banners such as ‘I’m Kevin and I’m here to help’ followed by this photograph that is quite different from that of the giggling transvestite of late, emphasising rather,his ‘saintliness’
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They’re going to foolscap.